For July 2026 to June 2027, the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit (CGEB) pays up to $679 a year to a single person, $890 to a couple and $234 for each child under 19, in four quarterly payments. The amount is set by your 2025 tax return, and it starts to shrink once adjusted family net income passes $46,432. These are the building blocks the Canada Revenue Agency uses:
| Component (2025 base year, paid July 2026 to June 2027) | Annual amount |
|---|---|
| Each adult (you, and your spouse or common-law partner) | $445 |
| First child of a single parent (takes the place of the spouse amount) | $445 |
| Each other child under 19 | $234 |
| Extra amount for a single person or single parent | up to $234 |
| Income where the extra single amount is fully phased in (single, no children) | $23,264 |
| Income where the reduction starts (all families) | $46,432 |
| Reduction above that income | 5 cents per dollar |
All amounts on this page are the CRA's for the July 2026 to June 2027 payment period, as of October 28, 2026; the CRA recalculates every July, so the next change comes with the July 2027 payments based on 2026 returns.
The CGEB is the GST/HST credit under a new name and with bigger amounts. The CRA says the eligibility rules, the calculation and the structure are the same as they were for the GST/HST credit. What changed in July 2026 is the size of the cheques: a 25% increase that the government has committed to for five years, from 2026 to 2031.
Which tax return sets your amount
The CGEB runs on a July-to-June year and reads income from the calendar year before it starts. The CRA calls that earlier year the base year.
| Payments made in | Based on the tax return for |
|---|---|
| July 2026, October 2026, January 2027, April 2027 | 2025 |
| July 2027, October 2027, January 2028, April 2028 | 2026 |
| January 2026 and April 2026 (still called the GST/HST credit) | 2024 |
Three practical consequences follow.
First, a drop in income shows up late. If you lose your job in March 2026, your CGEB will not rise until July 2027, when the 2026 return becomes the base year. Second, the return has to be filed. The CRA's guide says you must file a 2025 return to get payments from July 2026, even if you had no income. No return means no CGEB, and the same goes for a spouse: if you have a partner, the CRA uses both net incomes and needs both returns. Third, the household is measured at the time of each payment, while income is measured in the base year. A child born in August 2026 is added from a later quarter once registered, but the income figure used for the whole period is still 2025's.
The income figure is "adjusted family net income": line 23600 (net income) on your return plus line 23600 on your spouse's or partner's, minus any Universal Child Care Benefit and registered disability savings plan income included in those lines, plus any of those amounts repaid. A household with no UCCB or RDSP income in the year simply adds the two net-income lines together. Net income is the figure after deductions such as RRSP and FHSA contributions, union dues and child care expenses, which matters later on this page.
The formula, piece by piece
The Income Tax Act still holds the rules, in section 122.5, written as one formula with an add-up part and a take-away part. In plain terms, for 2025 base-year income:
Step 1. Add up the base amounts. $445 for you. $445 for a spouse or common-law partner. If you have no partner but have children, the first child gets the $445 in the partner's place. Then $234 for each other child under 19.
Step 2. Add the single amount, if you have no partner. A single parent gets the full $234. A single person with no children gets 2% of their net income above $11,564, up to $234. That phase-in is why the lowest-income single adults receive less than the maximum: someone with $14,000 of net income gets 2% of $2,436, or $48.72, on top of the $445. The full $234 is reached at $23,264 of net income.
Step 3. Subtract 5% of adjusted family net income above $46,432. Every family type uses the same starting point, so a larger family keeps some benefit to a higher income only because it starts with a bigger total.
Step 4. Divide by four for the quarterly payment.
Written as a single line for a couple with two children: annual CGEB = 445 + 445 + 234 + 234 − 0.05 × (AFNI − 46,432), never below zero.
