VA Disability Calculator

"VA math" is the everyday name for the combined ratings table in 38 CFR 4.25. It exists because VA treats a veteran as a whole person who can be at most 100% disabled, so every additional rating can only reduce the efficiency that is still left. This page walks through that arithmetic with real numbers, shows how the bilateral factor works for paired arms and legs, and turns the final rating into a monthly payment using VA's 2026 compensation tables, including the extra amounts for a spouse, children and dependent parents.

Two related tools cover the money around it. The Military Retirement Calculator estimates High-3 and BRS retired pay, which VA compensation can offset, and the GS Pay Calculator shows civilian federal salaries for veterans who move into a General Schedule job after service.

How VA math combines disability ratings

VA does not add percentages. It starts from 100% efficiency, takes away the highest rating, and then applies each lower rating to whatever efficiency remains. The regulation gives its own illustration: a veteran with a 60% disability is considered 40% efficient, and a further 30% disability removes 30% of that 40%, leaving 28% efficiency, so the veteran is 72% disabled. For any two values the rule can be written as a formula:

A is the combined value so far (the highest rating at the start) and B is the next rating in order of severity. Table I in the regulation is this formula worked out in advance, with every intermediate result rounded to a whole number and halves rounded up; the calculator above reproduces all 684 cells of that table exactly. The conversion to a multiple of 10 happens only once, after the last rating has been combined. That single rounding step is why two veterans with combined values of 64 and 65 end up at 60% and 70%.

Worked example: 70%, 40% and 20%

A veteran has three service-connected conditions rated at 70%, 40% and 20%, none of them on a limb, and no dependents.

1. Start with 70%. The remaining efficiency is 30%.
2. Combine 40%: 40% of the remaining 30 is 12, so 70 + 12 = 82.
3. Combine 20%: 20% of the remaining 18 is 3.6, so 82 + 3.6 = 85.6, rounded to 86.
4. Round once: 86 goes to the nearest multiple of 10, which is 90%.

The 2026 rate for a veteran alone at 90% is $2,362.30 a month, or $28,347.60 over 12 payments. Notice how much the shrinking base matters: the 20% rating added only 3.6 points because it applied to the last 18% of efficiency. Had the same conditions produced a combined value of 84 instead of 86, they would pay at the 80% rate.

The bilateral factor, with a second worked example

38 CFR 4.26 adds a bonus when disabilities affect both arms, both legs or paired skeletal muscles. VA first combines the left-side and right-side ratings with each other, then adds 10% of that combined value (adds, not combines) before doing anything else. The result counts as one disability and takes its place in the order of severity. The factor applies only when each side of the pair has a compensable rating, meaning at least 10%.

Take a veteran rated 50% for a mental health condition, 20% for the right knee and 10% for the left knee, who is married with one child under 18:

1. Combine the knees: 20 and 10 give 28.
2. Add the bilateral factor: 10% of 28 is 2.8, so 28 + 2.8 = 30.8, rounded to 31.
3. Order by severity: 50, then 31. Combine: 31% of the remaining 50 is 15.5, so 50 + 15.5 = 65.5, rounded to 66.
4. Round once: 66 becomes 70%.

Without the bilateral factor the same three ratings combine to 64, which rounds down to 60%. With a spouse and one child the 2026 rate is $2,074.45 at 70% against $1,663.02 at 60%, a difference of $411.43 a month or $4,937.16 a year. This is why the calculator asks whether each rating belongs to a left or right arm or leg. Two disabilities on the same leg do not trigger the factor, and neither does a pair where one side is rated 0%.

When VA leaves the bilateral factor out

Because the bilateral factor bundles two small ratings into one larger one, it can backfire close to 100%. VA documented the problem in an interim final rule published in April 2023 and added paragraph (d) to 38 CFR 4.26: if leaving one or more bilateral disabilities out of the factor produces a higher combined evaluation, VA combines them separately instead. The Federal Register notice described a veteran whose other ratings combine to 93, plus two 10% ratings on paired limbs. Ratings of 90% and 30% are one way to reach 93, and the "2023 exception case" button loads exactly that:

1. Ratings of 90% and 30% combine to 93. Two 10% ratings, one on each leg, would form a bilateral value of 21 (19 plus 1.9 is 20.9).
2. With the factor: 93 combined with 21 is 94.47, rounded to 94, which converts down to 90%.
3. Without it: 93 combined with 10 is 93.7 (94), and 94 combined with 10 is 94.6 (95), which converts up to 100%.

