Look up 2026 Basic Allowance for Housing rates by installation and paygrade, with and without dependents, using official DoD military housing area data.
Rates last verified August 2026 against the published source tables.
BAH is set by Military Housing Area rather than by installation, so several bases can share one rate — the Pentagon, Fort Belvoir and Andrews Air Force Base are all priced in the Washington, DC Metro Area MHA. Locations outside a named MHA are priced by county cost group instead, which is why every US county has a figure. Your rate depends on the MHA, your pay grade, and whether you have dependents; it does not depend on what you actually pay in rent.
Rates are published each January by DTMO and hold for the calendar year. Individual rate protection keeps you at your existing rate if the new table is lower, but only while you stay in the same MHA at the same grade with the same dependency status — a PCS ends it, and it does not follow you to the new installation. Overseas duty stations use OHA instead, which reimburses actual rent up to a ceiling rather than paying a flat rate.
Government quarters. A member assigned to government quarters draws no BAH for that period — the housing is the allowance. Moving into quarters stops it, and moving out starts it again, on the dates the assignment says rather than the dates you carried boxes.
It is not paid on what you actually pay. BAH is a flat rate for your grade, dependency status and housing area. Rent below it is yours to keep and rent above it comes out of your own pocket — which cuts both ways, and is the opposite of how OHA works overseas.
The rate follows the duty station, not the house. It is set by the Military Housing Area your installation sits in, which can cover several counties. Living an hour away does not change the rate in either direction.
There is nothing to file — until there is. BAH is paid automatically on your LES once your duty station and dependency status are recorded. The claim, when there is one, is really a dependency determination: adding a spouse or child to DEERS, and the supporting documents your finance office asks for. The allowance follows that record, not the marriage certificate in your drawer.
Check the rate against your own grade. Compare what lands on your LES with the figure above. A difference of exactly the with-dependents gap means the determination is what to query, not the arithmetic — and finance can correct it retroactively where the entitlement date is documented.
Rate protection is real, and it is not automatic knowledge. If the published rate for your area falls, a member already living there keeps the higher rate for as long as the assignment and status hold. Ask finance whether you are rate-protected before assuming a drop applies to you.
No. BAH is entirely tax-free. It does not count as gross income for federal or state taxes, and does not affect your eligibility for tax credits.
It depends on who owns the housing. In government-owned quarters you do not receive BAH. Most on-post housing in the US is now privatized under the Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) and run by a private company such as Lincoln, Balfour Beatty or Hunt — there you are entitled to BAH at the with-dependents rate for your grade, and it is assigned to the housing company by allotment, so it appears on your LES and rent tracks your BAH. That matters when your rate or dependency status changes. If you move off base mid-year, your BAH begins immediately.
No. Your BAH tracks your Military Housing Area, your grade and your dependency status, not your own rent or lease. DTMO publishes a new table each January, and it can raise a specific area mid-year when the local market moves far enough — this calculator flags the areas where that is running. What your landlord charges you changes neither. Individual rate protection holds you at your existing rate if the new January table is lower, but only while you stay in the same MHA at the same grade with the same dependency status. A PCS, a demotion, or losing dependents all end it, and the protection does not follow you to a new installation.
BAH is set by Military Housing Area (MHA), which covers the housing market around a duty station rather than the installation itself. Several installations can share one MHA — the Pentagon, Fort Belvoir and Andrews Air Force Base are all in the Washington, DC Metro Area MHA. Locations that fall outside a named MHA are priced by county cost group instead, so every US county has a rate.
Your BAH changes the date your dependency status changes (e.g. date of marriage or date a child joins your household). Submit the update to your finance office with supporting documentation; they will adjust your pay accordingly.
OCONUS installations use Overseas Housing Allowance (OHA) instead of BAH. OHA is calculated differently — it covers actual rent up to a cap, plus a utility allowance, and varies by country and grade. This calculator covers CONUS BAH only. For the move itself, see the PCS move calculator.