The structure has two quirks worth knowing. The single amount is phased in on the single person's own income but phased out on family income through Step 3, so a single person's benefit rises between $11,564 and $23,264, stays flat at $679 to $46,432, and then falls. And a single parent's first child is worth $445 plus the full $234 single amount, against $234 for a child in a two-parent family. So a single parent with one child receives $1,124 at the maximum, the same as a couple with one child, although the couple has two adults.
Four households, worked
Each example uses 2025 base-year income and the CRA's July 2026 amounts. The quarterly figure is the annual one divided by four.
1. A single adult with $18,000 of net income, no children. The base is $445. The single amount is 2% of ($18,000 − $11,564) = 2% of $6,436 = $128.72. Income is far below $46,432, so nothing is subtracted. Annual CGEB: $573.72, or $143.43 a quarter.
2. A single parent with two children and $52,000 of net income. The base is $445 for the parent, $445 for the first child and $234 for the second, plus the full $234 single amount: $1,358. Income is $5,568 above $46,432, and 5% of that is $278.40. Annual CGEB: $1,079.60, or $269.90 a quarter.
3. A retired couple with $40,000 of combined net income. Two adult amounts make $890. Income is below the reduction threshold, so they receive the full $890, or $222.50 a quarter.
4. A couple with two children and $68,000 of combined net income. The base is $445 + $445 + $234 + $234 = $1,358. Income is $21,568 over the threshold, and 5% of that is $1,078.40. Annual CGEB: $279.60, or $69.90 a quarter.
| Household (2025 net income) | Base amounts | Reduction | Annual CGEB | Each quarter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single, no children ($18,000) | $573.72 | $0 | $573.72 | $143.43 |
| Single parent, 2 children ($52,000) | $1,358.00 | $278.40 | $1,079.60 | $269.90 |
| Couple, no children ($40,000) | $890.00 | $0 | $890.00 | $222.50 |
| Couple, 2 children ($68,000) | $1,358.00 | $1,078.40 | $279.60 | $69.90 |
The CRA's payment chart steps in $5,000 rows, so only the retired couple lands on one of them (the under-$46,432 row, $890). The formula itself reproduces all 135 amounts in the chart for single people and couples with up to four children, to the cent, so it can be trusted between the rows. The CRA's online child and family benefits calculator does the same arithmetic and adds the provincial programs.
Where the payments stop
Because the reduction is the same 5 cents per dollar for everyone, the income at which the benefit hits zero depends only on the family's total before the reduction. Divide that total by 0.05 and add it to $46,432.
Show the numbers behind this figure
| Adjusted family net income | Single, no children | Couple, no children | Couple, 2 children |
|---|---|---|---|
| $0.00 | $445.00 | $890.00 | $1,358.00 |
| $11,564.00 | $445.00 | $890.00 | $1,358.00 |
| $15,000.00 | $513.72 | $890.00 | $1,358.00 |
| $23,264.00 | $679.00 | $890.00 | $1,358.00 |
| $30,000.00 | $679.00 | $890.00 | $1,358.00 |
| $46,432.00 | $679.00 | $890.00 | $1,358.00 |
| $50,000.00 | $500.60 | $711.60 | $1,179.60 |
| $55,000.00 | $250.60 | $461.60 | $929.60 |
| $60,000.00 | $0.60 | $211.60 | $679.60 |
| $65,000.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $429.60 |
| $70,000.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $179.60 |
| $75,000.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Family type | Maximum annual CGEB | Zero at adjusted family net income above |
|---|---|---|
| Single, no children | $679 | $60,012 |
| Couple, no children | $890 | $64,232 |
| Couple or single parent, 1 child | $1,124 | $68,912 |
| Couple or single parent, 2 children | $1,358 | $73,592 |
| Couple or single parent, 4 or more children | $1,826 | $82,952 |
The CRA's chart for four or more children shows $147.60 at $80,000 and $0 at $85,000, which fits a cut-off of $82,952. Above these incomes the federal CGEB is zero, although some provincial credits paid alongside it reach higher incomes: Saskatchewan's low-income tax credit can still be partly paid up to $81,668. Below them, the CRA works out the amount automatically from the return.
