College net price calculator
Cost of attendance minus grants and scholarships: what a year really costs.
All amounts are example inputs, not figures for any college — take yours from the award letter or the college's net price calculator. Loans and work-study do not lower the net price.
How the net price is worked out
The formula is one line: net price = cost of attendance − grants and scholarships. The cost of attendance (COA) is the sum of five yearly parts: tuition and required fees, housing and food, books and supplies, transportation, and personal expenses. Grants and scholarships are money you do not repay, from four possible sources: the federal government (Pell and similar grants), your state, the college, and outside organizations. Where the grants are larger than the COA the net price is shown as zero. For several years, the calculator raises the COA by the cost change you enter and the grants by the grant change you enter, year by year.
Worked example
With the form's example numbers, tuition and fees of $24,000, housing and food of $13,000, books of $1,000, transportation of $1,200 and personal expenses of $2,500 make a cost of attendance of $41,700. Grants of $4,000 (federal), $1,500 (state) and $9,000 (college) come to $14,500. The net price is $41,700 − $14,500 = $27,200 a year, which is $2,267 a month. If costs rise 3% a year and the grants stay the same, four years add up to $116,457 instead of $108,800. These are teaching numbers; they are not the prices of any college.
The gap after your family's share
The net price is not the same as what you have to find in cash. The three boxes below the grants show how the remainder could be met: what the family can pay each year, the loans offered, and work-study. In the example they total $15,500, so $11,700 a year is still uncovered. This is the quick check to run on every award letter: add up the grants first, then see whether the family's share, loans and work-study really cover what is left. If they do not, the gap is a cost you will meet with extra borrowing, a cheaper housing plan or a different college.
Common mistakes
Comparing sticker prices. A college that costs $41,700 before aid and one that costs less before aid cannot be compared until grants are subtracted. Counting loans as aid. An award letter often adds grants, loans and work-study into one "total aid" figure; only the grants reduce the net price. Assuming year-one grants repeat. Some scholarships end after the first year or need a minimum grade point average, and tuition usually rises, so a flat grant makes later years more expensive. Forgetting that the COA is an estimate. The school sets average allowances for housing, transportation and personal costs; your real spending can differ. The published College Navigator average also leaves out outside scholarships and describes earlier students, not you.
Frequently asked questions
What does net price mean?
Net price is what a year of college costs after grants and scholarships — money you do not repay — are taken off the cost of attendance. The U.S. Department of Education's definition for the net price calculators that colleges must post is exactly that: cost of attendance minus grant and scholarship aid. Loans and work-study are not subtracted, because a loan has to be repaid and work-study has to be earned. With the example numbers the cost of attendance is $41,700 and the grants are $14,500, so the net price is $27,200, or 65.2% of the cost.
What is in the cost of attendance?
The Federal Student Aid Handbook (2026–27, volume 3, chapter 2) lists the parts a school builds its cost of attendance from: tuition and fees, books, course materials, supplies and equipment, transportation, miscellaneous personal expenses, and room and board (housing and food), plus some less common items such as costs for a student with a disability or for dependent care. The school normally uses average figures for students with the same workload, not your own receipts, and the transportation allowance cannot include the purchase of a vehicle. Your real spending can be higher or lower, so use the school's published numbers for a comparison and your own for a personal budget.
Which grants should I enter?
Enter money that does not have to be paid back: Pell and other federal grants, state grants, grants and scholarships from the college itself, and private (outside) scholarships. Do not enter Direct Loans, parent PLUS loans, private loans or work-study; those go in their own boxes. If you are unsure whether an offer is a grant, read the award letter: grants and scholarships are listed apart from loans. A grant that needs a minimum grade point average or credit load can shrink or vanish later, which is why the form has a "grants change per year" box. Trying a 10% yearly drop with the example numbers raises the four-year net price from $116,457 to $124,592.
Why is my net price different from the one on College Navigator?
The figure published on College Navigator (National Center for Education Statistics) is an average for full-time beginning undergraduates who paid in-state or in-district tuition and were awarded grant or scholarship aid. It subtracts federal, state or local government, and institutional grants and scholarships from a cost of attendance that uses published tuition and required fees, books and supplies, and weighted averages for food, housing and other expenses. It does not include outside scholarships and it describes past students, not you. A college's own net price calculator, which every college in the federal aid programs that enrolls first-time, full-time undergraduates must post, asks about your income and family and is the better estimate for your case.
How do I use the result to compare colleges?
Fill in one column of numbers per college from its award letter or net price calculator and compare the net price per year and over four years, not the sticker price. The example shows why: before grants the same college costs $41,700 a year, and after $14,500 of grants $27,200. Then look at what is left after your family's share: here $15,500 ($8,000 from the family, $5,500 in loans and $2,000 of work-study) leaves $11,700 a year uncovered. A college with a higher sticker price can have a lower net price, and one with lower borrowing is not always the cheaper one, because borrowed money costs interest later.
Does an outside scholarship lower my net price?
Yes in this calculator: outside scholarships are grants, so $3,000 a year of them lowers the example net price from $27,200 to $24,200. In real life, check the school's policy first. The school may reduce its own grant when an outside award arrives (sometimes called scholarship displacement), and federal rules cap the total aid for several programs at the cost of attendance, so the saving may be smaller than the award. Ask the financial aid office in writing how outside awards are treated before you rely on one.
An estimate for planning only — not financial advice; the college's award letter and net price calculator decide. Sources, checked October 28, 2026: National Center for Education Statistics, Net Price Calculator Information Center (net price is cost of attendance minus grant and scholarship aid; required elements of a college's calculator) and the average net price definition on College Navigator pages; Federal Student Aid Handbook 2026–27, volume 3, chapter 2 (cost of attendance). College Board data are not used. Related: the college savings calculator, student loan calculator, student aid index calculator and work-study earnings calculator. How we check our calculators.