Disclaimer

Not legal, tax, financial, or medical advice

The ACA Cliff Calculator is an editorial calculator. It is not a substitute for the advice of a licensed tax professional, a licensed insurance agent or broker, an attorney, or a healthcare professional. Calculator outputs are estimates based on the income and household data you enter and on data tables the site maintains. Numbers may differ from those produced by the IRS, healthcare.gov, your state marketplace, your tax preparer, or any insurance carrier.

SLCSP precision

The calculator estimates the second-lowest-cost Silver plan (SLCSP) — the §36B(b)(3)(B) benchmark for the Premium Tax Credit — using state×age-band averages aggregated from KFF and CMS rate-filing public-use files. Individual zip codes routinely deviate ±20–30% from state averages. For the actual SLCSP applicable to your zip, check healthcare.gov or your state-based marketplace. The cliff distance itself (income-only math) is exact regardless of SLCSP precision.

Law changes during the year

Premium Tax Credit law and IRS guidance can change mid-year. In particular, as of the effective date of these pages, Congress was actively considering a multi-year extension of the enhanced PTC (House passed 2026-01-08; Senate pending). If Congress enacts the extension and it applies retroactively to TY2026, the cliff regime modeled here will change to the smoothed regime. The site will update; until then, calculator outputs reflect current law.

Use at your own risk

We make no warranties about the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information on the site. Use of the calculator is at your own risk; we are not liable for any decision made in reliance on its outputs.