Texas Alimony Calculator

Estimate spousal support in Texas, where formula with judicial discretion decides the award. Includes likelihood, a modeled amount range, duration, and the statutory factors that decide what a court awards.

Last updated: Texas cost figures are our own estimates, not independently verified

Texas divorces typically cost 21% less than the national average of $12,900.

Alimony in Texas

How Texas decides it
Formula with judicial discretion
What our estimate is
Modeled national approximation
Fault considered
No
Domestic violence factor, in our record
Yes
Equal parenting presumption, in our record
No
Waiting period before final
60 days (about 2 months)

Modeled estimate, held inside the state's own limits. The arithmetic that produced this figure is ours rather than Texas's. It is a national approximation that runs the same way in every state: the average of two models of ours, one taking 30 percent of the difference between the two incomes and one taking between 22 and 38 percent of it depending on the standard of living during the marriage, both scaled by a factor for the length of the marriage. No Texas rule is inside that calculation. What Texas's own law does here is bound the result. We have read Tex. Fam. Code § 8.055(a), with gross income defined at § 8.055(a-1) and Tex. Fam. Code § 8.054(a), the subsection limiting how long a maintenance order may remain in effect, read with § 8.054(b), and where a limit in it reaches a case like yours it is applied to the figures above, so those figures are held inside the state's own ceiling rather than only inside our model.

Our record classifies Texas as a state that gives its courts a calculation to work from and then lets them move away from it on the statutory factors. This estimate is not that calculation. What is Texas's here is the ceiling: we have read Tex. Fam. Code § 8.055(a), with gross income defined at § 8.055(a-1) and Tex. Fam. Code § 8.054(a), the subsection limiting how long a maintenance order may remain in effect, read with § 8.054(b) and the limits in it are applied to the numbers above, so where our arithmetic ran past what Texas allows, the statute is what produced the figure you are looking at. The starting calculation itself is still our own national approximation.

Alimony Calculator in Texas: What You Should Know

Texas calls alimony 'spousal maintenance' and awards it less readily than most states. Chapter 8 of the Family Code has now been read for this site, from a Texas Legislative Council host, and two of its provisions are set out below as Texas' own rather than as our summary. On amount: Tex. Fam. Code 8.055(a) caps maintenance at the lesser of $5,000 a month and 20 percent of the paying spouse's average monthly gross income, and the figures on this page are held to it. Above $300,000 a year of payer income the flat $5,000 is the lower of the two, so that reader is looking at the statute's own number. Below it the 20 percent is worked on the gross figure you enter, and section 8.055(a-1) defines gross income for the chapter with eight things taken out, so what we apply is a generous version of the cap rather than a strict one. A Texas court may order maintenance only if the spouse asking for it will lack sufficient property, including their own separate property, on dissolution of the marriage to provide for their minimum reasonable needs, and then only through one of four routes: a family violence conviction or deferred adjudication against the other spouse within two years before filing or while the suit is pending, an incapacitating physical or mental disability, a marriage of 10 years or longer together with a lack of the ability to earn enough to meet those needs, or custody of a child of the marriage of any age whose disability requires substantial care and prevents the parent from earning enough. That property and needs finding governs every route and this calculator asks about none of it, so nothing here tells you whether Texas would order maintenance at all. On duration, section 8.054(a)(1) has now been read here too and the figures on this page are held to it: a maintenance order may not remain in effect for more than five years where the spouses were married at least 10 years but not more than 20, seven years at least 20 but not more than 30, and 10 years at 30 or more. Three things ride with that. The bands share their edges, so a marriage of exactly 20 or exactly 30 years falls inside two of them and the subsection does not say which wins; this page shows the longer. Section 8.054(a)(2) tells the court to set the shortest reasonable period rather than the maximum, so a real order is usually shorter than the ceiling. And section 8.054(b) lifts the ceiling altogether for a spouse eligible on either of the two disability grounds, which this calculator never asks about. Below a ten-year marriage the only limb of the ladder that could reach you turns on a family violence conviction against the other spouse, which is an eligibility question we collect nothing for, so this page shows no term ceiling there at all. Take the property and needs question to a Texas family law attorney before planning around any figure on this page.

Key point: Tex. Fam. Code 8.055(a) caps maintenance at the lesser of $5,000 a month and 20 percent of the paying spouse's average monthly gross income, and this calculator holds its Texas figures to it. The cap limits what a court may order, which is not the same as what two spouses may agree between themselves, and whether a Texas court reaches the amount question at all turns on a finding about your own property and needs that this page never asks about.

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Locked to Texas on this page.

Your role

Use your gross (before-tax) annual income.

Use their gross (before-tax) annual income.

This estimate is for planning purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. Consult a licensed family law attorney in your state for guidance specific to your situation.

How Texas awards spousal support

Our Texas record classifies it as a hybrid state, working from a formula with judicial discretion layered on top, which means the court begins from a calculation and then adjusts it against the statutory factors, so the arithmetic sets the neighborhood and the judge picks the address. Here is what that looks like in practice.

Modeled estimate, held inside the state's own limits

The arithmetic that produced this figure is ours rather than Texas's. It is a national approximation that runs the same way in every state: the average of two models of ours, one taking 30 percent of the difference between the two incomes and one taking between 22 and 38 percent of it depending on the standard of living during the marriage, both scaled by a factor for the length of the marriage. No Texas rule is inside that calculation. What Texas's own law does here is bound the result. We have read Tex. Fam. Code § 8.055(a), with gross income defined at § 8.055(a-1) and Tex. Fam. Code § 8.054(a), the subsection limiting how long a maintenance order may remain in effect, read with § 8.054(b), and where a limit in it reaches a case like yours it is applied to the figures above, so those figures are held inside the state's own ceiling rather than only inside our model.

Our record classifies Texas as a state that gives its courts a calculation to work from and then lets them move away from it on the statutory factors. This estimate is not that calculation. What is Texas's here is the ceiling: we have read Tex. Fam. Code § 8.055(a), with gross income defined at § 8.055(a-1) and Tex. Fam. Code § 8.054(a), the subsection limiting how long a maintenance order may remain in effect, read with § 8.054(b) and the limits in it are applied to the numbers above, so where our arithmetic ran past what Texas allows, the statute is what produced the figure you are looking at. The starting calculation itself is still our own national approximation.

