Georgia Child Support Calculator: 2026 Rules and Deviations

The Georgia child support calculator is a free online tool from the Georgia Child Support Commission that produces the official worksheet Georgia courts require. You enter both parents’ gross incomes along with the children’s health insurance and work-related childcare costs, and the calculator applies Georgia’s income shares formula to generate a presumptive monthly support amount. As of January 2, 2026, the tool runs on Version 2.1, which adds a parenting time adjustment and a revised low-income adjustment under Senate Bill 454.¹

Where to Find the Calculator and Set Up an Account

The calculator is hosted at the Georgia Child Support Commission’s website. Click “Signup” to create a free account, then log in and use the Worksheet dropdown to start a new worksheet and folder.² Each worksheet generates a PDF that becomes the official court document. You can save your progress and come back later, which helps because gathering every figure usually takes more than one sitting.

What You Need Before You Start

Gross Income for Both Parents

Georgia defines gross income broadly. The statute counts salaries, commissions, bonuses, overtime, self-employment earnings, retirement and pension income, interest, dividends, capital gains, Social Security disability benefits, VA disability benefits, workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, lawsuit recoveries, cash gifts, prizes, and lottery winnings.³ If it brings money in, it almost certainly counts. Alimony received from someone other than the other parent in the current case is also included.

Have the last three to six months of pay stubs and your most recent federal tax return ready to back up your figures. Self-employed parents get one adjustment: Georgia deducts one-half of self-employment taxes (the combined 6.2% OASDI and 1.45% Medicare portions) from gross income before the rest of the calculation runs.³ Profit and loss statements or Schedule C forms are the usual documentation.

Preexisting Child Support Orders

If either parent already pays child support for a child from a different case, that monthly amount gets deducted from gross income to reach “adjusted income.” The deduction only applies when the earlier order predates the current case (measured by the original filing date) and the parent is actually making the payments. You will need the monthly amount and the case number.³

Health Insurance and Childcare Costs

The worksheet asks for the monthly cost of health insurance premiums paid specifically for the children. Your own individual coverage cost is excluded; only the extra premium to cover the dependents counts. Work-related childcare expenses like daycare and after-school programs go in a separate field so those costs are shared proportionately.⁴ Both figures feed directly into the presumptive support amount before any deviations are considered.

How the Calculator Arrives at a Number

Once both parents’ adjusted incomes are entered, the calculator combines them into a single monthly total. That combined figure is matched against Georgia’s Basic Child Support Obligation Table, a statutory schedule that assigns a base dollar amount at each income level and for each number of children.³ The table reflects economic data on what families at various income levels typically spend on their children.

The obligation is then split between parents based on each one’s share of the combined income. A parent who earns 65% of the total pays 65% of the base obligation; the other pays 35%.³ The calculator does this automatically and adds each parent’s share of health insurance and childcare costs. The noncustodial parent’s resulting figure is the presumptive child support amount, and that is what a court will order unless a deviation is granted.

If a Parent Cannot Document Income

A parent who shows up without pay stubs, tax returns, or other reliable evidence of earnings cannot simply claim zero. Georgia law lets courts impute income based on that parent’s specific circumstances: assets, employment history, job skills, education, literacy, age, health, criminal record, and the local job market.⁵ The calculator only produces a reliable estimate when both parents’ incomes are documented; if you run it with a guessed figure for the other parent, treat the result as tentative.

What Changed in 2026

Senate Bill 454 brought two significant changes to the calculator effective January 1, 2026. The first is a parenting time adjustment that accounts for how much time the child spends with the noncustodial parent. Before this change, parenting time could only be addressed through the deviation process, which required written justification and judicial approval. The new adjustment is built directly into the calculator’s standard math.¹

The second change overhauls how the calculator handles low-income parents. The updated low-income adjustment table now covers parents with individual monthly adjusted gross income up to $3,950.⁶ When the table applies, the calculator compares the presumptive amount against the low-income table amount and uses whichever is lower. If you last estimated support under the old version, the number the calculator gives you now may look different even with the same incomes.