For a veteran alone that is the difference between $2,362.30 and $3,938.58 a month. The calculator tests every permitted way of leaving bilateral ratings out, keeps the most favorable result and tells you when the exception made the difference. VA found that the factor can lower a rating only around the low 90s, which is why it added the exception instead of abolishing the factor.

Why ten 10% ratings do not make 100%

Each extra rating works on a smaller remaining base, so small ratings add less and less. The table stacks identical 10% ratings and computes each line with the same whole-number rounding VA uses.

Ten separate 10% ratings combine to 65, which rounds to 70%, and an 11th and 12th rating only push the value to 69 and 72, still 70%. Four 10% ratings are an especially awkward case: their combined value of 34 rounds down to 30%, the same as three. A long list of minor conditions usually pays far less than the sum suggests, while one higher rating moves the result much further.

Final rating for any two ratings

For the common case of exactly two service-connected conditions, this grid gives the final rating directly. Find one rating in the left column and the other across the top; the result is the same either way round.

A few combinations are worth remembering. Two 50% ratings combine to 75 and round up to 80%. A 70% and a 10% combine to 73 and stay at 70%. With only two ratings, 100% takes a 90% plus at least 50%, or two ratings of 80%; a 90% with a 40% reaches 94 and stays at 90%.

VA disability pay chart for 2026

VA pays compensation monthly. The rates below took effect on December 1, 2025, after the 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment that matched Social Security's increase for 2026. At 10% and 20% everyone receives the same flat amount; from 30% upward the rate depends on who you support. VA publishes the amounts in separate tables for 10% to 20%, 30% to 60% and 70% to 100%. In the chart below, "with spouse" assumes no children or dependent parents, and "spouse + 1 child" assumes the child is under 18.

The steps are uneven. Moving from 90% to 100% adds $1,576.28 a month for a veteran alone, more than the entire 50% rate, because 100% is the level for total disability. The yearly column multiplies the current monthly rate by 12; in practice the next cost-of-living adjustment takes effect each December 1.

How dependents raise your monthly payment

Dependents add to the payment only when the combined rating is 30% or higher, a threshold set by law in 38 U.S.C. 1115. VA's tables build the payment in two layers: a basic rate that already covers a spouse, up to two dependent parents and one child under 18, plus added amounts for each further child, each child aged 18 to 23 in a qualifying school program, and a spouse who receives Aid and Attendance.

• Spouse: at 30% a spouse adds $65.00 a month; at 100% the spouse adds $219.59.
• Children under 18: the first child is part of the basic rate, and each additional child adds a fixed amount, $87.00 at 80%.
• Children 18 to 23 in school: always paid at the school-child amount, $281.00 at 80%, and never counted as the first child in the basic rate.
• Dependent parents: up to two, each with their own rows in VA's table.
• Aid and Attendance for a spouse: an added amount, $161.00 at 80%.

Worked example: a veteran rated 80% has a spouse, two children aged 9 and 14, and a 19-year-old in college. The basic rate for a veteran with a spouse and one child is $2,406.15, the second child under 18 adds $87.00, and the college student adds $281.00, for $2,774.15 a month or $33,289.80 a year. Counting the student as just another child under 18 would understate the payment by $194.00 a month. VA's rate page builds its own example the same layered way: a 70% veteran with a spouse, three children under 18 and a spouse receiving Aid and Attendance receives $2,074.45 + $76.00 + $76.00 + $141.00 = $2,367.45.

How to use this calculator

1. Enter each rating separately. Use the individual ratings from your decision letter or your VA.gov profile, one per row, not the combined rating you already have.
2. Mark arm and leg ratings. For a disability of an arm or leg, choose the side. The calculator finds left and right pairs and applies the bilateral factor automatically.
3. Add dependents. Tick the spouse box, count children under 18 and children 18 to 23 in school, and choose the number of dependent parents.
4. Read the results. The headline is your combined rating, followed by the monthly and yearly payment, the VA math step by step, an itemized payment table and your payment at every rating from 10% to 100%.

The "Try" buttons load the examples from this page. To test a claim for increase, change one rating at a time and watch whether the combined value crosses the next threshold, shown in the "Next rating needs" tile: a value of 75 for 80%, 85 for 90% and 95 for 100%.

