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What's my SNAP for 2026?

Compute a household's annual SNAP allotment in a single API call. This is the simplest useful request — one household, one variable, one period.

What you'll learn

  • The minimal household payload needed to run a calculation
  • How to send an annual income and request an annual benefit
  • Where the result lives in the response

The household

A family of four in California: two parents, two children. The earning parent makes $30,000 per year.

The request

curl https://household.api.policyengine.org/us/calculate \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @- <<'JSON'
{
  "household": {
    "people": {
      "parent_1": {
        "age": {"2026": 35},
        "employment_income": {"2026": 30000}
      },
      "parent_2": {"age": {"2026": 35}},
      "child_1":  {"age": {"2026": 7}},
      "child_2":  {"age": {"2026": 4}}
    },
    "families": {
      "family_1": {
        "members": ["parent_1", "parent_2", "child_1", "child_2"]
      }
    },
    "tax_units": {
      "tax_unit_1": {
        "members": ["parent_1", "parent_2", "child_1", "child_2"]
      }
    },
    "households": {
      "household_1": {
        "members": ["parent_1", "parent_2", "child_1", "child_2"],
        "state_name": {"2026": "CA"}
      }
    },
    "spm_units": {
      "spm_unit_1": {
        "members": ["parent_1", "parent_2", "child_1", "child_2"],
        "snap": {"2026": null}
      }
    }
  }
}
JSON

import requests

payload = {
    "household": {
        "people": {
            "parent_1": {
                "age": {"2026": 35},
                "employment_income": {"2026": 30000},
            },
            "parent_2": {"age": {"2026": 35}},
            "child_1":  {"age": {"2026": 7}},
            "child_2":  {"age": {"2026": 4}},
        },
        "families": {
            "family_1": {
                "members": ["parent_1", "parent_2", "child_1", "child_2"]
            }
        },
        "tax_units": {
            "tax_unit_1": {
                "members": ["parent_1", "parent_2", "child_1", "child_2"]
            }
        },
        "households": {
            "household_1": {
                "members": ["parent_1", "parent_2", "child_1", "child_2"],
                "state_name": {"2026": "CA"},
            }
        },
        "spm_units": {
            "spm_unit_1": {
                "members": ["parent_1", "parent_2", "child_1", "child_2"],
                "snap": {"2026": None},
            }
        },
    }
}

response = requests.post(
    "https://household.api.policyengine.org/us/calculate",
    json=payload,
    timeout=30,
)
response.raise_for_status()
snap = response.json()["result"]["spm_units"]["spm_unit_1"]["snap"]["2026"]
print(f"Annual SNAP: ${snap:,.2f}")

The response

{
  "status": "ok",
  "result": {
    "spm_units": {
      "spm_unit_1": {
        "snap": {"2026": 3924.54}
      }
    }
  }
}

The household receives $3,924.54 in SNAP across 2026.

These figures come from policyengine-us 1.634.8 with 2026 SNAP parameters. SNAP updates each October (federal fiscal year), so monthly amounts vary slightly across the year — the annual figure is the sum of all twelve months.

Why every entity is required

The household payload includes five entity groups: people, families, tax_units, households, and spm_units. Each represents a different administrative unit:

Entity Purpose Example use
people Individuals and their personal attributes Age, earnings
families Federal income tax filing family unit Child Tax Credit
tax_units Tax filers (often equal to family) Income tax
households Residential household for state benefits State EITC, SNAP
spm_units Supplemental Poverty Measure unit SNAP, school meals

Every person needs to be a member of every entity group, even if you only care about one program. Omitting a group raises a 400.

Variations

Request multiple programs at once. Add other variables alongside snap. The request returns all of them in one round trip:

"spm_units": {
  "spm_unit_1": {
    "members": ["parent_1", "parent_2", "child_1", "child_2"],
    "snap": {"2026": null},
    "wic": {"2026": null}
  }
},
"tax_units": {
  "tax_unit_1": {
    "members": ["parent_1", "parent_2", "child_1", "child_2"],
    "eitc": {"2026": null},
    "ctc": {"2026": null}
  }
}

Try a different state. Change state_name to any two-letter state code. SNAP allotments differ between states because of broad-based categorical eligibility (BBCE) thresholds and standard utility allowances.

See month-by-month detail. Replace "snap": {"2026": null} with twelve month keys to get a per-month breakdown. See When will I lose SNAP this year? for the pattern.

What's next