GIS eligibility calculator
Enter your income, marital status and whether your spouse also gets OAS. This applies the exact income cutoff for your category and the earnings exemption most GIS calculators skip, then states the income room you have left before the cutoff.
Worked example — Do you qualify for GIS at $18,000 of income, single, age 70? Eligible. $22,800 single cutoff, July to September 2026
Single, $18,000 income: Under the $22,800 single cutoff, so GIS is still payable, just not at the maximum.
Age and OAS status 2
Upper bound only, at $0 employment income on this curve. The real payable amount comes from a published rate table stepped in $24 of income ($48 for couples), which is always at or below this line.
Do you qualify for GIS at $18,000 of income?
Yes, for a single pensioner aged 65 or over who is already receiving OAS. $18,000 of countable income sits $4,800 under the $22,800 single cutoff for July to September 2026, so GIS is still payable, just not at the $1,123.17 maximum. Qualifying takes three separate things being true at once: age 65 or over, already receiving OAS, and countable income under the cutoff for your exact category. All three are checked in the calculator above, not just the income test.
GIS income cutoff by marital and OAS status
July to September 2026. Two pairs of categories share the same maximum monthly payment, but every one of the four income cutoffs is a different published number, because the cutoff also depends on whether the household is already drawing a second OAS-family benefit.
| Category | Maximum monthly | Income cutoff |
|---|---|---|
| Single, widowed or divorced | $1,123.17 | $22,800 |
| Couple, spouse also gets full OAS | $676.09 | $30,096 |
| Couple, spouse gets the Allowance | $676.09 | $42,144 |
| Couple, spouse gets neither OAS nor the Allowance | $1,123.17 | $54,624 |
GIS calculator: single vs couple, same household income
The identical $26,000 of income (excluding OAS), tested against a single cutoff and a couple's cutoff. The couple category used here is both partners drawing a full OAS pension, which has the lower of the three couple cutoffs.
| Household | Income cutoff | Result at $26,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Single | $22,800 | Not eligible |
| Couple, both on full OAS | $30,096 | Eligible |
A single pensioner at $26,000 is already over the $22,800 cutoff. The same $26,000 as a couple's combined income is still $4,096 under the $30,096 couple cutoff, because it is being tested as household income against a threshold set for two people, not one.
How employment income is discounted before the GIS test
The first $5,000 of employment or self-employment income is ignored entirely, and the next $10,000 counts at half. Nothing else gets this treatment: CPP, workplace pensions, RRIF withdrawals and investment income all count against the cutoff from the first dollar.
| Scenario | Gross income | Countable income | Room remaining |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10,000 other income + $8,000 employment | $18,000 | $11,500 | $11,300 |
| $18,000 other income, no employment | $18,000 | $18,000 | $4,800 |
Same $18,000 gross either way. Of the $8,000 earned from work, only $1,500 counts: $5,000 is fully exempt and the remaining $3,000 is counted at half. That leaves $6,500 more income room than the same gross amount would leave if it all came from a source with no exemption.
This checks eligibility and income room, not the payable amount: the real GIS payment comes from a published rate table stepped in $24 of income ($48 for couples) plus a top-up that phases out on its own schedule, which is not modelled here. It also does not cover the Allowance or the Allowance for the Survivor (ages 60 to 64), or a partial OAS pension. Check what OAS itself pays first with a partial pension in mind before using this page's income figures.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure above is published by Employment and Social Development Canada for July to September 2026, and was checked against a second independent source on 2026-08-08. GIS amounts are revisited every January, April, July and October; a re-verification after that cadence should update the quarter label and every number together rather than leaving one stale beside fresh figures.
- Service Canada - Guaranteed Income Supplement amounts GIS maximums and income cutoffs for all four categories, and the earnings exemption
- WOWA - Guaranteed Income Supplement tables independent quarter-by-quarter GIS series, used to separate H2 2026 from H1 2026
- Pension Solutions Canada - GIS income exemptions the $5,000 full and next-$10,000 half earnings exemption structure
This is general publishing, not tax or benefits advice, and it does not know your circumstances. Your own GIS entitlement is on your Service Canada My Account, which is the number that governs.
The next question after this one
OAS clawback calculatorCalculatorThe other end of the same income test: OAS clawback starts around $93,454, GIS disappears around $22,800. Together they cover where every dollar of retirement income actually lands.Open nextOther questions
- RRIF minimum withdrawal calculatorCalculatorA RRIF withdrawal counts against the GIS test from the first dollar, with none of the earnings exemption this page applies to employment income.
- Retirement calculatorCalculatorGIS eligibility is a snapshot of one year. This projects the income that determines it, year by year.
All 130 calculatorsHow JMM sources and checks its numbersWhat stays free, and what early access would add
What Pro adds here
The real GIS payment from the rate table, the Allowance and Allowance for the Survivor, and partial OAS by years of residence, worked through in one place. The launch list sends one email at launch.