What changed in July 2026, and the June top-up
The CGEB was created by Bill C-19, the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit Act, which received Royal Assent on February 12, 2026, according to the Department of Finance. It did two things to the old GST/HST credit.
It raised the regular amounts by 25%, for five years starting in July 2026. The per-adult amount went from $349 for July 2025 to June 2026 to $445 for July 2026 to June 2027, an increase of 27.5%. The extra 2.5% or so is the usual yearly inflation indexing, which also moved the thresholds. The reduction threshold went from $45,521 to $46,432, and the single phase-in threshold from $11,337 to $11,564, both up 2.0%. The thresholds were indexed but not raised by 25%, while the amounts were. So the benefit now runs out at a higher income. A single person's CGEB reaches zero above $60,012 of net income. Under the 2025-26 credit, it reached zero above $56,181. A couple with two children went from a cut-off of $66,841 to $73,592. That is consistent with the Department of Finance's statement that the change reaches 500,000 additional individuals and families, although the department does not break that figure down.
It paid a one-time top-up on June 5, 2026, equal to 50% of the 2025-26 GST/HST credit. It went to people who were entitled to the GST/HST credit in January 2026, based on their 2024 return, and it may still appear as a GST/HST credit payment in a CRA account. The government's own examples: a single person with $25,000 of net income received $267, and a family of four with $40,000 received $533. Both are half of what the old credit paid them: $533 a year for the single person ($349 plus the $184 single amount) and $1,066 for the family ($349 + $349 + $184 + $184).
The top-up was a single payment. It is not part of the 2026-27 amounts above and will not repeat.
Payment dates and the under-$50 rule
The CRA pays on the 5th of July, October, January and April, moving the date back to the last business day before the 5th when it falls on a weekend or a federal holiday. For the 2025 base year that gives:
| Quarter | Payment date |
|---|---|
| July 2026 | July 3, 2026 (July 5 was a Sunday) |
| October 2026 | October 5, 2026 |
| January 2027 | January 5, 2027 |
| April 2027 | April 5, 2027 |
If your annual CGEB works out to less than $50 a quarter, so less than $200 a year, the CRA pays the whole year in July instead of splitting it. Near the top of the income range this decides how the money arrives. A single person with $59,500 of net income is entitled to $25.60 for the year ($679 minus 5% of $13,068), and receives it all on July 3. The cut-offs for the lump sum are about $56,012 of net income for a single person, $60,232 for a couple without children and $69,592 for a couple with two children. Below those incomes, payments arrive quarterly.
If the CRA reassesses your return, or your marital status or number of children changes, it recalculates from the date of the change and sends a notice of redetermination. An overpayment is collected from future benefit payments or tax refunds until it is repaid. A CGEB payment can also be kept by the CRA to pay down a tax debt or certain other government debts.
Provincial and territorial credits paid alongside
Some provinces pay their own credits through the same system, with the same return and the same application. The CRA adds all of them except the Ontario sales tax credit to the quarterly CGEB deposit. These are the ones its 2026-2027 guide lists:
| Province | Program | Maximum (as listed in RC4210) | Reduction |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Brunswick | Harmonized sales tax credit | $300 per adult, $100 per child ($300 for the first child of a single parent) | 2% of AFNI over $35,000 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | Income supplement | $520 single, $589 with a partner, plus $231 per child | Based on AFNI (thresholds not in the guide) |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | Seniors' benefit | $1,882 for a senior or a couple with a senior | Full at AFNI of $30,409 or less, partial up to $46,549 |
| Nova Scotia | Affordable living tax credit | $255 per individual or couple, plus $60 per child | 5% of AFNI over $30,000 |
| Ontario | Ontario sales tax credit | $378 per adult and per child | 4% over $29,047 single, or $36,309 for families |
| Prince Edward Island | Sales tax credit | $310 per individual, plus $55 for a spouse or eligible dependant | Not stated in the guide; RC4210 says it becomes the PEI essentials benefit starting in November 2026, with a new $175 minimum payment |
| Saskatchewan | Low-income tax credit | $460 per adult, $181 per child (2 children at most), up to $1,282 per family | Reduced above AFNI of $39,345, nothing above $81,668 |
Ontario is the exception on timing. Its sales tax credit is part of the Ontario Trillium Benefit and is paid separately: monthly on the 10th, or in one payment in June 2027 if you chose that and your entitlement is over $500. Entitlements of $500 or less are paid as a lump sum in the first payment month.
