BAH Calculator

Pick your duty station's Military Housing Area, your paygrade, and your dependency status, and this calculator reads your 2026 monthly BAH straight from the official DTMO rate table, plus the annual figure, what dependents are worth in that area, and what a promotion would do.

Not sure which area your duty ZIP falls in? The official DTMO lookup resolves any ZIP code to its Military Housing Area. Counties outside every named area fall into numbered county cost groups, listed at the bottom.

Data reviewed: August 2026. Figures here come from published sources and change over time. How we verify

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How BAH actually works

Basic Allowance for Housing is a table lookup, not a formula. The Defense Travel Management Office surveys rental markets every year, and each of the 338 Military Housing Areas (MHAs) gets one row of rates: a column for every paygrade, in two versions, with dependents and without. Your monthly BAH is the cell where your duty station's row meets your paygrade's column. This calculator embeds the complete official 2026 table, both versions, all 338 areas, so the number you see here is the number in the DTMO file, not an estimate.

Two things about that lookup surprise almost everyone the first time. First, BAH follows your duty station's ZIP code, not your home address. Live 40 minutes out in a cheaper town and you keep the duty station rate; the difference is yours. Second, dependency status is binary. The with-dependents rate is the same whether you have one child or five, a working spouse or not. There is no per-kid increase, and there never has been.

Each rate is anchored to real rental data for a housing profile that steps up with rank: an E-4's anchor is a two-bedroom apartment, an O-5's is a four-bedroom single-family house. That is why the with-dependents jump from E-4 to E-5, or E-5 to E-6, is often the biggest housing raise of an enlisted career: the anchor profile changes underneath you.

The formula, such as it is

Monthly BAH = 2026 rate table [ your MHA ] [ your paygrade ] [ with or without dependents ]

The design target behind the table: BAH is set to cover about 95 percent of the surveyed housing cost (rent plus utilities) for each profile, leaving a deliberate out-of-pocket share of roughly 5 percent of the national average. For 2026 that cost-sharing amount works out to $93 to $212 a month depending on paygrade. Proposals to return to 100 percent coverage (the BAH Restoration Act) have been introduced in Congress but have not become law, so the 95 percent design stands for 2026.

For 2026 the Pentagon announced an average increase of 4.2 percent (December 11, 2025), following back-to-back 5.4 percent years, with about $29.9 billion flowing to roughly one million service members. Average means average: your MHA can move more, less, or down. Down is where rate protection comes in.

Worked example

An E-5 with dependents gets orders to San Antonio, TX (MHA TX285). The 2026 with-dependents table row for TX285, E-5 column: $1,869.00 per month, which is $22,428.00 a year, tax-free. Without dependents the same cell reads $1,500.00, so dependency status is worth $369.00 a month there.

The promotion view: the same row's E-6 column pays $2,094.00 with dependents. Pinning on E-6 is worth $225.00 a month in housing alone, before the pay-table raise. And because BAH is not taxed, that $1,869.00 stretches like roughly $2,240 to $2,430 of pre-tax salary, depending on your bracket.

Rate protection: the ratchet that only turns one way

If the new year's table drops your MHA's rate, you do not take the cut. Incumbents are grandfathered: as long as you stay at the same duty station and your status does not change, you keep the higher of the old rate and the new one. New arrivals and members who PCS in get the new, lower rate. The flip side: when rates rise, everyone gets the increase on January 1. So a falling market never cuts your check mid-tour, and a rising one always raises it. You can lose rate protection by changing duty stations, dropping in dependency status, or a reduction in grade, which is worth knowing before you make a paperwork change in a year when your area's rate fell.

What this calculator deliberately does not cover

Partial BAH is the small statutory allowance for members without dependents living in government quarters (the barracks); it is a different, much smaller table. BAH-Diff is the rate paid to members in the barracks who pay child support; it exists so that support obligation is recognized even without a household to house. BAH RC/T is the non-locality rate for reservists on short active-duty tours and members in transit. All three live in the DTMO non-locality file, not the locality table this page embeds. And OHA, the Overseas Housing Allowance, is a different program entirely: it reimburses actual rent up to a cap and moves with exchange rates, which is why Ramstein and Okinawa are not in the list above. If your orders are overseas, OHA math is the math you need, and this page will not pretend to do it.

One honest caveat on currency: the table embedded here is the official 2026 file current as of August 2026, including the mid-year Abilene/Dyess AFB (TX270) increase the department pushed on May 16, 2026. Mid-year revisions like that are rare but real, which is exactly why the steps above name the file your number came from.

Sources

Where the numbers on this page come from. We go to the body that publishes the figure, not to another calculator. Figures on this page were checked against these sources in August 2026. See how we verify.

Frequently asked questions

Is BAH taxable?

No. BAH is completely free of federal and state income tax, and it does not appear on your tax return. That makes each BAH dollar worth more than a salary dollar: a $2,000 monthly allowance stretches like roughly $2,400 to $2,600 of pre-tax pay depending on your bracket. When you compare a military offer to a civilian one, taxing the civilian salary first is the only fair comparison.

Do I get more BAH for more kids?

No. Dependency status is binary: with dependents or without. One child or five, a spouse who works or one who does not, the with-dependents rate is identical. The difference between the two rates varies a lot by area, and this calculator shows you the exact gap for your MHA.

What happens to my BAH if rates go down?

You keep your old rate. Rate protection grandfathers incumbents: as long as you stay at the same duty station with the same dependency status, a January rate cut cannot reduce your check. Members who newly arrive at that station get the new, lower rate. You can lose protection by PCSing, dropping dependency status, or a reduction in grade.

Is BAH based on where I live or where I work?

Where you work. BAH keys off your duty station's ZIP code, which maps to a Military Housing Area, regardless of where you actually rent or buy. Commuting from a cheaper town does not lower your BAH, and moving somewhere pricier does not raise it.

Does BAH cover all of my rent?

By design, no. Rates target about 95 percent of the surveyed rent-plus-utilities cost for your grade's housing profile, leaving a deliberate out-of-pocket share of roughly $93 to $212 a month in 2026 depending on paygrade. Legislation to restore 100 percent coverage has been proposed but has not passed. Of course, your actual housing choice decides your real out-of-pocket: renting under the anchor profile can put you ahead.

What if I live in the barracks or in on-base housing?

Single members in government quarters generally receive partial BAH, a small statutory amount from a separate non-locality table, not the locality rates here. Families in privatized on-base housing typically receive full BAH and pay it to the housing operator as rent. Members in the barracks who pay child support may qualify for BAH-Diff, another separate rate.

Why is my overseas base not in the list?

Because overseas housing is a different program: the Overseas Housing Allowance (OHA). OHA reimburses your actual rent up to a location cap and adjusts with currency exchange rates, so it works nothing like the fixed CONUS BAH table. This calculator covers the 50 states plus the county cost groups in the official 2026 BAH file.

When did the 2026 rates take effect?

January 1, 2026, announced December 11, 2025, with an average increase of 4.2 percent across all areas. Average means average: individual MHAs moved more, less, or down (rate protection shields incumbents from the downs). The department also pushed a rare mid-year increase for the Abilene/Dyess AFB area effective May 16, 2026, which this calculator's table includes.

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