Ohio Child Support Calculator (2026)
Estimate monthly child support under Ohio’s official income-shares guidelines. Enter both parents’ annual incomes and this tool applies the full JFS 07767 Basic Child Support Guideline Schedule, splits the obligation by income share, applies the self-sufficiency reserve check and the 10% parenting-time reduction, and adds child care, health insurance and cash medical support.
Calculate Ohio Child Support
Yearly income before taxes. Use the parent you expect to pay support, or either parent — the higher earner is treated as the paying parent. If you pay court-ordered spousal support, or support other children, enter your income after those adjustments (see below).
Nights the children sleep at the paying parent’s home under the court order. At 90 or more overnights, Ohio law takes 10% off the paying parent’s obligation.
Work-related child care for these children, per year. Enter the cost after any subsidies or tax credits — and note Ohio caps the countable cost per child by age (see the caps below).
The yearly out-of-pocket premium for the part of coverage that covers the children.
How to read this: the paying parent (the higher earner) owes their income share of the basic obligation — checked against the self-sufficiency reserve and reduced by 10% at 90 or more overnights — plus their share of child care, health insurance and cash medical. Cash medical support ($510.21 per child per year) is a separate part of an Ohio order; it applies when the children are not covered by private health insurance, so if the children are covered, a court may not add that line.
How Ohio Calculates Child Support
Ohio uses an income-shares model (Ohio Rev. Code Chapter 3119). The guidelines estimate what parents living together would spend on their children at their combined income level, then divide that amount between the parents in proportion to income. Under ORC 3119.02 and the sole/shared parenting worksheet (JFS 07768), the calculation runs:
- Find each parent’s adjusted annual gross income. Ohio works from gross income — income from all sources, with taxes not deducted — then applies specific worksheet adjustments, such as court-ordered spousal support actually paid and a credit for other children the parent must support (ORC 3119.01, 3119.05).
- Add the two incomes together to get the combined annual income.
- Look up the basic child support obligation on the JFS 07767 guideline schedule, using the combined income and the number of children. For an income between two schedule rows, the court may use the higher row, the lower row, or a proportionally interpolated amount (ORC 3119.05(G)(2)) — this calculator interpolates.
- Split the obligation by income share. A parent with 65% of the combined income is responsible for 65% of the basic obligation.
- Apply the self-sufficiency reserve check. A parent’s obligation is capped at the schedule amount for that parent’s own income alone, so a low-income parent is never charged more than the guideline amount for their own earnings (worksheet Line 18).
- Apply the parenting-time reduction if it applies: a court-ordered parenting time order of 90 or more overnights a year cuts the paying parent’s obligation by 10% (ORC 3119.051).
- Add the paying parent’s share of extra costs: work-related child care, the children’s health insurance premium, and cash medical support of $510.21 per child per year.
Basic obligation = JFS 07767 schedule amount for combined income and number of children
Base support = lower of (payer’s share × basic obligation) or (schedule amount at payer’s own income), at least $960/year
Monthly support = (base − 10% if 90+ overnights) + payer’s share of child care, health premium and cash medical, divided by 12
Worked Example: $62,400 and $33,600 Annual Incomes, 2 Children
| Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Combined annual income | $62,400 + $33,600 | $96,000/yr |
| Basic obligation (schedule, 2 children) | JFS 07767 row for $96,000 combined income | $19,283/yr |
| Parent A income share | $62,400 ÷ $96,000 | 65.00% |
| Share of basic obligation | 65.00% × $19,283 | $12,533.95/yr |
| Self-sufficiency reserve check | Schedule amount at Parent A’s own $62,400 income is $13,646 — higher, so the share amount stands | $12,533.95/yr |
| Base support | $12,533.95 ÷ 12 (73 overnights — no 10% reduction) | $1,044.50/mo |
| Child care (payer’s share) | 65.00% × $6,000 ÷ 12 | $325.00/mo |
| Health insurance (payer’s share) | 65.00% × $3,000 ÷ 12 | $162.50/mo |
| Cash medical (payer’s share) | 65.00% × (2 × $510.21) ÷ 12 | $55.27/mo |
| Estimated support | $1,044.50 + $325.00 + $162.50 + $55.27 | $1,587.27/mo |
Ohio Basic Child Support Guideline Schedule (Excerpt)
This excerpt reproduces rows of the official JFS 07767 schedule (Rev. 6/2023), exactly as published — the calculator above uses the complete schedule, all 547 rows from $8,400 to $336,000 of combined annual income in $600 steps, and interpolates in a straight line between rows. Amounts are the total annual basic obligation for both parents combined, before the income split.
