Free Estimate Tool
Colorado Child Support Calculator
Colorado overhauled child support on March 1, 2026: parenting time now counts from the first overnight. This calculator is built on the new statute, with both statutory tables extracted from the enacted bill and test-verified.
Free Estimate Tool
Built on Colorado's new child support law, effective March 1, 2026. Enter both incomes, the children, and the overnight split to see the guideline estimate. Your entries never leave this page unless you choose to email them.
The other parent's overnights fill in automatically (365 of 365). If the children keep different schedules, average their overnight counts; halves such as 182.5 are fine and 182.5 means exactly equal time.
Health insurance and child care (optional)
These two costs are added to the basic obligation and split between you in proportion to income, with credit to whoever pays the bill.
Only the children's share of the premium for health, dental, or vision coverage, not the part that covers the parent.
Child care needed for work, job search, or school, minus the federal child care tax credit. The statute caps this at what licensed care costs in your area.
Maintenance between you (optional)
If one of you will pay the other spousal maintenance (alimony), Colorado counts it before child support: the payment moves between your incomes with a statutory multiplier (1.25, or 1.33 when your combined income is over $10,000 a month) because current-era maintenance is not tax deductible. Not sure of the amount? Estimate it with the maintenance calculator first.
Assumes a maintenance order from 2019 or later. For older, tax-deductible orders the multiplier does not apply and this estimate will differ.
Support paid for other families (optional)
Support either of you already provides for children or an ex-spouse from another relationship reduces the income used in this calculation.
Child support: court-ordered amounts actually paid for children from another relationship, including documented payments for a child living elsewhere. Maintenance from another case is deducted at 125% because it is not tax deductible. Other children living in a parent's home earn that parent a credit of 75% of what the schedule would set for them on that parent's income alone.
Extraordinary child expenses (optional)
Larger recurring costs for the children are added to the obligation and split by income share, with credit to whoever pays.
Out-of-pocket medical costs insurance does not cover: copays, deductibles, orthodontia, dental work, vision, therapy, counseling. Since March 1, 2026 these count from the first dollar; the old $250 per child threshold is gone.
Agreed or court-approved extras, most commonly private school tuition or the cost of transporting the children between homes.
Email this estimate and talk to Fortress
This tool applies C.R.S. 14-10-115 as amended by HB 25-1159, in force for orders entered or modified on or after March 1, 2026, including the statutory treatment of maintenance, support paid for other families, other children in the home, and extraordinary expenses when you enter them. It is an estimate for planning, not the court's official worksheet, not legal advice, and it creates no attorney-client relationship. What counts as income is itself a legal question (overtime, bonuses, self-employment, and imputed income for a parent earning below capacity are argued, not calculated), Colorado's low-income protections are applied in simplified form, and the guideline is a presumption courts can deviate from with findings. That last mile is attorney work.
New law
What changed on March 1, 2026
- The 93-overnight cliff is gone. Parenting time now earns a credit from the very first overnight, on a graduated statutory table. Under the old law, overnights below 93 changed nothing, and families litigated over a single night.
- The support schedule was updated for the first time since 2014 and now runs to $40,000 of combined monthly income, up from $30,000.
- A self-support reserve protects low earners. The reserve is set by formula (the state minimum wage at 29 hours a week), about $1,832 a month in 2026, with graduated amounts just above it so support phases in smoothly instead of jumping.
- Medical expenses count from the first dollar. The old $250 per child threshold for extraordinary medical expenses was removed.
Orders entered before March 1, 2026 stay under the old rules until they are modified. If your order predates the change, the new law is one of the strongest reasons to revisit it: read about modifications or talk to us.
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