Who this calculator is for

Veterans use it to check whether a decision letter adds up and to see what a higher rating on one condition would actually change. Spouses and family members use the payment ladder to budget around a monthly amount that changes with each child's age. Service members close to separation can enter the ratings they expect to receive and plan transition income next to the Military Pay Calculator and the TSP Calculator. Accredited representatives and veterans service officers use the step-by-step breakdown to explain VA math in a way that matches the regulation line by line.

Key terms

• Disability rating: the percentage VA assigns to one service-connected condition under the rating schedule, from 0% to 100% in steps of 10.
• Combined rating: the single rating that results from combining all ratings with Table I; it sets the payment.
• Combined value: the whole-number result before the final conversion to a multiple of 10.
• Efficiency: 100 minus the combined value, the part of the whole person not yet rated as disabled.
• Bilateral factor: the extra 10% added to the combined value of paired arm, leg or skeletal muscle ratings.
• Compensable: rated at 10% or more, so the condition pays compensation on its own.
• Noncompensable (0%): service connected but rated 0%; it pays nothing and leaves the combined value unchanged.
• School child: an unmarried child aged 18 to 23 in a qualifying school program, paid at a separate rate.
• Aid and Attendance (spouse): an added amount when a spouse needs regular help with daily activities or lives in a nursing home.
• COLA: the cost-of-living adjustment VA applies every December 1, matching Social Security.

What changes your result

• Order of severity. Ratings are combined from highest to lowest. The calculator sorts them, so the order in which you type them does not matter.
• Thresholds ending in 5. A combined value of 64 pays at 60% and 65 pays at 70%, so one point can be worth a full rating level.
• Bilateral pairs. A compensable rating on both sides of a pair adds the 10% factor, so choosing the correct side matters.
• Dependents and their ages. A child turning 18 drops out of the payment unless VA approves school attendance, after which the school-child amount applies until 23.
• The rate year. All amounts change every December 1 with the cost-of-living adjustment.

Scenario: which claim would raise the rating? Start from the bilateral example above: 50%, a 20% right knee and a 10% left knee, a combined value of 66 paid at 70%. A new 10% condition lifts the value only to 69, and a new 20% condition to 73, both still 70%. Raising the left knee to 20% gives a bilateral value of 40 and a combined value of 70; raising the right knee to 30% gives 71. None of these reaches the 75 needed for 80%. Raising the main condition from 50% to 70% does (79), and so does a new condition rated 30% (76). At 80% with a spouse and one child the payment rises from $2,074.45 to $2,406.15 a month. Each version takes a few seconds to test in the calculator above.

Limitations and related calculators

This is an estimate of the standard schedular calculation. It does not model special monthly compensation, total disability based on individual unemployability (38 CFR 4.16), temporary 100% ratings during hospitalization or convalescence, the amputation rule in 38 CFR 4.68 that caps the combined rating for one limb, or the reduction of military retired pay by VA compensation and the CRDP and CRSC programs that restore it. It does not estimate back pay or effective dates either, and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation for surviving spouses and children is a separate benefit with its own rate tables. VA's rating decision remains the only authoritative number.

• For High-3 and Blended Retirement System pensions, use the Military Retirement Calculator.
• For a civilian federal job after service, use the GS Pay Calculator and, for the pension that comes with it, the FERS Retirement Calculator.
• For a home purchase with your VA entitlement, use the VA Loan Calculator.
• To fit a tax-free monthly payment into a household plan, use the Budget Calculator.

Sources

• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Current Veterans disability compensation rates (all monthly amounts, effective December 1, 2025).
• Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, 38 CFR 4.25, Combined ratings table.
• Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, 38 CFR 4.26, Bilateral factor (including the exception in paragraph (d)).
• Federal Register, Exceptions to Applying the Bilateral Factor in VA Disability Calculations, 88 FR 22914 (April 14, 2023).
• U.S. Code, 38 U.S.C. 1115, Additional compensation for dependents.
• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Add or remove dependents on your VA benefits (who counts as a dependent child).
• Internal Revenue Service, Publication 525 (2025), Taxable and Nontaxable Income (veterans' benefits).
• Social Security Administration, Social Security Announces 2.8 Percent Benefit Increase for 2026.