The provincial maximums can be as large as the federal one. A Saskatchewan couple with two children and low income can receive up to $1,282 from the province on top of $1,358 federally. For anyone budgeting from these payments, the combined figure on the CRA notice is the one to use.
When two single people become a couple
The structure has a large effect that the maximums hide: moving in together can cut the household's benefit sharply, because two separate incomes become one family income measured against a single $46,432 threshold.
Take two single adults with $30,000 of net income each and no children. Separately, each is past the single phase-in and below the reduction threshold, so each receives $679, or $1,358 between them. As a couple, their adjusted family net income is $60,000. Their base is $890 (two adult amounts, and no single amount), and the reduction is 5% of $13,568, or $678.40. Their joint CGEB is $211.60 a year. The household loses $1,146.40 a year, about 84% of what it received as two singles, with no change in income.
| Two adults, $30,000 net income each | Annual CGEB |
|---|---|
| As two single people | $679 + $679 = $1,358.00 |
| As a married or common-law couple | $211.60 |
| Difference | $1,146.40 less |
The loss is smaller for lower-income couples, who stay under the threshold, and disappears for couples whose combined income is already above $64,232, where the couple amount is zero either way. It is largest for two modest earners, each well below the threshold on their own. The Canada Child Benefit is also calculated on adjusted family net income, so for a couple with children the CGEB is not the only payment that changes.
Timing follows the CRA's rules on marital status. A couple becomes common-law for benefit purposes after living together in a conjugal relationship for 12 continuous months, or sooner if they have a child together. The CRA asks to be told by the end of the month after the month the status changed, and it recalculates from that point. Payments that continued at the single rates after the change are collected back as an overpayment.
Only one partner receives the payment for the couple, usually the one whose return the CRA assesses first, and the amount is the same whoever receives it. Separation works in reverse: once a couple has lived apart for 90 days because the relationship broke down, each is assessed as single, effective from the date they started living apart.
Children in shared custody are split the same way: each parent with shared custody may receive half of the CGEB amount for that child, and half of any related provincial amount.
How a lower net income changes the amount
Above $46,432 of family net income, every dollar that comes off net income adds 5 cents of CGEB, through the reduction in Step 3. For a family below the threshold, lowering net income does nothing to the CGEB, except for a single adult in the phase-in range, whose single amount would fall by 2 cents per dollar.
Deductions that reduce line 23600 therefore have a small extra effect in that range. Take the couple with two children and $68,000 of net income. An extra $5,000 of RRSP contributions, deducted on their 2025 return, lowers net income to $63,000. Their CGEB rises from $279.60 to $529.60, an extra $250 for the year. That is on top of the tax saved on the deduction itself and the increase in the Canada Child Benefit, which is calculated from the same adjusted family net income. The Canada Child Benefit guide works out that part.
Put another way: for a family in this income band, the CGEB claws back 5% of each extra dollar of net income, in addition to income tax and any CCB reduction. The Canadian income tax brackets guide shows the tax rate on that same dollar, and the RRSP vs TFSA guide explains why a deduction that lowers net income is worth more to households whose benefits are income-tested. This page explains how the benefit is calculated and is not financial or tax advice. It does not say whether a contribution suits your situation, and the 5-cent effect only applies while income is inside the reduction band.
