Australia · 2026-27 rules · checked 17 October 2026
Your Child Care Subsidy, and what a day of care really costs.
Put in your income, children and the centre's fee: you get the rate for each child and what you pay.
What you enter stays in your browser. It's an estimate, not an assessment: Services Australia decides what you're paid.
This works out one payment. To see tax, Family Tax Benefit, child care, child support and Parenting Payment together, see the Net Income Modeller →
The subsidy is a percentage of the fee, but only up to a limit. From 6 July 2026 that limit is $15.19 an hour at a centre, for a child below school age. If your centre charges more, you pay the difference in full. The percentage starts at 90% and falls as your family income rises.
Services Australia looks at three things: your family income, the hourly rate cap for the kind of care you use, and the hours of subsidised care your family can get.
The percentage applies to your hourly fee or the hourly rate cap, whichever is lower. That last part is where most people's estimates go wrong. The caps for 2026-27, from 6 July 2026:
| Type of care | Child below school age | School-age child |
|---|---|---|
| Centre-based day care | $15.19 an hour | $13.30 an hour |
| Before, after and vacation care | $15.19 an hour | $13.30 an hour |
| Family day care | $14.08 an hour | $14.08 an hour |
| In-home care | $41.31 an hour per family | $41.31 an hour per family |
A child is below school age if they are not at school or are younger than 6.
Say your centre charges $180 for a 10-hour day. That is $18 an hour, which is above the $15.19 cap. At the 90% rate:
A fee under the cap, such as $130 for 10 hours ($13 an hour), gets the percentage on all of it.
For the family in the example further down, on $119,920, the calculator gives 83.72%.
Since 5 January 2026, every family eligible for the subsidy gets at least 72 hours a fortnight for each child. That is three days a week, and the Department of Education calls it the 3 Day Guarantee. It replaced the activity test.
The hours rise to 100 a fortnight if either of these applies:
Recognised participation includes paid work, paid or unpaid leave, study, training and looking for work. If volunteering or looking for work is all you do, only the first 16 hours count.
Hours matter because care past the limit gets no subsidy. A child in care four 10-hour days a week uses 80 hours a fortnight. On 72 hours, the last 8 hours are charged at the full fee. The guarantee covers subsidised hours, not a place: you still need a centre with room.
The calculator counts a day of work as 7.5 hours, which is its own assumption. Three days a week is 45 hours a fortnight, so 72 subsidised hours. Four days is 60, so 100 if your partner is over 48 as well.
The test is your family's adjusted taxable income: yours and your partner's together. It isn't just your salary. It is:
Family Tax Benefit and the Child Care Subsidy themselves aren't counted. A $12,000 rental loss adds $12,000 to the number the subsidy is tested on, even though it lowered your tax.
The calculator asks for taxable income from your Notice of Assessment, with a folded "Add these if they apply" box for the rest. Under the results, "How your income is counted" shows the sum.
Yes. With more than one child aged 5 or under in care, your eldest child of that age gets the standard percentage. Each younger child gets a higher one, if your family income is under $370,727.
| Family income | Higher rate for the younger child |
|---|---|
| Up to $146,437 | 95% |
| $146,437 to $191,437 | falls from 95% to 80% (1 point per $3,000) |
| $191,437 to $270,727 | 80% |
| $270,727 to $360,727 | falls from 80% to 50% (1 point per $3,000) |
| $360,727 to $370,727 | 50% |
| $370,727 or more | no higher rate: every child gets the standard rate |
In-home care never gets the higher rate. In the example below, the three-year-old costs $26.64 a day and the one-year-old costs $12.67, on the same $130 fee.
Services Australia pays the subsidy to your centre on an estimate of your family income. It withholds 5% of the subsidy each fortnight, so that an underestimate is less likely to leave you with a debt. You can change that percentage online twice a financial year.
After the year ends, it balances your payments against your actual adjusted taxable income.
A pay rise, a bonus, a good year in a business or a capital gain can all put your actual income above your estimate. The calculator counts the held-back 5% in what you pay, so its figure is the cost until the year is balanced. In the example below, the three-year-old's subsidy is $108.80 a day, and $5.44 of it is held back.
The subsidy is only part of it. When one of you works another day, your tax goes up, your Family Tax Benefit goes down, your subsidy percentage falls as income rises, and the extra day of care has its own fee. All of that lands on the same $320.
The calculator shows the subsidy at 83.72% for the older child and 95% for the younger, and the family paying $118 a week, or $5,661 a year.
Parent B's pay rises by 52 × $320 = $16,640, so their income becomes $66,560. We ran the same rules the calculator uses on 17 October 2026.
| The extra day, over a year | Effect |
|---|---|
| Extra pay: 52 days × $320 | +$16,640.00 |
| More tax | −$5,574.40 |
| Family Tax Benefit paid is lower | −$3,942.00 |
| Subsidy falls on the days already in care | −$588.24 |
| The new day's fee for two children, after subsidy | −$2,083.20 |
| What the family keeps | $4,452.16 |
You expected $320 for the day. You're walking away with only $86 for the day ($4,452 ÷ 52), which is 27 cents in the dollar.
Two things moved on the subsidy side. The family income rose to $136,560, so the older child's rate fell from 83.72% to 80.39%. And Parent B is now over 48 hours a fortnight, so the family's subsidised hours rose from 72 to 100. Without that, the fourth day's 80 hours of care a fortnight would have had 8 unsubsidised.
To see the childcare lines for yourself, put in the numbers above, then change Parent B's income to $66,560 and their days to 4, and both children to 4 days. The family's cost rises from $5,661 to $8,333 a year, which is the table's last two lines, give or take a dollar of rounding. The tax and Family Tax Benefit lines come from the rules in our Net Income Modeller, not from the pages listed at the bottom, and they are for this one family only.
Whether $86 a day is worth the fourth day depends on things no calculator knows. The numbers are here to weigh it.
Each of our calculators answers one question. The Net Income Modeller works out tax, Family Tax Benefit, child care subsidy, child support, Rent Assistance and Parenting Payment together, so you can see what an extra day's work, a pay rise or a salary package leaves your family.
A percentage of your hourly fee or the hourly rate cap, whichever is lower. The percentage is 90% up to a family income of $88,520, then falls 1 point for every $5,000.
$15.19 an hour for centre-based day care for a child below school age, from 6 July 2026. Other care types are in the table above.
At least 72 hours a fortnight for each child, and 100 when both parents do more than 48 hours of recognised participation.
Adjusted taxable income for you and your partner together: taxable income plus a short list of add-backs, less child support you pay.
Yes, for each child younger than your eldest child aged 5 or under, if family income is under $370,727.
Because the subsidy is paid on an income estimate. The year is balanced against your actual income afterwards.
All checked 17 October 2026. Rules for the 2026-27 financial year.
General information about the Australian Child Care Subsidy for 2026-27 as at 17 October 2026, not personal advice and not an assessment. Services Australia decides what you are paid. Confirm your own situation with them or your centre.