Lifeline eligibility checker 2026

The 2026 income limits, household by household

The income test is the one most people stumble on, because it is written as a percentage of a federal table that changes every January. HHS published the 2026 poverty guidelines in January: $15,960 for one person in the 48 states and DC, plus $5,680 for each additional person. Lifeline’s ceiling is 135% of that figure, and USAC publishes the result rounded to the dollar. Alaska and Hawaii have their own guidelines, higher because living costs are higher there; Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands use the 48-state figures.

Two details change the answer more than people expect. First, the figure is gross income: wages before taxes and deductions, Social Security, unemployment, child support, pensions, for every member of the household. Second, the household is the economic unit, not the address: under 47 CFR 54.400 it is everyone living together who shares income and expenses, so roommates who keep separate budgets are separate households, while an adult with little income supported by another is part of that person’s household. Type your own figures here to see where you stand:

If you are over the line, look at the benefits route before giving up. A household that receives SNAP, Medicaid, SSI, public housing assistance or a veterans pension qualifies whatever its income, and many working families get Medicaid or SNAP for their children. The income limits page explains what counts as income and which documents prove it.

What Lifeline pays, and what it does not

Lifeline is a monthly discount paid to the company, which must pass it on to you in full. Under 47 CFR 54.403, the standard amount is $9.25 a month on a plan that meets the broadband minimum service standard, whether a mobile plan with data, home internet or a bundle. A voice-only plan earns $5.25: the FCC had scheduled the end of that support, but its Wireline Competition Bureau paused the phase-out on July 1, 2026 and the $5.25 remains available through November 30, 2027. Residents of qualifying Tribal lands get up to $25 more, for a total of up to $34.25.

A plan must reach minimum standards for the company to be paid. Since the FCC public notice of July 29, 2026, a mobile plan must include 1000 voice minutes to count as voice and 4.5 GB of data a month to count as broadband, and home internet must offer 25/3 Mbps with 1,280 GB a month. These standards continue until December 1, 2027, while the FCC weighs changes proposed in its rulemaking of February 23, 2026.

What Lifeline never pays for is the phone. The FCC says it plainly on its Lifeline consumer page: it does not subsidize any hardware. Phones handed out with Lifeline plans are the company’s commercial offer. That is why advertisements for a “free iPhone from the government” deserve a second look, as the free iPhone page explains with the arithmetic.

Approved companies near you

You can only receive Lifeline from an eligible telecommunications carrier designated in your state. USAC publishes, as open data in the public domain, the list behind its “Companies Near Me” tool: each company, its type of service and every ZIP code where it is designated. This site reads that list, 770,144 company and ZIP rows on October 27, 2026, and shows it neutrally: sorted by the number of ZIP codes covered, with the customer line and the website written as text. Pick your state and type your ZIP code; the code stays in your browser.

A company appearing in the list is designated to offer Lifeline there; it does not mean every plan or phone is available at your address. Mobile companies cover whole states, home phone and internet companies cover the areas of their network. The companies page explains how to compare offers without giving your details to several of them.

From application to renewal

The application follows the same path everywhere except Oregon and Texas, which run their own process. You apply on the National Verifier, online, by mail or with a company’s agent in person; it checks your identity, your address and your benefit or income against government databases, and asks for documents only if a check fails. Then you choose a company, which enrolls you. A year later the benefit is checked again. The timeline below uses the official delays published by USAC; change the date to yours.

Which benefits the National Verifier confirms automatically depends on the state. Medicaid, public housing and veterans pensions are checked through federal connections everywhere USAC lists; SNAP is checked automatically in some states only, such as Florida, Georgia and Pennsylvania, and needs a document in others, such as California and New York. The documents checklist lists what each route requires, and the step-by-step guide walks through the application.

Lifeline in numbers

USAC also publishes, month by month, how many subscribers each company claimed. For June 2026, the latest month with nearly complete claims when this site read the data on October 27, 2026, the total was 7,641,862 households. Five places account for a large share of them:

California’s lead comes partly from its own program, California LifeLine, which adds a state discount on top of the federal one and accepts more benefits, such as WIC and the school lunch program. The state-by-state page gives the figures for every state, and the pages for California, Texas, Florida and New York go into their own rules.

After the ACP: what is left

From 2021 to 2024 the Affordable Connectivity Program paid up to $30 a month toward internet service, $75 on Tribal lands, and a one-time $100 toward a laptop or tablet. It stopped taking new households on February 8, 2024, April 2024 was its last fully funded month, and it ended on June 1, 2024 because Congress did not add funding, as USAC records. Lifeline was never part of that ending: it is funded by the Universal Service Fund and continues. The ACP page and the Lifeline versus ACP comparison show what the change costs a household and what to do now.

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