The same arithmetic runs in the other direction. A raise, a large RRSP withdrawal or a taxable capital gain in the base year lowers the next July's CGEB by 5 cents per dollar once the family is above $46,432. A one-off income spike in 2026 will show up in the July 2027 to June 2028 payments.
Why other pages show $950 or $445
Searches for the benefit turn up three different maximums for a single person. They are not errors so much as different numbers.
$679 is the CRA's maximum for a single person for July 2026 to June 2027. It is the $445 adult amount plus the full $234 single amount, and it is the right figure for the regular payments.
$445 is the per-adult amount on the CRA's payment amounts table. Pages that quote it as "the maximum" have taken one building block for the total. A single person with very low income does receive $445, because the single amount phases in only above $11,564. But $679 is the maximum for anyone with net income from $23,264 to $46,432.
$950 comes from the government's announcements in February and April 2026. It matches the regular $679 for 2026-27 plus the $267 one-time June top-up, which add to $946. The Department of Finance said a single person "will receive up to $950 this year", and its worked example was a single senior with $25,000 of net income who receives $950 for the 2026-27 benefit year including the top-up. It mixes two different payments based on two different tax years, so it is not what anyone will receive from July 2027 onward. The family figure of $1,890 is built the same way: $1,358 regular plus the $533 top-up is $1,891, which the department states as $1,890.
Older pages may still quote the GST/HST credit amounts of $349 and $184, or $698 for a couple, which applied from July 2025 to June 2026. Those were correct then and are about 22% low for the current period, because they predate both indexing and the 25% increase. A figure that matches none of these is worth checking against the CRA's own chart.
The CRA's child and family benefits calculator is the official place to see your own figure next to the Canada Child Benefit and the provincial programs. Because the CGEB moves with net income, our Canadian tax calculator covers the other half of the question: what the same change in income does to your federal and provincial tax. The other Canadian benefit guides are in the full guide list.
Sources
- Canada Revenue Agency, Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit (overview; replaced the GST/HST credit in July 2026; 25% increase for 2026 to 2031; page dated June 8, 2026): https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/child-family-benefits/canada-groceries-essentials-benefit.html (checked October 28, 2026)
- Canada Revenue Agency, How much you can get (maximums $679, $890, $234; base year; AFNI definition; page dated July 15, 2026): https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/child-family-benefits/canada-groceries-essentials-benefit/how-much.html (checked October 28, 2026)
- Canada Revenue Agency, CGEB payment amounts (component amounts and thresholds, 2022 to 2025 base years): https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/child-family-benefits/canada-groceries-essentials-benefit/how-much/payment-amounts.html (checked October 28, 2026)
- Canada Revenue Agency, CGEB payments chart, July 2026 to June 2027: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/child-family-benefits/canada-groceries-essentials-benefit/how-much/payments-chart.html (checked October 28, 2026)
- Canada Revenue Agency, CGEB payment dates: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/child-family-benefits/canada-groceries-essentials-benefit/payment-dates.html (checked October 28, 2026)
- Canada Revenue Agency, RC4210, Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit, for the 2026-2027 payment period (base year, filing requirement, under-$50 rule, provincial and territorial programs): https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/publications/rc4210/canada-groceries-essentials-benefit.html (checked October 28, 2026)
- Income Tax Act, section 122.5 (structure of the credit: base amounts, 2% phase-in, 5% reduction): https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/I-3.3/section-122.5.html (checked October 28, 2026)
- Department of Finance Canada, Legislation Passes to Deliver New Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit (February 12, 2026): https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2026/02/legislation-passes-to-deliver-new-canada-groceries-and-essentials-benefit.html (checked October 28, 2026)
- Employment and Social Development Canada, Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit top-up coming June 5 (April 17, 2026): https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/news/2026/04/secretary-of-state-mclean-highlights-canada-groceries-and-essentials-benefit-top-up-coming-june-5.html (checked October 28, 2026)
- Household examples, cut-off incomes and the old-versus-new comparison are CalculatorVillage calculations on the CRA amounts above.