Canada Student Grant 2026-27: How Much You Can Get

A full-time student can get up to $4,200 from the Canada Student Grant for the 2026-27 school year, and none of it has to be paid back. There’s no separate form for it. Your province checks whether you qualify when you apply for student aid, so the only way to miss it is to skip that application.

How much you actually get depends on your family’s income last year and how many people are in your family. Below are the income limits for every family size, the other federal grants you can add on top, and what’s different if you live in Quebec.

How much is the Canada Student Grant in 2026-27?

The full-time grant is worth up to $4,200 for the school year that runs from August 1, 2026, to July 31, 2027 (opens in a new tab), which works out to $525 for each month you’re in school. A standard eight-month year gets you the full $4,200, and a shorter study period gets less. You can get it again for each year of an undergraduate program, as long as you still qualify.

It isn’t the only federal grant. Students with children, students with disabilities and part-time students each have their own, and some of them add on top of the full-time grant:

For the two dependant grants, a dependant means a child under 12 at the start of your study period, or an older child with a permanent disability. The part-time grants can’t be more than your assessed need: if your province works out that you need $1,200, that’s what you get.

These amounts are set until July 31, 2027. Ottawa hasn’t said yet what the grant will be worth after that, so if you’re starting a four-year degree, don’t plan on $4,200 every year.

Do you qualify? The income limits by family size

You can get the full-time grant if you have financial need, you’re in a qualifying program at a designated school, and your family’s gross income from the previous year is under the maximum for your family size. Each family size has two income limits. Below the lower one, you get the full amount. Between the two, the grant gets smaller as income goes up.

These are the limits in effect since August 1, 2026 (opens in a new tab). The part-time grant uses the same ones:

Gross means before tax. If you still count as dependent on your parents, the family is usually your parents’ household and the income is theirs. If you count as independent, it’s your own income, plus a spouse’s or partner’s. Your province’s student aid office decides which group you’re in.

A worked example

Say you’re a dependent student in a family of four, and your parents earned $70,000 between them last year. That’s under $76,952, so you’d get the full $4,200. If they earned $110,000, you’d be between the two limits and get a smaller grant. At $130,000, you’d get nothing from this grant, though you could still get loans.

Who can’t get it

• Students who live in Quebec, the Northwest Territories or Nunavut. Those governments run their own student aid programs (opens in a new tab) and apply their own rules.
• Most full-time students at private, for-profit schools. Since August 1, 2026, most of them no longer qualify for the full-time grant, though some programs are exempt (opens in a new tab). If you were turned down and think your school should count, contact your provincial student aid office.

How do you apply for the Canada Student Grant?

You apply for student aid with the province or territory you live in (opens in a new tab), and that one application covers federal grants, federal loans and your provincial aid. There’s no separate grant form. The disability grant is the one exception: you send proof of your disability along with your application.

How the federal and provincial money arrives depends on where you live:

• British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario and Saskatchewan combine federal and provincial aid into one package.
• Alberta, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island pay federal and provincial aid separately, though you still apply through the province.
• Yukon students get federal grants and loans plus territorial grants.

Before you receive anything, you or your school has to confirm that you’re enrolled, through your National Student Loans Service Centre account (opens in a new tab). If you’d like a number before applying, the federal student aid estimator (opens in a new tab) gives a rough figure, but it leaves out provincial grants.

Two limits are worth knowing. Full-time students can get federal aid for 340 weeks in total (opens in a new tab), up to 400 for doctoral students and 520 for students with a disability. And in Ontario, the province now pays at most 25% of an OSAP award as grants, down from as much as 85%, so more of the aid comes as loans. Our breakdown of what university costs in Canada shows what that change means for a full degree.

What if you live in Quebec?

Quebec residents can’t get the Canada Student Grant. Instead, Quebec runs its own Loans and Bursaries Program through Aide financière aux études (opens in a new tab), and you apply with the province. The amount depends on your school costs and on your income, or your parents’. As with the federal grant, the bursary part is yours to keep, and only the loan part gets repaid.

What about bursaries and other grants?

The federal grant is only one source. Provinces, colleges, universities and private donors offer their own grants, bursaries and scholarships, and most of those need their own application. A bursary is usually based on financial need and a scholarship on grades or other merit, and neither one is paid back.

Start with your school’s financial aid office, which lists its own bursaries and their deadlines, then your provincial student aid site. If your family has an RESP, that money can go toward school as well, including any Canada Learning Bond paid into it.

Making your grant money last until April

Grant and loan money is released once your enrolment is confirmed, so most of it tends to arrive near the start of term, while rent and groceries come due every month. The part you don’t need yet is easier to leave alone in a savings account than in the account you spend from.

Lodavo is a free app that gives you a reason to leave it there. You get a ticket in a free weekly cash draw for every $25 in the savings or chequing account you connect. Someone wins at least $100 every week, and the top prize is $10,000. Because the money never leaves your bank, it’s there the day rent is due. You can get Lodavo on the Apple App Store (opens in a new tab) or the Google Play Store (opens in a new tab), and our roundup of money apps for students covers budgeting apps too.

This article is general information. Your provincial student aid office makes the final decision on what you receive.

Terms and conditions apply. No purchase necessary (alternate method of entry available). Skill-testing question required. Open to legal residents of Canada who are the age of majority. Odds depend on the number of eligible entries received. Full rules and odds at our contest rules.