A hybrid state gives the court both tools. There is a calculation to run, and there are statutory factors that let the judge move away from what the calculation produced. In practice the arithmetic decides roughly how large the award is and the factors decide where inside that range the case lands.

That structure makes the outcome more predictable than pure discretion and less predictable than a straight formula. Two cases with matching incomes can still separate, but they separate by a margin rather than by a multiple. For planning purposes it means the arithmetic is worth running, and the factors are worth documenting.

The gap between the two spouses and the length of the marriage drive the calculation. Whether the judge adjusts up or down from it usually turns on the factors listed below, and on how well each side evidenced them.

Some states in this group also set hard limits by statute: a ceiling on the monthly amount, a ceiling on the share of the paying spouse's income, a minimum marriage length before support can be ordered at all, or a maximum number of years it can run. Where a limit like that applies it controls, and it controls over any estimate including ours. Where we have read the limit out of the state's own statute, it is applied to the figures on this page and the panel below says which figure it produced. Where the limit is one our pages state and nobody here has opened the document behind, it is worked out on your entries and set beside our estimate rather than applied to it, because a number clamped to an unread figure would look more settled than it is.

What Texascourts weigh, in our data's order

These are the 4 factors our Texas record carries, listed in the order it records them. They are the ground a support argument is actually fought on, so the side that documents them is the side arguing where the statute points.

  1. Length of the marriageThe strongest single predictor of both how much support is awarded and how long it runs. Short marriages point toward limited, time-boxed support aimed at getting the lower earner back on their feet. Long marriages point toward larger awards over longer terms, and are where indefinite support is still argued for.
  2. Earning capacity of each spouseCapacity, not current pay. A court can attribute income to a spouse it decides could be earning more, and can equally accept that a spouse who left the workforce for a decade cannot step back in at the old salary. Evidence about the local job market, licensing, and retraining timelines is what moves this one.
  3. Standard of living during the marriageThe benchmark the court measures need against. It is why the same income gap supports a larger award for a couple who lived expensively than for a couple who saved. Documenting how the household actually spent, through statements rather than recollection, is what makes this factor usable in a hearing.
  4. Documented domestic violenceNamed separately from general fault because of what it does to earning capacity. Abuse that interrupted a career, forced a move, or left lasting medical costs bears directly on need and on the realistic path to self-support, and courts treat documentation of it as material.

Does conduct matter in Texas?

No. Marital fault does not appear in the Texas factor list, so the analysis runs on need, ability to pay, and the other factors above rather than on who was to blame for the marriage ending. That is worth knowing before you spend money on it: evidence of an affair or of who left first has little purchase on the support question here, and the same money spent documenting the marital standard of living or a career interrupted for the household does far more work. Our record separately flags Texas as a state whose courts can weigh documented domestic violence when dividing marital property, which is held apart from general conduct in our data. That is our own record rather than Texas's own property division law. Only three of our 50 rows carry that flag, so read its absence elsewhere as a gap in our data rather than as a finding about the other states.

Grounds are a separate question from support, and the two do not always line up. Our record has Texas letting you file on fault grounds as well as no-fault grounds, our own record rather than Texas's own law on divorce grounds, so conduct could enter the case through the petition itself. It does not follow that it reaches support: conduct is not in the support factor list here, so a fault filing can change the shape of the case without changing the number.

Support and the property split are one conversation

Our record has Texas as a community property state, so marital property would start from an even division rather than from a judge's assessment of what is fair. That is our own record rather than Texas's own property division law. Where it holds, it matters for support because it fixes one half of the settlement before the support conversation begins. A spouse leaving with an even share of income-producing assets needs less monthly support to reach the same standard of living, and the arithmetic of that trade is easier to run here than in a state where the property share is itself uncertain. Read this as a band the case is likely to fall inside rather than a figure the court has committed to. The band is ours: our model sets the range and the statutory factors decide where inside it a particular case lands. A statutory ceiling trims the top of that band, and the panel below is where you can see whether this state has one, whether we were able to read it, and whether our figure ran past it.

One practical cost sits underneath that trade. Where the asset being swapped for support is a retirement account, dividing it takes a qualified domestic relations order, which runs $600 to $2,000 in Texas on top of whatever else the case costs. Worth pricing in before you agree to take retirement money instead of monthly support, along with the fact that the two are taxed very differently when you eventually draw on them.

Texas spousal support examples

These three examples run through the same Texas calculator on this page, so the figures match what the tool returns for the same entries. Each is a different shape of case rather than a small variation on the one before, because the two things that move support most, the income gap and the length of the marriage, tend to move together in real households.

Read the range, not the middle figure. We put the band between the two other approaches, because a hybrid state constrains the arithmetic but still leaves the judge room to move. The width is our judgement about that spread rather than anything the state publishes. In the second example below, the top of the band is about 1.1 times the typical figure.

Example 1: Four-year marriage, modest standard of living

A short marriage with a real but moderate income gap and no caregiving history. This is the case where support is most often brief or refused outright.

Higher earner
$85,000/yr
Lower earner
$38,000/yr
Marriage length
4 years
Likelihood
Possible

Estimated range: $427 to $968 a month, typically around $662 ($7,944 a year), running 0.8 to 2 years.

On the entries you gave us, one route to Texas maintenance is closed, and it is the only part of the test this calculator can measure. We worked that out as a marriage of 4 years, against the ten years § 8.051(2)(B) asks for. That is one route of four and the only one with a number in it. The other three do not depend on how long you were married, and all four sit behind a threshold about your own property that we never ask about, so falling short of ten years does not settle whether a Texas court may order maintenance in your case. Read that as one route closing rather than as the answer: the other routes turn on findings we never asked you about, and every one of them sits behind a threshold about your own property and needs that we do not ask about either. The $662 a month above is what our calculation produces if eligibility is established, and not a statement that it would be.

Factors the estimate applied in example 1
FactorEffect
Short marriage (under 5 years)Pushes down

Short marriages in Texas may result in limited rehabilitative alimony. Our record classifies Texas as working from a calculation the court can then move away from. This estimate blends two models of ours rather than running that calculation, so the actual amount may vary from it.