When the Presumptive Number Can Be Adjusted

The figure the calculator produces is the presumptive amount, not always the final amount. Georgia law allows deviations when the standard calculation would be unjust for a particular family. Deviations are entered on Schedule E of the worksheet.⁷ They fall into two groups: specific deviations named in the statute and nonspecific deviations that cover everything else.

Specific Deviations

The statute recognizes several grounds for adjusting the presumptive amount:

High income: when the parents’ combined adjusted income exceeds $40,000 per month, the court sets the base obligation at the highest amount on the table and may deviate upward.
Travel expenses for court-ordered parenting time, particularly when parents live far apart.
Dental and vision insurance premiums paid for the child at a reasonable cost.
Life insurance naming the child as beneficiary.
Alimony actually being paid, which is not deducted from gross income but can be considered as a deviation.
Mortgage or housing costs where the noncustodial parent pays for the home the child lives in or provides housing at no cost.

Each is drawn from the statute’s deviation framework.⁸

Extraordinary Expenses

The obligation table already accounts for average child-rearing costs. Extraordinary expenses go beyond those averages. Extraordinary educational expenses include private school tuition, room and board, lab fees, books, and related costs, adjusted downward for any scholarships or grants the child receives.⁹ The expenses must be appropriate given the parents’ financial abilities and the lifestyle the child would have had if the family were intact.

Special child-rearing expenses cover things like summer camp, music or art lessons, school-sponsored extracurricular activities, and other costs that enhance a child’s development but are not already captured by the health insurance and childcare fields.⁹ For both categories, a monthly average is entered on Schedule E based on evidence of prior or anticipated spending.

Written Justification Required

Every deviation, up or down, requires a written explanation in the worksheet’s text fields. You must state why the standard calculation is inappropriate and how the proposed change serves the child’s best interests. Vague explanations like “costs are high” get rejected. Specifics and documentation are what get deviations approved.

Filing the Completed Worksheet

When every field is filled and reviewed, the calculator generates a PDF. Print it; this document is the official legal record of the calculation. Both parents or their attorneys should review the final figures for accuracy before anyone signs. The worksheet is filed with the Clerk of the Superior Court in the county where the case is pending.³

The worksheet must accompany the initial petition for support or the final proposed order submitted for the judge’s signature. Filing fees for domestic relations petitions vary by county. The other parent must be served under Georgia’s civil procedure rules. A judge reviews the worksheet to confirm the calculations follow the statute and that any deviations are legally justified. Once the judge signs the order, an income withholding order is typically issued directing the paying parent’s employer to deduct payments from wages.¹⁰

How Long the Obligation Lasts

Georgia child support continues until the child reaches 18, dies, marries, or becomes emancipated, whichever happens first. There is one extension: if the child turns 18 while still enrolled in and attending secondary school, the court may order support to continue until the child finishes high school or turns 20, whichever comes first.³ Georgia does not require parents to pay child support through college.

Running the Numbers Again Later

Child support orders are not permanent. If circumstances change significantly, either parent can request a review through the Georgia Division of Child Support Services or by filing a motion with the court. Different procedures apply depending on whether the order was issued or last reviewed less than 36 months ago.¹¹ Common triggers include a substantial change in either parent’s income, job loss, a new support obligation for another child, or a significant change in the child’s needs such as a new medical condition.

Modifications are not automatic. You have to initiate the process, and any new amount takes effect only from the date the modification petition is filed, not retroactively to when circumstances changed. Running the calculator with updated figures before filing tells you whether the change would actually produce a meaningfully different number.

1
Georgia Child Support Commission. Georgia Child Support Calculator
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Georgia Child Support Commission. Georgia Child Support Commission
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Georgia Child Support Commission. Georgia Code 19-6-15 – Child Support Guidelines
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Georgia Child Support Commission. Frequently Asked Questions on Georgia’s Child Support Guidelines
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Georgia Child Support Commission. Checklist for Imputed Income
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Justia. Georgia Code 19-6-15 – Child Support Guidelines (Effective 1/1/2026)
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Georgia Child Support Commission. Schedule E
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Justia. Georgia Code 19-6-15 – Child Support Guidelines
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Georgia Child Support Commission. Georgia Code 19-6-15 – Child Support Guidelines
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Georgia Department of Human Services. Income Withholding for Support
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Georgia Department of Human Services. Review and Modification of Support Order