Maximum SNAP benefits allotments will rise starting from Wednesday thanks to the annual cost-of-living adjustment.
Why It Matters
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps low- and no-income Americans access healthy foods each month by distributing monthly benefits, which are loaded onto an electronic benefit transfer card and can be spent at participating retailers. Around 42 million people collected SNAP nationwide in 2024.
What To Know
Each year, SNAP undergoes a cost-of-living increase, known as the COLA, to help benefits keep pace with rising grocery prices.
The Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP, bases these adjustments on changes in the Consumer Price Index for Food at Home, a measure of inflation in supermarket costs.
The updated benefit amounts take effect on October 1, the start of the federal fiscal year, and raise the maximum monthly allotment depending on household size. While the adjustment increases the ceiling on benefits, the amount each household receives still depends on its income and expenses, meaning some families see only modest increases.
How Much Will Benefits Increase?
This depends on where you live. For the vast majority of SNAP recipients who live in the contiguous 48 states, maximum allotments will rise from $292 per month to $298 for a single person. If you live in a four-person household, maximum benefits have been boosted from $975 to $994 until next October.
Maximum allotments are higher in Alaska and Hawaii as food tends to be more expensive in these states.
Alaska is the only state where SNAP benefits are set on multiple scales, with different maximum allotments for urban and rural areas. In cities like Anchorage or Fairbanks, classified as urban, groceries are relatively more affordable because it is easier to transport food there. But many rural and remote villages rely on food flown in by air or delivered over long distances, making prices significantly higher.
To account for this, the Department of Agriculture divides Alaska into three categories—Urban, Rural 1, and Rural 2—with the latter receiving the highest benefit levels in the nation.
The new maximum allotments for Alaska are:
- Urban: $385 per month, up from $377, for a single person. For a family of four, recipients can get $1,285, a boost from $1,258.
- Rural 1: $491 for a single person, up from $481. A family of four can receive a maximum of $1,639, a change from $1,604.
- Rural 2: $598 per month, raised from $586. For a four-person household, $1,995 maximum is available, up from $1,953.
Hawaii is the only state where maximum SNAP amounts will actually be lower for this fiscal year. Starting October 1, the top limit is $506, down from $517. For four people, up to $1,689 is available, a decrease of $34 from $1,723.
If you live in a U.S. territory, maximum SNAP changes are as follows:
- Guam: $1,465, up from $1,437, for a family of four.
- U.S. Virgin Islands: $1,278, down from $1,254