  • Texas judges have broad discretion in setting alimony. This estimate reflects typical outcomes, but individual results vary significantly based on the specific judge and circumstances.
  • Domestic violence is in the Texas factor list above, and our record separately flags the state as one whose courts can weigh it when dividing marital property. That is our own record rather than Texas's own property division law. Only three of our 50 rows carry that flag, so read its absence elsewhere as a gap in our data rather than as a finding about the other states.
  • The two employment statuses you entered have not changed the estimate above. You had to answer to get here, and whichever answer you picked the figure is the same: we calculate on the income figures you entered and impute nothing to either parent. Courts can impute. Where a judge finds a parent voluntarily unemployed or under-employed, a court may set support on what that parent could earn rather than on what they currently bring in, and an imputed figure is set at or above actual earnings rather than below them. Which way that would move your case depends on whose income gets imputed, and that is the part we cannot answer for you: if it is the paying party's, the figure above tends to sit below what a court would order, and if it is the receiving party's it can move in either direction depending on the state and on the two incomes, so we do not put a direction on it. We have read the imputation provision in Illinois and in no other state, Texas included, so nothing on this page is adjusted for one.
  • Whether the paying spouse has business income has not changed the estimate above. We ask because it shapes the case rather than the arithmetic: business income is the single most argued-about number in a support case, because what a business pays its owner and what a court treats as that owner's income are frequently different figures, and establishing the second usually takes disclosure or a forensic accountant. Nothing in the figures on this page is adjusted for your answer, so do not read the estimate as having priced it in.

Example 2: Twelve-year marriage, one spouse the primary caregiver

The most common shape of a contested support case: long enough that a career was reshaped around the household, not long enough to reach the territory where indefinite support gets argued.

Higher earner
$120,000/yr
Lower earner
$45,000/yr
Marriage length
12 years
Likelihood
Likely

Estimated range: $1,125 to $2,000 a month, typically around $1,782 ($21,384 a year), running 2.4 to 5 years.

Texas decides whether to order anything before it decides how much, and our estimate does not answer the first question. Tex. Fam. Code § 8.051, "Eligibility for Maintenance" sets the gate as a finding about your own property and needs, and then one of four routes, and against that we could measure a marriage of 12 years, which clears the ten years § 8.051(2)(B) asks for. That is half of one route. Its other half, whether you lack the ability to earn sufficient income to provide for your minimum reasonable needs, and the threshold sitting in front of all four routes, whether you will lack sufficient property on dissolution to provide for those same minimum reasonable needs, are findings a court makes on evidence and this calculator asks about neither. The $1,782 a month above is what our calculation produces if eligibility is established, and not a statement that it would be.

Factors the estimate applied in example 2
FactorEffect
Primary caregiver for childrenPushes up
Primary caregiver for childrenPushes up

Medium-length marriages with a significant income gap frequently result in temporary alimony in Texas. Our record classifies Texas as working from a calculation the court can then move away from. This estimate blends two models of ours rather than running that calculation, so the actual amount may vary from it.

  • Texas judges have broad discretion in setting alimony. This estimate reflects typical outcomes, but individual results vary significantly based on the specific judge and circumstances.
  • Domestic violence is in the Texas factor list above, and our record separately flags the state as one whose courts can weigh it when dividing marital property. That is our own record rather than Texas's own property division law. Only three of our 50 rows carry that flag, so read its absence elsewhere as a gap in our data rather than as a finding about the other states.
  • The two employment statuses you entered have not changed the estimate above. You had to answer to get here, and whichever answer you picked the figure is the same: we calculate on the income figures you entered and impute nothing to either parent. Courts can impute. Where a judge finds a parent voluntarily unemployed or under-employed, a court may set support on what that parent could earn rather than on what they currently bring in, and an imputed figure is set at or above actual earnings rather than below them. Which way that would move your case depends on whose income gets imputed, and that is the part we cannot answer for you: if it is the paying party's, the figure above tends to sit below what a court would order, and if it is the receiving party's it can move in either direction depending on the state and on the two incomes, so we do not put a direction on it. We have read the imputation provision in Illinois and in no other state, Texas included, so nothing on this page is adjusted for one.
  • Whether the paying spouse has business income has not changed the estimate above. We ask because it shapes the case rather than the arithmetic: business income is the single most argued-about number in a support case, because what a business pays its owner and what a court treats as that owner's income are frequently different figures, and establishing the second usually takes disclosure or a forensic accountant. Nothing in the figures on this page is adjusted for your answer, so do not read the estimate as having priced it in.

Example 3: Twenty-four-year marriage, high standard of living, health limits

A long marriage, a wide income gap, and a documented health issue limiting the recipient's return to work. This is the combination that produces the largest and longest awards.

Higher earner
$185,000/yr
Lower earner
$30,000/yr
Marriage length
24 years
Likelihood
Very likely

Estimated range: $3,083 to $3,083 a month, typically around $3,083 ($36,996 a year), running 4.8 to 7 years.

Texas decides whether to order anything before it decides how much, and our estimate does not answer the first question. Tex. Fam. Code § 8.051, "Eligibility for Maintenance" sets the gate as a finding about your own property and needs, and then one of four routes, and against that we could measure a marriage of 24 years, which clears the ten years § 8.051(2)(B) asks for. That is half of one route. Its other half, whether you lack the ability to earn sufficient income to provide for your minimum reasonable needs, and the threshold sitting in front of all four routes, whether you will lack sufficient property on dissolution to provide for those same minimum reasonable needs, are findings a court makes on evidence and this calculator asks about neither. The $3,083 a month above is what our calculation produces if eligibility is established, and not a statement that it would be.

Factors the estimate applied in example 3
FactorEffect
Long marriage (20+ years)Pushes up
Age or health limitationsPushes up
Age or health limitationsPushes up

Long marriages with an income gap often result in extended or permanent alimony in Texas. Our record classifies Texas as working from a calculation the court can then move away from. This estimate blends two models of ours rather than running that calculation, so the actual amount may vary from it.

