What Is the Pell Grant?

For over 50 years, Pell Grants have helped millions of college students afford a college education.

The Pell Grant program, established in 1972, has helped roughly 6.1 million students yearly since 2020. The need-based scholarship has been a bipartisan priority for much of its history, with politicians on both sides of the aisle consistently appropriating funds to keep the program alive.

Still, despite continued investment, the purchasing power of the Pell Grant has waned in recent decades.

Read on to learn what a Pell Grant is and how you might qualify for it.

The Pell Grant program is the primary way the federal government helps subsidize the cost of college for low- and middle-income college students.

Unlike loans, students do not need to repay grants. This applies to Pell Grants, too.

Most Pell Grant recipients are undergraduate students. To qualify, you must not have already earned a bachelor’s, graduate, or professional degree. However, some students may be eligible for a Pell Grant if enrolled in a postbaccalaureate teacher certification program, according to Federal Student Aid (FSA).

There are many factors that go into determining a student’s Pell Grant eligibility. Generally, however, these grants only go to low- and middle-income students and families.

The size of a Pell Grant award also scales based on a student’s financial need.

The maximum Pell Grant award is $7,395 for the 2025-26 academic year.

The minimum Pell Grant is always approximately 10% of the maximum award. This means that for the 2025-26 academic year, the minimum Pell Grant is $740.

In 2022, the average Pell Grant award covered approximately 31% of tuition and fees.

To be eligible for a Pell Grant, you must be a U.S. citizen and enroll in a program participating in Title IV.

Once you pass those thresholds, FSA takes a closer look at your situation to determine whether you’ll receive a Pell Grant. The primary criteria FSA examines are your financial need, the type of program you’re enrolled in, the number of credits you are taking, and how well you perform academically.

Each student’s Pell Grant award is calculated based on the Student Aid Index (SAI).

The SAI is a complex formula that considers a student’s financial situation. If the student is dependent, FSA uses the student’s family’s income. If the student is independent, it considers the student’s and potential spouse’s income.

SAI also considers assets and family size to determine Pell Grant eligibility.

The overwhelming majority of Pell Grant recipients in 2022-23 were from families making less than $50,000 annually.

Pell Grants are primarily for undergraduate students.

However, students enrolled in a postbaccalaureate teacher certification program may be eligible for a Pell Grant. Workforce training programs that culminate in a certificate may also qualify for Pell, but it largely depends on the program and the state in which the institution is located.

There is a limit to how much in Pell Grants you can receive over your lifetime.

In short, you can only receive Pell Grants for six years if you are a full-time student. However, you can receive the grant for longer than six years if you were not enrolled for the full academic year or if you were enrolled less than full time.

Think of the lifetime limit as the equivalent of six years of full Pell Grant funding.

Pell Grant recipients must make satisfactory academic progress to continue to receive federal student aid.

Policies, however, vary from school to school. In general, institutions set a minimum grade-point average (GPA) you must maintain and a guideline for how quickly you should be moving toward graduation.

If you fail to meet your institution’s academic progress standards, it’s not the end of the line. Many schools allow you to appeal a decision or offer a way for you to put yourself in good standing once again.

Applying for a Pell Grant requires just one step: Submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

A FAFSA submission makes you eligible for most kinds of federal financial aid, including Pell Grants. The FAFSA collects information that helps determine your financial need and SAI, which in turn determines if you qualify for a Pell Grant and how big an award.

FAFSA forms require you to outline personal and financial information, including:

While submitting a FAFSA used to be a long, arduous process, recent changes have streamlined it. According to FSA, most people take about 30 minutes to complete the form.

The Pell Grant may help subsidize the cost of higher education for millions, but its impact has diminished in recent decades.

According to the National College Attainment Network, at its peak, the maximum Pell Grant award covered 79% of a student’s tuition, fees, and boarding costs at a public university in the mid-1970s.

Fifty years later, the max Pell covers just 31% of a student’s projected costs.

It’s for this reason that politicians and advocacy groups have proposed doubling the maximum Pell Grant award. Former President Joe Biden, while in office, put forth a plan to double Pell by 2029, but that effort quickly stalled.

A few years later, leading Republican U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx proposed a plan to double the maximum Pell Grant for many third- and fourth-year college students. This proposal also failed to gain traction in Congress.

The double Pell movement will likely remain idle for the foreseeable future.

President Donald Trump’s 2026 budget proposal called for a nearly 23% decrease in the maximum Pell Grant award, which would have further weakened the grant’s purchasing power. While this proposal hasn’t been adopted, it’s notable as this would have been the first decrease in the maximum Pell award since the 1993-94 academic year.