BAföG 2026: Amount, Eligibility, Application and Repayment

How much is BAföG in 2026?

The law calls the amount the “requirement”, made up of fixed components. For university students, the following apply in 2026:

If you do not live with your parents and have your own student health and care insurance, you get 992 € a month (475 + 380 + 102 + 35 €). If you are still covered by family insurance, you do not receive the insurance supplements.

Voluntarily insured students receive higher supplements: 185 € for health and 48 € for care insurance (section 13a(2) BAföG).

How income and assets are taken into account

What you and your family can contribute is deducted from the requirement, in this order (section 11(2) BAföG):

• Your own income: from a side job, 389 € a month remains exempt after deducting the flat-rate work expenses and social security allowance (section 23 BAföG). Only the amount above that reduces BAföG.
• Your own assets: 15,000 € are exempt, from age 30 45,000 € (section 29 BAföG). Anything above is spread over the months of the approval period.
• Parental income: the calendar year before last, counted from the start of the approval period, is decisive (section 24 BAföG); if it is expected to be much lower during the approval period, that income counts on special application. After deducting taxes and the social security allowance, 2,540 € a month remain exempt if the parents are married, otherwise 1,690 € per parent, plus 770 € for each other child not in eligible education (section 25 BAföG). Of the remainder, a further 50% is exempt, plus 5 percentage points per such child.

If the result is less than 10 € a month, nothing is paid (section 51(4) BAföG).

BAföG without parental income

In some cases parental income is disregarded entirely (section 11(3) BAföG), if at the start of the course you

• attend an evening grammar school or a Kolleg,
• have reached the age of 30,
• have worked for five years after turning 18, or
• have worked for three years after vocational training of at least three years (longer after shorter training).

The work only counts if you were able to support yourself from your earnings during that time. Parental income is also disregarded if their whereabouts are unknown or they are unable to pay maintenance (section 11(2a) BAföG).

Applying: early, and again every year

You apply in writing or electronically to the responsible student support office (section 46 BAföG). Payment starts no earlier than the month in which you apply (section 15(1) BAföG).

Support is usually approved for one year (section 50(3) BAföG). If your follow-up application is essentially complete at least 2 months before the period ends, payments continue provisionally until the new decision (section 50(4) BAföG).

If you have reached the age of 45 at the start of the course, you generally no longer receive BAföG; the law lists exceptions, for example for raising children (section 10(3) BAföG).

Repayment: half a loan, capped

For university studies, the monthly amount is paid half as a grant and half as a loan (section 17(2) BAföG). The childcare supplement is entirely a grant. The loan terms are (section 18 BAföG):

• Interest-free: interest is only charged if you are more than 45 days late with an instalment.
• Start: the first instalment is due 5 years after the end of the maximum support period. The end date is stated in every notice.
• Instalment: at least 130 € a month, repaid within 20 years.
• Cap: once you have paid 77 monthly instalments of the set amount, the rest is waived. At the minimum instalment of 130 € that is at most 10,010 €, however large the loan was.

If you earn little, you can apply to be released from repayment or to pay lower instalments; those periods then count towards the waiver (section 18(13) BAföG). Collection is handled by the Federal Office of Administration (Bundesverwaltungsamt).

Frequently asked questions about BAföG