  • Marriages of 20+ years may result in indefinite or permanent alimony in Texas.
  • Texas judges have broad discretion in setting alimony. This estimate reflects typical outcomes, but individual results vary significantly based on the specific judge and circumstances.
  • Domestic violence is in the Texas factor list above, and our record separately flags the state as one whose courts can weigh it when dividing marital property. That is our own record rather than Texas's own property division law. Only three of our 50 rows carry that flag, so read its absence elsewhere as a gap in our data rather than as a finding about the other states.
  • Long marriages (20+ years) often result in indefinite alimony in Texas.
  • The two employment statuses you entered have not changed the estimate above. You had to answer to get here, and whichever answer you picked the figure is the same: we calculate on the income figures you entered and impute nothing to either parent. Courts can impute. Where a judge finds a parent voluntarily unemployed or under-employed, a court may set support on what that parent could earn rather than on what they currently bring in, and an imputed figure is set at or above actual earnings rather than below them. Which way that would move your case depends on whose income gets imputed, and that is the part we cannot answer for you: if it is the paying party's, the figure above tends to sit below what a court would order, and if it is the receiving party's it can move in either direction depending on the state and on the two incomes, so we do not put a direction on it. We have read the imputation provision in Illinois and in no other state, Texas included, so nothing on this page is adjusted for one.
  • Whether the paying spouse has business income has not changed the estimate above. We ask because it shapes the case rather than the arithmetic: business income is the single most argued-about number in a support case, because what a business pays its owner and what a court treats as that owner's income are frequently different figures, and establishing the second usually takes disclosure or a forensic accountant. Nothing in the figures on this page is adjusted for your answer, so do not read the estimate as having priced it in.

Set the first and third examples side by side and the scale of what marriage length does becomes clear. The estimate moves from around $662 a month running 0.8 to 2 years to around $3,083 a month running 4.8 to 7 years. Part of that is the wider income gap. Most of it is the twenty extra years.

The threshold below is worked out on the first example above: a four-year marriage, $85,000 and $38,000 a year. It is a question the calculator at the top of this page runs on your own entries, and it is decided before the amount is.

Whether Texas would order support at all

On the entries you gave us, one route to Texas maintenance is closed, and it is the only part of the test this calculator can measure. We worked that out as a marriage of 4 years, against the ten years § 8.051(2)(B) asks for. That is one route of four and the only one with a number in it. The other three do not depend on how long you were married, and all four sit behind a threshold about your own property that we never ask about, so falling short of ten years does not settle whether a Texas court may order maintenance in your case. Read that as one route closing rather than as the answer: the other routes turn on findings we never asked you about, and every one of them sits behind a threshold about your own property and needs that we do not ask about either. The $662 a month above is what our calculation produces if eligibility is established, and not a statement that it would be.

  • Before any amount: a finding about your own property and needs, and then one of four routes

    What we could measure: a marriage of 4 years, against the ten years § 8.051(2)(B) asks for. That is one route of four and the only one with a number in it. The other three do not depend on how long you were married, and all four sit behind a threshold about your own property that we never ask about, so falling short of ten years does not settle whether a Texas court may order maintenance in your case.

    Not met on what you entered

    Texas awards spousal maintenance less readily than most states, and § 8.051 has now been read from a Texas Legislative Council host rather than summarised from our own notes. Read its shape rather than its list, because the shape is what decides most cases. Everything in it sits behind one threshold: a court may order maintenance only if the spouse asking for it will lack sufficient property, including their own separate property, on dissolution of the marriage to provide for their minimum reasonable needs. That finding governs all four routes, and this calculator collects nothing that bears on it, which is why nothing on this page can tell you whether you are eligible. What it can tell you is how one route sits. The four are a family violence conviction or deferred adjudication against the spouse being asked to pay, within two years before the filing or while the suit is pending; an incapacitating physical or mental disability; a marriage of ten years or longer together with a lack of the ability to earn enough to meet those needs; and custody of a child of the marriage, of any age, whose disability requires substantial care and prevents the parent from earning enough. Only the third has a number in it, so only the third is measurable here, and it is conjunctive: ten years alone is half of it. Note also which direction family violence runs, because it is easy to read backwards. It is a route TO maintenance for the spouse asking, based on the other spouse's conviction, and it carries no marriage-length requirement at all. Take the property and needs question to a Texas family law attorney before planning around any figure on this page.

    Read from the statute. Tex. Fam. Code § 8.051, "Eligibility for Maintenance", served by tcss.legis.texas.gov and retrieved 2026-09-02. On currency: the render carries § 8.063 with its enacting line, "Added by Acts 2025, 89th Leg., R.S., Ch. 593 (H.B. 2524), Sec. 6, eff. September 1, 2025", together with 2025 amendment lines on §§ 8.0591, 8.206, 8.208 and 8.357, so it shows evidence of incorporating the 89th Legislature's 2025 Regular Session. Nothing retrieved speaks to any session after that one. It still frames the figure above rather than changing it, because the finding it turns on is not one this calculator collects.

    In a suit for dissolution of a marriage or in a proceeding for maintenance in a court with personal jurisdiction over both former spouses following the dissolution of their marriage by a court that lacked personal jurisdiction over an absent spouse, the court may order maintenance for either spouse only if the spouse seeking maintenance will lack sufficient property, including the spouse's separate property, on dissolution of the marriage to provide for the spouse's minimum reasonable needs and: (1) the spouse from whom maintenance is requested was convicted of or received deferred adjudication for a criminal offense that also constitutes an act of family violence, as defined by Section 71.004, committed during the marriage against the other spouse or the other spouse's child and the offense occurred: (A) within two years before the date on which a suit for dissolution of the marriage is filed; or (B) while the suit is pending; or (2) the spouse seeking maintenance: (A) is unable to earn sufficient income to provide for the spouse's minimum reasonable needs because of an incapacitating physical or mental disability; (B) has been married to the other spouse for 10 years or longer and lacks the ability to earn sufficient income to provide for the spouse's minimum reasonable needs; or (C) is the custodian of a child of the marriage of any age who requires substantial care and personal supervision because of a physical or mental disability that prevents the spouse from earning sufficient income to provide for the spouse's minimum reasonable needs.

The ceilings below are worked out on the second example above: a twelve-year marriage, $120,000 and $45,000 a year. Enter your own figures in the calculator at the top of this page and it runs the same limits against them.

What Texas law limits

The figures above are held down by Texas's own law rather than only by our model. 2 limits we read out of the statute apply to your case, and where our arithmetic ran past them the statute is what produced the number you are looking at.

  • Amount: the lesser of $5,000 a month and 20 percent of the paying spouse's average monthly gross income

    $2,000 a month

    Worked out as 20 percent of $10,000 a month, which is the GROSS income you entered divided by twelve, and which comes to less than the $5,000 the same sentence caps at. Texas measures its 20 percent against gross income as § 8.055(a-1) defines it, and that definition is narrower than the figure you entered.

