Texas Spousal Maintenance — Ceiling Checker
Texas court-ordered maintenance is narrow, eligibility-gated and factor-based inside a hard statutory ceiling. This tool shows the ceiling only — never a predicted award. A court may award far less, or nothing, on the factors. (Contractual alimony agreed in settlement is different and is not subject to these cap/duration limits.)
Ceiling — lesser of $5,000/month or 20% of gross income
Monthly maintenance may not exceed the lesser of $5,000 or 20% of the obligor's average monthly gross income (§8.055(a)). Gross income is broadly defined (wages, commissions, overtime, tips, bonuses, interest/dividends/royalties, self-employment, net rental, retirement, etc.) and excludes Social Security, SSI, VA service-connected disability, workers' compensation, TANF/federal public assistance, foster-care payments, return of principal/capital and accounts receivable. Illustrations only: payer gross $15,000/month → 20% = $3,000, so the ceiling is $3,000/month; payer gross $30,000/month → 20% = $6,000, so the ceiling is $5,000/month.
Eligibility gate (§8.051) — all must be met
(1) The spouse will lack sufficient property to provide for minimum reasonable needs after divorce, and (2) one of: marriage of 10 years or more plus inability to earn sufficient income; incapacitating physical/mental disability; custodian of a child of the marriage (any age) whose disability prevents sufficient earnings; or the other spouse was convicted of or received deferred adjudication for family violence against the requesting spouse or their child within 2 years before filing or while the case was pending. Income difference alone is not enough.
Amount factors and maximum durations (§§8.052, 8.054)
Within the ceiling, the amount is set on factors including each spouse's financial resources, education/employment history, marriage length, age/health/earning ability, childcare effects, contributions to the other's education/career, homemaker contributions, time/feasibility of training, waste/dissipation of community property, property brought to the marriage, marital misconduct (including adultery/cruelty), and family-violence history. Maximum durations (ceilings, not defaults — the court must order the shortest reasonable period to reach self-support unless disability/infant-care/compelling impediment applies): under-10-year marriage (family-violence path only) 5 years; 10–under 20 years 5 years; 20–under 30 years 7 years; 30+ years 10 years; disability-based: as long as eligibility continues, subject to periodic review. Maintenance ends on the death of either spouse or the recipient's remarriage; cohabitation with a dating/romantic partner in a permanent residence on a continuing basis also ends it after a hearing.
Sources: Texas Family Code Ch. 8, §§8.051, 8.052, 8.054, 8.055. §8.055 · §8.054
Common mistakes
- Treating the ceiling as the award. A ceiling is the most a court can order under the cap; the actual amount, if any, is set on the statutory factors and may be far lower, or zero.
- Forgetting the eligibility or duration limits. Texas maintenance requires an eligibility gate (including, in the main route, a marriage of at least 10 years plus inability to earn sufficient income, or a disability or family-violence ground). Massachusetts and Florida duration caps also limit how long any award can run, regardless of amount.
- Assuming permanent alimony still exists in Florida. Permanent alimony was abolished for petitions filed on or after 1 July 2023. Pre-existing permanent awards were not automatically converted — that nuance matters and is flagged on the Florida page.
How courts deviate from the guideline
A guideline figure is a presumption, not a guarantee. Courts commonly depart where the guideline would be unjust or inappropriate on the facts: a child's proven needs or special expenses, a parent's other obligations, hardship, high or very low income, shared-care arrangements that change real costs, and tax or benefit effects the formula does not capture. Where a court deviates, it generally must explain why and state the guideline figure it departed from. That is why every calculator on this site shows its formula and its cap: you can see what the court starts from, even if the final order differs.
For ceiling states, the factors do all the work: need, earning capacity, standard of living, contributions, health and age, and the other statutory factors in that jurisdiction. The checker shows the boundary; the court decides the point inside it.
When to hire a lawyer
An estimate is a starting point, not a strategy. Talk to a licensed attorney in the relevant jurisdiction before you rely on a figure if any of these apply: custody is disputed; there is a business, professional practice or complex property to value; retirement accounts, stock or deferred compensation are involved; either parent's income is disputed, imputed or largely non-cash; a child has special needs or disability; support is above a statutory cap; or the other party already has a lawyer. A lawyer can also advise on deviation factors, add-ons and enforcement in that jurisdiction — none of which a guideline calculator can decide. This site cannot recommend a specific lawyer and does not take referral fees.
Frequently asked questions
These questions are shown on the page in full. They are not marked up as FAQ structured data.
Is there a Texas alimony formula?
No. Texas has only a ceiling — the lesser of $5,000 a month or 20% of average monthly gross income — with the amount set on statutory factors inside it.
Who can get Texas maintenance?
Only a spouse who meets the §8.051 gate: insufficient property for minimum reasonable needs plus one of the listed grounds. Income difference alone is not enough.
What is the maximum Texas maintenance duration?
5 years (under 20-year marriages), 7 years (20–under 30), 10 years (30+), or as long as disability eligibility continues for disability-based cases.
Why does this page not give me a single alimony number?
Because the law in this jurisdiction gives only a ceiling and factors, not a formula. Publishing a single number would invent precision the law does not contain.
Can the ceiling ever be exceeded?
Not under the cap itself. A court orders within the ceiling; the factors decide where inside it, if anywhere, the award falls.
Change log
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| October 2026 | Initial build: formula, cap and worked examples from official sources, dated October 2026. |
| October 2026 | Remediation pass: FAQPage structured data removed and replaced with BreadcrumbList plus WebApplication/Article schema; visible FAQ added; navigation replaced with three hub pages and same-jurisdiction Related links; author byline and author box added; clean folder URLs. No calculator formula, cap or worked-example figure was changed in this pass. |
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