| Combined Annual Income | 1 Child | 2 Children | 3 Children | 4 Children | 5 Children | 6 Children |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $8,400 | $960 | $960 | $960 | $960 | $960 | $960 |
| $12,000 | $1,140 | $1,320 | $1,392 | $1,428 | $1,464 | $1,500 |
| $18,000 | $1,440 | $1,920 | $2,112 | $2,208 | $2,304 | $2,400 |
| $24,000 | $2,126 | $2,520 | $2,832 | $2,988 | $3,144 | $3,300 |
| $30,000 | $3,926 | $3,926 | $3,926 | $3,926 | $3,984 | $4,200 |
| $36,000 | $5,726 | $5,726 | $5,726 | $5,726 | $5,726 | $5,726 |
| $48,000 | $8,154 | $9,326 | $9,326 | $9,326 | $9,326 | $9,326 |
| $60,000 | $9,937 | $12,926 | $12,926 | $12,926 | $12,926 | $12,926 |
| $75,000 | $11,585 | $17,403 | $17,426 | $17,426 | $17,426 | $17,426 |
| $90,000 | $12,570 | $18,770 | $21,926 | $21,926 | $21,926 | $21,926 |
| $120,000 | $14,594 | $21,736 | $25,629 | $28,627 | $30,926 | $30,926 |
| $150,000 | $16,145 | $24,019 | $28,286 | $31,596 | $34,757 | $37,780 |
| $180,000 | $18,276 | $27,118 | $31,858 | $35,572 | $39,128 | $42,534 |
| $240,000 | $22,045 | $32,704 | $38,466 | $42,899 | $47,190 | $51,295 |
| $300,000 | $24,205 | $35,794 | $41,895 | $46,795 | $51,475 | $55,953 |
| $336,000 | $25,697 | $37,955 | $44,364 | $49,556 | $54,511 | $59,254 |
Notice how the amounts run flat across the child columns at lower incomes — at $36,000 every column reads $5,726. That is the self-sufficiency reserve doing its work (see below), not a misprint. Above the top of the schedule, ORC 3119.04 requires the basic obligation to be no less than the amount at the $336,000 maximum, with the actual figure set case-by-case.
Parenting Time: the 90-Overnights Reduction
Ohio’s guideline contains exactly one parenting-time adjustment. Under ORC 3119.051, when a court has issued (or is issuing) a parenting time order that gives a parent 90 or more overnights per year with the children, that parent’s annual support obligation is reduced by 10%. The reduction is flat — 90 overnights and 180 overnights produce the same 10% — and it can be taken away later if the parent, without just cause, does not actually exercise the ordered time.
There is no sliding scale beyond that in the guideline itself. In shared-parenting cases, where both parents have substantial time, the sole/shared worksheet runs the calculation for each parent and the parents’ obligations are offset against each other, and a court may also deviate from the guideline amount for extended parenting time (ORC 3119.23, 3119.231). Those mechanics depend on the full parenting plan, so this calculator applies the 10% reduction only, and shared-parenting results should be treated as a rougher estimate.
The Self-Sufficiency Reserve and the $80 Minimum Order
Ohio protects low-income parents in two ways. First, a self-sufficiency reserve is built into the schedule itself: under ORC 3119.021(B)(2) it is based on 116% of the federal poverty level for a single person, and it is the reason schedule amounts flatten at lower incomes — a parent is not expected to pay support out of the income the reserve sets aside for their own basic needs. The worksheet adds a second protection (ORC 3119.05(G), worksheet Line 18): each parent’s obligation is the lower of their income share of the combined schedule amount, or the schedule amount computed on that parent’s income alone — subject to a floor of $960 per year. This calculator applies both protections.
Second, ORC 3119.06 sets a minimum order of $80 per month for all the children in an order. The minimum is not absolute: a court or child support enforcement agency may order less, or nothing, in appropriate circumstances — for example where the paying parent has a medically verified disability or is institutionalized — and a current obligation is suspended while the obligor receives means-tested public assistance and complies with any seek-work order.
Child Care Caps, Health Insurance and Cash Medical Support
Child care. Work- or employment-training-related child care costs are shared between the parents by income share (ORC 3119.05(P)) — but only the part that is verifiable, not reimbursed or subsidized, and not offset by a child care tax credit. The cost also may not exceed the maximum statewide average cost estimates in the guideline manual, which depend on each child’s age:
| Child’s Age | Maximum Countable Child Care Cost (per year) |
|---|---|
| Infant (birth through 17 months) | $16,116 |
| Toddler (18 through 35 months) | $14,254 |
| Preschool (3 through 5 years) | $12,801 |
| School-age (6 through 12 years) | $8,780 |
This calculator does not ask for children’s ages, so it uses the child care figure you enter as-is — if your costs run above the cap for a child’s age group, trim the entry to the capped amount for a closer estimate.
Health insurance. The children’s share of a health insurance premium is allocated between the parents by income share. Coverage counts as reasonable in cost — and a parent generally cannot be ordered to provide it beyond this point — if the cost of covering the children does not exceed 5% of that parent’s gross income (ORC 3119.302). This calculator splits the premium you enter by income share; it does not ask which parent pays the premium, and the worksheet’s credit for the parent who actually pays it can shift the final numbers.
Cash medical support. Every Ohio order also addresses cash medical support: a fixed $510.21 per child per year (two children $1,020.42, three $1,530.63, and so on — JFS 07766, Table 3), split between the parents by income share. It is the paying parent’s contribution toward ordinary, uninsured medical costs, and it is ordered when the children are not covered by private health insurance.
What This Calculator Simplifies
The full Ohio worksheet handles situations this estimator does not. It uses the gross incomes you enter as each parent’s adjusted income — if you pay court-ordered spousal support, support children from another relationship, or have mandatory deductions the worksheet recognizes, enter your income after those adjustments for a closer result. It applies the sole-parenting worksheet only: split-parenting cases (each parent has custody of at least one child) use a different worksheet, and shared-parenting orders offset both parents’ obligations rather than charging one parent. It does not subtract derivative benefits a child receives from a parent’s claim, does not apply the extra worksheet rule that can cap a reserve-level parent’s child care share at 50% of the cost, and does not model deviations, which only a court can grant.