    Applied to the figures above

    Before the limit was applied our model produced a range top of $2,649 a month, $649 above it. The figures above are the ceiling rather than our arithmetic.

    Texas caps spousal maintenance at the lesser of $5,000 a month and 20 percent of the paying spouse's average monthly gross income, and § 8.055(a) has now been read from a Texas Legislative Council host rather than taken from our summary of it. The figures above are held to it. Three things about that are worth knowing before you plan around the number. Which of the two tests binds you depends on your income: below $300,000 a year the 20 percent test is the lower one, and above it the flat $5,000 is, so a very high earner is looking at the statute's own figure with nothing of ours anywhere near it. Below that line the 20 percent is worked on the gross figure you entered, and the chapter defines gross income for its own purposes with eight things taken out, which are quoted in full further down this row; that makes our version of the ceiling the generous one rather than the strict one. And the cap is a limit on what a court may order, which is the sentence's own subject, so it is not a statement about an amount the two of you settle on between yourselves. Whether Texas will order maintenance at all is a separate question with its own panel on this page, and it is the harder of the two.

    One caveat on the figure above: the 20 percent term is worked on the gross annual income you entered, and § 8.055(a-1) defines gross income for this chapter more narrowly than a payslip does: it takes out social security and disability benefits, VA service-connected disability compensation, workers' compensation, public assistance and TANF, foster care payments, return of capital and accounts receivable. So where the 20 percent term is the lower of the two, the ceiling worked out here is at or above the one a Texas court would apply, which is why we are willing to hold a figure down to it. Above $300,000 a year of payer income the question does not arise at all, because the $5,000 term is the lower of the two and $5,000 needs no income base.

    Where the limit does not apply: § 8.055(a) is a limit on a court, in its own words: it says a COURT may not ORDER maintenance above the lesser of the two figures. It says nothing about an amount two spouses agree between themselves, and a large share of Texas divorces are settled by agreement rather than decided. Nothing on this page tells you what such an agreement may contain or how Texas treats one.

    Read from the statute. Tex. Fam. Code § 8.055(a), with gross income defined at § 8.055(a-1), served by tcss.legis.texas.gov and retrieved 2026-09-02. the render carries § 8.063 with its enacting line, "Added by Acts 2025, 89th Leg., R.S., Ch. 593 (H.B. 2524), Sec. 6, eff. September 1, 2025", together with 2025 amendment lines on §§ 8.0591, 8.206, 8.208 and 8.357, so it shows evidence of incorporating the 89th Legislature's 2025 Regular Session. That is the answer to the currency question and it is answered from what the session enacted rather than from a history line the page prints about itself. Nothing retrieved speaks to any session after the 89th Regular. The statutes.capitol.texas.gov copy of the same chapter runs § 8.051 to § 8.062 and stops, which is how this project knew that copy was stale; § 8.055 itself carries no separate effective-date stamp we hold, and the $5,000 term is separately dated by enrolled H.B. 901 (82R) § 4, effective 2011-09-01, which replaced $2,500 and carries no indexing language.

    A court may not order maintenance that requires an obligor to pay monthly more than the lesser of: (1) $5,000; or (2) 20 percent of the spouse's average monthly gross income. For purposes of this chapter, gross income: (1) includes: (A) 100 percent of all wage and salary income and other compensation for personal services (including commissions, overtime pay, tips, and bonuses); (B) interest, dividends, and royalty income; (C) self-employment income; (D) net rental income (defined as rent after deducting operating expenses and mortgage payments, but not including noncash items such as depreciation); and (E) all other income actually being received, including severance pay, retirement benefits, pensions, trust income, annuities, capital gains, unemployment benefits, interest income from notes regardless of the source, gifts and prizes, maintenance, and alimony; and (2) does not include: (A) return of principal or capital; (B) accounts receivable; (C) benefits paid in accordance with federal public assistance programs; (D) benefits paid in accordance with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program; (E) payments for foster care of a child; (F) Department of Veterans Affairs service-connected disability compensation; (G) supplemental security income (SSI), social security benefits, and disability benefits; or (H) workers' compensation benefits.

  • Duration: the longest an order may remain in effect, on a ladder keyed to the length of the marriage

    60 months (5 years)

    Worked out as 5 years from the date of the order, which is what § 8.054(a)(1)(A)(ii) allows where "the spouses were married to each other for at least 10 years but not more than 20 years".. This is Texas' own figure rather than our working of one: the subsection keys the maximum to the length of the marriage in years, which is exactly what you entered, so there is no conversion between what Texas measures and what this form collects.

    Applied to the figures above

    Our model would have run this to 72 months, which is 12 months past it.

    Texas does not run one term limit. § 8.054(a)(1) sets the longest a maintenance order may remain in effect as a ladder keyed to the length of the marriage: five years for a marriage of at least ten and not more than twenty, seven years for at least twenty and not more than thirty, and ten years for thirty or more. Those are the subsection's own figures, quoted in full further down this row, and the duration on this page is held to whichever one reaches you. Four things are worth knowing before planning around it. The bands share their edges, so a marriage of exactly twenty or exactly thirty years falls inside two of them and the statute does not say which applies; we show the longer, and say so on the row. The subsection tells the court to set the shortest reasonable period rather than the maximum, so a real order is usually shorter and this is a ceiling rather than a forecast. § 8.054(b) lifts the ceiling entirely for a spouse eligible on either of the two disability grounds, which this form never asks about. And below a ten-year marriage the only limb of the ladder that reaches you depends on a family violence conviction against the other spouse, which is an eligibility question this calculator collects nothing for, so this page shows you no term ceiling at all there. That is a gap rather than a permission. Whether Texas would order maintenance in the first place is a separate and harder question, with its own panel on this page.

    One caveat on the figure above: at two marriage lengths, and only two, the ceiling above may be longer than the one a Texas court works to. § 8.054(a)(1) makes both edges of its bands inclusive, so a marriage of exactly 20 years satisfies limb (A)(ii), which caps at five years, and limb (B), which caps at seven; one of exactly 30 satisfies (B) and limb (C), which caps at ten. The subsection does not say which limb wins and we have taken the longer one, because a ceiling set too long can only leave your estimate where our own model put it, while one set too short would publish a maximum Texas may not have. At every other marriage length exactly one limb reaches you and the figure above is the subsection's own.

