The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), sometimes referred to as food stamps, helps around 42 million low- and no-income Americans buy groceries each month. Recipients access the funds through an electronic benefit transfer card (EBT) which can be used at participating stores to buy food and drink.
When you receive your SNAP benefits depends on the state you live in. Although SNAP is funded by the federal government, it’s administered by individual states, meaning payments don’t arrive on the same day for everyone.
Some states distribute benefits based on the first letter of a recipient’s last name. In Connecticut, for example, payments are issued at the start of each month: last names beginning with A–F receive benefits on the first day, G–N on the second, and O–Z on the third.
Other states use case numbers to determine payment dates. In Alabama, benefits are issued on the day that corresponds to the final two digits of a case number, so those with numbers ending in 01 receive their payments earlier in the month than those with numbers ending in 99.
When Are January 2026 SNAP Payments Coming?
SNAP benefit issuance dates will remain unchanged in 2026, with each state following its regular payment dates.
Benefits will be paid on the following dates, according to where you live:
- Alabama: January 4 to 23
- Alaska: January 1
- Arizona: January 1 to 13
- Arkansas: January 4 to 13
- California: January 1 to 10
- Colorado: January 1 to 10
- Connecticut: January 1 to 3
- Delaware: January 2 to 23
- District of Columbia: January 1 to 10
- Florida: January 1 to 28
- Georgia: January 5 to 23
- Guam: January 1 to 10
- Hawaii: January 3 to 5
- Idaho: January 1 to 10
- Illinois: January 1 to 20
- Indiana: January 5 to 23
- Iowa: January 1 to 10
- Kansas: January 1 to 10
- Kentucky: January 1 to 19
- Louisiana: January 1 to 23
- Maine: January 10 to 14
- Maryland: January 4 to 23
- Massachusetts: January 1 to 14
- Michigan: January 3 to 21
- Minnesota: January 4 to 13
- Mississippi: January 4 to 21
- Missouri: January 1 to 22
- Montana: January 2 to 6
- Nebraska: January 1 to 5
- Nevada: January 1 to 10
- New Hampshire: January 5
- New Jersey: January 1 to 5
- New Mexico: January 1 to 20
- New York: January 1 to 9
- North Carolina: January 3 to 21
- North Dakota: January 1
- Ohio: January 2 to 20
- Oklahoma: January 1 to 10
- Oregon: January 1 to 9
- Pennsylvania: January 3 to 14
- Puerto Rico: January 4 to January 22
- Rhode Island: January 1
- South Carolina: January 1 to 19
- South Dakota: January 10
- Tennessee: January 1 to 20
- Texas: January 1 to 28
- Utah: January 5, 11 and 15
- Virgin Islands: January 1
- Vermont: January 1
- Virginia: January 1 to 7
- Washington: January 1 to 20
- West Virginia: January 1 to 9
- Wisconsin: January 1 to 15
- Wyoming: January 1 to 4
SNAP Lawsuit
President Donald Trump’s administration recently warned most Democrat-run states that they risk losing federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding if they do not comply with new data-sharing requirements.
The Trump administration has ordered states to turn over extensive information about SNAP recipients—including their immigration status—as part of what it says is an effort to combat widespread fraud. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins argued that state cooperation is necessary to identify abuses in the program. But several Democratic-led states have filed lawsuits to stop the request, saying they already verify SNAP eligibility and have never shared such large amounts of sensitive beneficiary data with the federal government.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) spokesperson told Newsweek: “USDA established a SNAP integrity team to analyze not only data provided by states, but to scrub all available information to end indiscriminate welfare fraud. 28 States and Guam joined us in this fight; but states like California, New York, and Minnesota, among 19 other blue States, keep fighting us.”
