Colorado Child Support Calculator

It depends on both parents’ monthly income before taxes, the number of children, and how many nights the children spend with each parent. If you earn $1,000 a week, the other parent earns $3,000 a month, and your one child spends 4 nights a month with you, you would pay about $628 a month, or $940 a month for two children. Child care and health insurance costs are added on top.

To build the table, we convert weekly pay to monthly pay (× 52 ÷ 12). In the first rows, the paying parent earns less than $2,627.73 a month (full-time minimum wage), so Colorado’s low-income limits, explained below, can keep support lower. Colorado’s schedule, which lists support for both parents together before overnight credits, is in section 14-10-115(7)(b), as rewritten by HB25-1159.

Colorado uses an income shares formula, which means both parents’ incomes count. It adds both parents’ monthly incomes before taxes (after a few adjustments), looks up the basic support for that total, and divides it by each parent’s share of the income. Each parent then gets a credit for the nights the children spend with them.

The rules are in section 14-10-115 of the Colorado Revised Statutes:

1. Find each parent’s adjusted gross income. Start with income before taxes from all sources, like wages, self-employment profit, bonuses, rent, and Social Security. Subtract court-ordered support or maintenance the parent pays in other cases and an allowance for other children they support. Means-tested benefits like Colorado Works, SSI, and SNAP don’t count.
2. Add the two incomes and look up the schedule amount for that income and the number of children.
3. Split it by income share.
4. Subtract each parent’s overnight credit: the schedule amount times the percentage for that parent’s overnights in the credit table.
5. Apply the low-income rules if the paying parent’s income is low.
6. Add child care, health insurance, and ongoing medical costs, split the same way.
7. Compare the two amounts. The parent who owes more pays the difference.

Example

One parent earns $4,000 a month and the other $2,000, so their combined income is $6,000. The schedule amount for one child at that income is $1,060. The higher earner has two thirds of the income, so with no overnights they pay about $707 a month.

Yes, and it starts with the first overnight: each night a parent has the children earns a credit that lowers what they owe. With one child and gross incomes of $4,000 and $2,000 a month, the higher earner pays $707 a month with no overnights, about $613 with 73 a year, $364 with 146, and $177 at equal time.

This applies to orders set or changed since March 1, 2026; before then, time only counted from 93 overnights. Each parent’s credit is a percentage of the schedule amount, taken from the table in section 14-10-115(8)(h): 2.53% at 30 overnights a year, 13.19% at 92, and about 50% at half time. A parent never pays more than they would with no overnights. If the children have different schedules, their overnights are averaged.

Child care a parent needs to work, look for work, or go to school is added to basic support and split by income share. The cost counted is reduced by the federal child care tax credit, and the parent who pays the provider gets credit for what they pay.

For example, if child care costs $600 a month after the tax credit and you have two thirds of the combined income, your share is $400. The amount counted can’t be more than quality care from a licensed provider would cost, under section 14-10-115(9).

The court orders one or both parents to provide health insurance for the children or meet their medical needs another way. The children’s share of the premium is split by income share, and the parent who pays it gets credit. Ongoing uninsured medical costs are split the same way.

• The premium counted is the part that covers these children. If that isn’t known, the total premium is divided by everyone on the plan and multiplied by the number of children in the case.
• Uninsured costs: copays, deductibles, and other uninsured costs for medical, dental, vision, orthodontic, and counseling care are split by income share. Steady, ongoing costs go into the monthly amount; others are paid back when they come up.
• Everyday items like over-the-counter medicine and bandages are part of basic support.
• When insurance isn’t required: the court can skip ordering coverage if the premium is 5% or more of the parent’s gross income, or if it would bring the order to $50 or less.

See section 14-10-115(10).

If the children live with you and you get Colorado Works (Colorado’s cash assistance program), you have to help Child Support Services get support from the other parent, unless you have a good reason, such as a risk of violence. Your family gets all the current support collected. Food stamps (SNAP) don’t require this.

• Colorado Works: you’re referred to Child Support Services. If going after support could put you or your children at risk of harm, ask your Colorado Works worker to excuse you for “good cause.”
• What your family keeps: under section 26-2-108(1)(b)(II), the county pays your family the current support it collects, and it doesn’t lower your cash grant. It can count when deciding whether you qualify.
• Food stamps (SNAP): Colorado doesn’t require help with child support for SNAP, according to the USDA SNAP State Options Report.

The Colorado child support guide covers what helping involves.

When the paying parent earns $650 a month or less, Colorado orders $10 a month. When they earn more than $650 but no more than $1,831.83 a month in 2026 (the amount Colorado lets a paying parent keep to live on), basic support can’t be more than $50 a month for one child, rising to $150 for six or more.

• $650 or less: a $10 minimum order, whatever the number of children. If overnights already bring support below $10, the lower amount applies.
• Over $650, up to $1,831.83: basic support is limited to $50, $70, $90, $110, $130, or $150 for one to six or more children, and total support, including child care and health costs, can’t be more than 10% of income.
• Above $1,831.83: basic support is limited to 80% of the income above that amount for one child, up to 95% for six or more, but not below the amounts above. Up to $2,627.73 a month (full-time minimum wage), total support can’t be more than 20% of income.
• Earning less by choice: if a parent is out of work or works less than they could by choice, support is based on income a judge decides they could earn, unless they can’t work, are caring for the parents’ child under 2, or are serving a sentence of 180 days or more.

The $1,831.83 is the state minimum wage ($15.16 an hour in 2026) times 29 hours a week for 50 weeks, divided by 12, so it changes every January. On January 1, 2027, the minimum wage rises to $15.71 an hour, so the reserve becomes $1,898.29 and full-time minimum wage becomes $2,723.07 a month. The rules are in section 14-10-115(7)(a) and, for earning less by choice, section 14-10-115(5)(b).

No. Colorado’s schedule ends at $40,000 a month in combined adjusted gross income. Above that, a judge decides the amount, but basic support can’t be less than the schedule’s top amount.

At $40,000, basic support is $3,398 a month for one child, $4,992 for two, and $5,817 for three, under section 14-10-115(7)(a)(VII).

Yes. A judge can order a different amount when the formula amount would be unfair. The judge has to state the formula amount and the reasons for the change.

Reasons the statute lists include a parent spending much more time with the child than the overnights show, extraordinary medical costs of a parent or their spouse, extraordinary parenting-time costs, a large gap between the parents’ incomes, a parent owning a valuable asset that earns no income, and regular overtime or a second job that the formula leaves out. See section 14-10-115(8)(e).

Ask your county child support office in writing for a review, or file a motion with the court. Support can change after a big, lasting change in circumstances, but not if the new amount would be less than 10% different. Keep paying the current order until it changes.

• When: after a lasting change in income, overnights, child care, or insurance. The county must review an order on request once three years have passed since its last review, and sooner if your reason could change the amount, under section 26-13-121.
• Through the county: send the Review and Adjustment Request form and Income and Expense Declaration, with your records, to the county office handling your case. A review can take up to six months.
• Through the court: use the court’s Change Child Support forms.

The rules are in section 14-10-122. The Colorado child support guide walks through each step.

Yes. The Colorado Judicial Branch points parents to Family Law Software, a child support and maintenance calculator that produces the completed worksheet. Its Calculate Support Payments page explains how to set up an account.

Start on the Calculate Support Payments page and follow its Family Law Software link. The court’s form is the JDF 1821 Support Worksheet for Child and Spousal Support.