    Where the limit does not apply: § 8.054(b) can remove this limit altogether. It says a court may order maintenance for a spouse to whom § 8.051(2)(A) or (C) applies, the two disability grounds, for as long as that spouse keeps meeting the eligibility criteria, and this calculator asks about neither ground, so a reader on either of them has no maximum term here at all rather than the one above. Two smaller things in the same direction: § 8.054(a) binds what a COURT may order and says nothing about a term two spouses agree between themselves, and § 8.054(a)(2) tells the court to set the shortest reasonable period rather than the maximum, so a real Texas order is usually shorter than this figure and the figure is a ceiling rather than a prediction. Nothing on this page tells you whether a Texas court would order maintenance in your case at all.

    Read from the statute. Tex. Fam. Code § 8.054(a), the subsection limiting how long a maintenance order may remain in effect, read with § 8.054(b), served by tcss.legis.texas.gov and retrieved 2026-09-02. the render carries § 8.063 with its enacting line, "Added by Acts 2025, 89th Leg., R.S., Ch. 593 (H.B. 2524), Sec. 6, eff. September 1, 2025", together with 2025 amendment lines on §§ 8.0591, 8.206, 8.208 and 8.357, so it shows evidence of incorporating the 89th Legislature's 2025 Regular Session. That is the answer to the currency question and it is answered from what the session enacted rather than from a history line the page prints about itself. Nothing retrieved speaks to any session after the 89th Regular. The statutes.capitol.texas.gov copy of the same chapter runs § 8.051 to § 8.062 and stops, which is how this project knew that copy was stale; § 8.055 itself carries no separate effective-date stamp we hold, and the $5,000 term is separately dated by enrolled H.B. 901 (82R) § 4, effective 2011-09-01, which replaced $2,500 and carries no indexing language. For this section the window past the 89th Regular is closed by enumeration rather than by search: the 89th Legislature's Second Called Session enacted 20 acts, all 20 final enrolled texts were rendered, 18 of them contain no Family Code string at all, and the remaining two were inspected occurrence by occurrence and reach no part of chapter 8. That session adjourned sine die on 2025-09-04 and the 90th Legislature convenes on 2027-01-12, which is where this answer stops.

    Except as provided by Subsection (b), a court: (1) may not order maintenance that remains in effect for more than: (A) five years after the date of the order, if: (i) the spouses were married to each other for less than 10 years and the eligibility of the spouse for whom maintenance is ordered is established under Section 8.051(1); or (ii) the spouses were married to each other for at least 10 years but not more than 20 years; (B) seven years after the date of the order, if the spouses were married to each other for at least 20 years but not more than 30 years; or (C) 10 years after the date of the order, if the spouses were married to each other for 30 years or more; and (2) shall limit the duration of a maintenance order to the shortest reasonable period that allows the spouse seeking maintenance to earn sufficient income to provide for the spouse's minimum reasonable needs, unless the ability of the spouse to provide for the spouse's minimum reasonable needs is substantially or totally diminished because of: (A) physical or mental disability of the spouse seeking maintenance; (B) duties as the custodian of an infant or young child of the marriage; or (C) another compelling impediment to earning sufficient income to provide for the spouse's minimum reasonable needs. The court may order maintenance for a spouse to whom Section 8.051(2)(A) or (C) applies for as long as the spouse continues to satisfy the eligibility criteria prescribed by the applicable provision.

How long spousal support lasts in Texas

Duration is the question people ask second and worry about first, and it is decided differently from amount. Amount answers what the lower earner needs and what the higher earner can pay. Duration answers a narrower question: how long it should reasonably take the lower earner to get where they can stand on their own, and whether that is realistically possible at all.

The table below runs one couple through the Texas estimate at seven marriage lengths. Incomes are held at $110,000 and $40,000 a year with no children and no health limits, so the only thing changing between rows is how long the marriage lasted.

Estimated Texas spousal support amount and duration at seven marriage lengths, holding income constant
Marriage lengthBandTypical monthlyEstimated durationLikelihood
2 yearsVery short marriage$6650.5 to 1 yearsUnlikely
5 yearsShort marriage$1,0811 to 2.5 yearsPossible
10 yearsMid-length marriage$1,4142 to 5 yearsLikely
15 yearsLong marriage$1,6633 to 5 yearsVery likely
20 yearsLong marriage, common statutory threshold$1,8334 to 7 yearsVery likely
25 yearsVery long marriage$1,8335 to 7 yearsVery likely
30 yearsVery long marriage, retirement in view$1,8336 to 10 yearsVery likely

Two things are worth reading off that table. The first is that a five-year marriage and a twenty-year marriage are not the same case with a different number attached: at five years the estimate runs 1 to 2.5 years and support is only possible, while at twenty years it runs 4 to 7 years and is very likely. The second is that the ranges stay wide at every length, because duration is where courts exercise the most judgment and where settlements do the most trading.

Support also ends on events, not only on dates. Across states the usual terminating events are the death of either spouse, the recipient remarrying, and in many places the recipient living with a new partner in a marriage-like arrangement. Retirement in good faith at a normal age is the other common ground for cutting support off or reducing it. Whether Texas treats each of those the same way is a question for a licensed attorney there, and it is worth asking before you sign an agreement rather than after.

Support while the Texas case is still running

Texas carries a statutory waiting period of 2 months before a divorce can be finalized, and a contested case here runs about 1.2 years on average against 3 months when both spouses agree. States start that clock in different places, some at filing, some at service, and some at the date the two of you separated, so check where yours begins. You also need 6 months of residency in Texas before you can file at all. That stretch of time is the reason temporary support exists. A court can order support early in the case, well before anything final is decided, so the lower-earning spouse is not left covering a separate household on one income for about 1.2 years while the rest gets sorted out. If money is tight now, asking for a temporary order is almost always faster than waiting for the judgment, and the months spent waiting are rarely made up afterwards.

Texas's own durational rule has been read. Tex. Fam. Code § 8.054(a), the subsection limiting how long a maintenance order may remain in effect, read with § 8.054(b) is set out in the limits panel above, which says what the rule provides and whether the figures on this page are held to it, and the calculator at the top of this page runs the same rule against your own entries. Wherever that panel says the rule was not applied, the duration column above is our general model rather than a Texas answer.

The kinds of spousal support a court can order

Support is not one thing. States use different names for the categories below and not every state recognizes all of them, but the underlying purposes are consistent, and knowing which one is being discussed tells you what the argument is really about.

Temporary support, while the case is open
Ordered after filing and before judgment, purely to keep two households running while the case is decided. In Texas that window matters more than people expect: a contested case averages about 1.2 years, so this is often the largest block of support anyone actually receives. It ends when the final judgment lands, and it does not commit the court to continuing at the same figure.
Rehabilitative support
Time-limited support tied to a plan: finishing a degree, renewing a license, completing a training program, or re-entering a field after years away. It is the most common outcome for short and mid-length marriages. Because it is tied to a plan, the strongest version of this request comes with the actual program, its length, and its cost rather than a general statement about needing time.
Durational or term support
A set number of years, usually pegged to the length of the marriage, without needing to be tied to a specific rehabilitation plan. This is the category most reform legislation over the past decade has been about, generally replacing open-ended awards with a term the statute caps.
Indefinite or permanent support
Support with no end date written into it, reserved for long marriages where the age, health, or work history of the lower earner means self-sufficiency is not a realistic outcome. Indefinite does not mean unchangeable: it stays modifiable on a substantial change in circumstances, and it generally ends on the usual terminating events.

Data pending verification. Our Texas record does not list which of these categories Texas recognizes by name or what it calls them, so the descriptions above are the general framework rather than a Texas list. We would rather say that than name four Texas categories we have not checked.

How spousal support is taxed

This changed in a way that still catches people out. Under the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, for any divorce or separation agreement executed after December 31, 2018, alimony is not deductible by the spouse paying it and is not taxable income to the spouse receiving it. The federal rule is the same in Texas as everywhere else, because it is federal.

Two consequences follow, and both are worth understanding before you negotiate. Support is now paid out of after-tax dollars, so a given monthly figure costs the payer considerably more than the same figure did before 2019. And the older advice that a large award could be made cheaper by the deduction no longer applies at all. Agreements executed on or before December 31, 2018 generally keep the old treatment, though modifying one can bring it under the current rule if the modification says so.

State income tax is a separate question from the federal one, and it is not something this page models. Check the federal treatment against the IRS guidance below, and check the Texas treatment with a CPA or a licensed family law attorney in the state.

What it costs to argue about support in Texas

Support is the issue most likely to turn a divorce contested, and it is also the one where the arithmetic of fighting is easiest to get wrong. Below are the Texas figures set against what is actually in dispute.

Attorney rate
$250 to $500/hr
Mediation session
$275
Uncontested case
$2,000 to $5,500
Contested case
$15,000 to $50,000

Put those next to the second worked example above, where the estimate came to $1,782 a month, or $21,384 a year. A contested case in Texas runs $15,000 to $50,000, which is the equivalent of roughly 8 to 28 months of that support. Ten billable hours on each side, which a single contested motion can consume, costs $2,500 to $5,000 per side at Texas rates. Two mediation sessions cost $550 shared between you.

The sharper way to read those figures is as a difference rather than a total. An uncontested Texas divorce runs $2,000 to $5,500 and takes 3 months. Contesting it adds $13,000 to $44,500, or roughly 7 to 25 months of the support in that example, and stretches the case to about 1.2 years. That difference is the actual price of the argument, and it is the number to hold against whatever separates your position from your spouse's.

None of that means give up a position worth holding. Where the gap between the two sides is large, where one spouse's income is hard to pin down, or where the marriage was long enough that duration is the real question, representation earns its cost several times over. But where the two positions sit a few hundred dollars a month apart, the arithmetic usually says settle: the fight can cost more than the difference it is about. Our record does not have Texas requiring mediation before a contested hearing, but at $275 a session against a contested case starting at $15,000, it is usually the cheapest serious attempt at a resolution available. That is our own record rather than Texas's own court rules. Our record carries collaborative divorce as available in all fifty states, so it says nothing specific about Texas; whether trained collaborative attorneys practise near you is a local question. Where it is on offer, both sides commit in writing to settle without litigation and share one financial expert instead of hiring two.

Texas spousal support authority

Data pending verification. We have not yet verified the specific statute that carries Texas's spousal support rules, so we are not naming one here. Citing a section number we have not checked would be worse than citing none. The starting points below are Texas's own courts and the institutional sources, and a licensed family law attorney in the state can give you the controlling section.

Where to check this yourself

Alimony in Texas - Frequently Asked Questions

Does Texas have an alimony formula?

Partly. Texas gives courts a calculation to work from and then lets them adjust the result against the statutory factors. The arithmetic sets roughly how large the award is, and the factors decide where inside that range a particular case lands, so the outcome is more predictable than under open discretion and less predictable than under a straight formula. What this project has read of Texas's law is Tex. Fam. Code § 8.055(a), with gross income defined at § 8.055(a-1) and Tex. Fam. Code § 8.054(a), the subsection limiting how long a maintenance order may remain in effect, read with § 8.054(b), and the panels on this page say what we have done with them. Where a state in this group also sets a statutory cap on the amount or the duration, the cap controls and our estimate does not model it.

How is spousal support calculated in Texas?

Texas runs a calculation the judge may then move away from on the facts, and this page does not reproduce that calculation either. What this project has read of Texas's law is Tex. Fam. Code § 8.055(a), with gross income defined at § 8.055(a-1) and Tex. Fam. Code § 8.054(a), the subsection limiting how long a maintenance order may remain in effect, read with § 8.054(b). The statutory factors our Texas record carries are length of the marriage, earning capacity of each spouse, standard of living during the marriage, and documented domestic violence. What our estimate does instead is the average of two models of ours, one taking 30 percent of the difference between the two incomes and one taking between 22 and 38 percent of it depending on the standard of living during the marriage, both scaled by a factor for the length of the marriage, and any Texas cap on the amount or the duration controls over the result.

How long does alimony last in Texas?

Duration scales with the length of the marriage more than with anything else, and in Texas it also runs into a ceiling the state sets, at Tex. Fam. Code § 8.054(a), the subsection limiting how long a maintenance order may remain in effect, read with § 8.054(b). The figures here are held to it: running the same couple through our Texas estimate at different marriage lengths, a 10-year marriage produces support of 2 to 5 years and a 20-year marriage produces 4 to 7 years. Where our own model ran longer than the ceiling, the top of those ranges is the state's figure rather than ours, and where it ran shorter, it is ours. A ceiling is not a forecast either: courts set a term on the facts and are often directed to the shortest reasonable one, so treat these as an upper bound rather than as what an order will say. The limits panel on this page works the ceiling out on your own figures and sets out what the provision does that this estimate does not model. Support also ends on events rather than only on dates: the death of either spouse, the recipient remarrying, and in many states the recipient cohabiting with a new partner.

How much alimony is typical in Texas?

There is no single figure, because the answer depends on the gap between the two incomes and how long the marriage lasted. As a worked example, a 12-year Texas marriage where one spouse earns $120,000 a year, the other earns $45,000, and the lower earner was the primary caregiver produces an estimate of $1,125 to $2,000 a month, typically around $1,782, running 2.4 to 5 years. Our record classifies Texas as working from a calculation the court can then move away from. This estimate blends two models of ours rather than running that calculation, so the actual amount may vary from it. Run your own figures in the calculator on this page.

Can alimony be modified in Texas?

Yes. Either spouse can ask the court to modify alimony based on a substantial change in circumstances, such as a significant change in income, retirement, the recipient's remarriage or cohabitation, or a serious health change. Texas courts typically require the change to be material and not anticipated at the time of the original order.

Does fault affect alimony in Texas?

No. Texas does not weigh marital fault in setting alimony. Courts focus on financial need, ability to pay, and the other statutory factors rather than blame for the divorce.

Is alimony tax deductible in Texas?

For divorces finalized after December 31, 2018, alimony is no longer deductible by the payer or taxable to the recipient under the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This federal rule applies in Texas as it does in every state. Older orders entered before 2019 generally retain the prior tax treatment unless modified.

This estimate is for planning purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. Consult a licensed family law attorney in your state for guidance specific to your situation.

How we calculate this estimate

Alimony is the least formula-driven number in a divorce, and outside one state this estimate is a national approximation rather than any state's own rule. It works from the gap between the two incomes, scaled by how long the marriage lasted, with the share of that gap set by how your state is recorded as deciding support and by the standard of living during the marriage. The other inputs, employment status on both sides, caregiving history, age and health, and marital fault where your state weighs it, move the factors and the likelihood rather than the arithmetic. The output is a monthly range with a duration range, a likelihood rating, and the specific factors pushing your case up or down.

What the estimate assumes for Texas

  • One state's own calculation is implemented, in half. Six states write a spousal support calculation into their own statute. We have read one of them, 750 ILCS 5/504, and the duration our Illinois calculator returns is that statute's arithmetic rather than our model's: the length of the marriage multiplied by a factor the statute fixes for each year of it, wherever the guideline route reaches the case. The Illinois AMOUNT is still ours, because the statute works it out from net annual income and this calculator collects gross. Everywhere else, both figures are the same national approximation. Every alimony figure we return says which of the two it is, beside it.
  • The share of the income gap our estimate applies depends on which of three groups our record puts your state in, and the marriage-length factor then multiplies it in every case. A formula state takes 30 percent of the gap, which the factor moves to between 12 and 48 percent of it. A discretionary state takes between 22 and 38 percent depending on the standard of living during the marriage, moving to between 8.8 and 60.8 percent. A hybrid state averages the two, landing between 10.4 and 54.4 percent. Those are the figures before any ceiling a state sets, every one of them is ours, and no state publishes any of them.
  • Duration is modeled at about a third of the length of the marriage, with a band around it and a cap at the length of the marriage, in forty-nine states. How wide that band runs depends on the same grouping: a formula or hybrid state gets 20 to 50 percent of the length of the marriage, a discretionary state 13.3 to 66.7 percent. Several of them set duration as a share of the marriage by statute and none of those shares is a third. Illinois is the exception: its ladder runs from .20 below five years to .80 at nineteen and opens up at twenty, we have read it, and our Illinois duration is that calculation rather than the model.
  • State limits are applied in five states and shown without being applied in six more. Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana and Texas each set a ceiling on the amount or the term, we have read that ceiling out of the state's own instrument, and where our arithmetic ran past it the ceiling is what produced the figure. Florida, Louisiana and Texas are the ones whose ceilings are worked on a base the instrument does not use: their rules measure an income this page does not collect, so what we apply is a generous version of the state's own limit, which is why we are willing to bring a figure down to it and never up to it. Each of those pages says so beside the figure. Massachusetts and Maine's limits are rebuttable presumptions rather than ceilings, so they are shown beside the figure rather than applied to it. Massachusetts carries a second reason on top of that one, set out on its own page beside the figure, and it is the harder of the two: what the rule measures is not what this page collects. Indiana, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Utah have limits our own pages state and nobody here has opened the document behind, so those are worked out on your entries and set beside our estimate without changing it. We do not clamp a number to a figure we could not read. The other 39 states have no limit in our records, which is a statement about our records rather than about their law: where your state limits an amount or a term and we hold nothing for it, the limit still controls and this estimate can exceed it.
  • Which of the three approaches a state takes came into our data at the original build. It has since been checked against the state's own rendered instrument in 4 states, Florida, Illinois, New York and Texas, and each of those pages names the instrument that settled it. In the other 46 it is still our record's classification with no statute behind it.
  • Fault is only factored in for states where our record says fault can affect a support award.
  • The one cost-table figure this page uses is your state's waiting period, and it is our own record rather than a reading of the statute. Nobody here has opened a dissolution statute to check the number, and the same field carries two different things across the fifty states, a wait that runs from filing and a separation requirement that runs from the day you separated. Confirm it with the clerk of court where you will file.
  • The estimate is pre-tax. It does not model how support affects either spouse's tax return.

Where the estimate stops

Outside the Illinois duration, this is our model rather than your state's. In a state that publishes its own calculation the number to plan around is that calculation, and a family law attorney licensed there can run it on your figures. Even where a guideline applies, a judge can depart from it and most support terms are negotiated rather than tried, so treat the range as a planning band rather than a prediction of your order.

Read the full methodology for how every calculator on the site is built.

Sources

Texas courts and statutes

Where to read more

Background reading, not where the figures above came from. No number on this page is taken from any of these.

About this page

Barron Hansen

Written by Barron Hansen

I am an app developer who is dedicated to building the highest-value, most accurate web apps possible, that people want to use every day.