About Child Support Estimate
How to use this page: review the guidance below, enter the requested information, and compare the estimate with your state's official rules before making legal or financial decisions.
Welcome to ChildSupportEstimate.com, an independent, free legal utility designed to make complex child support math clear, accessible, and transparent.
For parents navigating a divorce, separation, or custody modification, calculating child support is one of the most stressful financial hurdles they will face. In the United States, child support is not an arbitrary number; it is governed by strict, state-specific statutory schedules and mathematical models.
Our mission is to break down these dense legal formulas into simple, automated, browser-based tools that parents can use to find clarity in seconds.
Our Founder
ChildSupportEstimate.com was founded by Daniel Terry, a military veteran, licensed Real Estate Broker, and Loan Originator. His professional background is rooted in helping people understand consequential financial decisions, compare complicated numbers, and identify the documents behind those numbers.
Daniel created this site after seeing how difficult it can be for parents to get a useful starting estimate without expensive software. He is not an attorney, and his broker, lending, and military experience are not legal credentials. They inform the site's focus on plain language, transparent assumptions, and direct access to primary sources.
How We Research Each State
Child support rules differ by jurisdiction. We review materials published by state courts, legislatures, and child support agencies, including guideline rules, statutory schedules, worksheets, and official calculators. Every state calculator page links to the primary government source used for that jurisdiction so you can inspect it directly.
We organize the calculators around the Income Shares, Percentage of Income, and Melson models, then add state-specific information where it is available. We review sources when updating a page and note the site's review date. If an official agency changes a rule or replaces a worksheet, the official source controls.
What the Estimate Can and Cannot Do
The calculators provide educational estimates from simplified formulas. They are useful for learning which inputs matter and for preparing questions, but they do not reproduce every line, table, deduction, deviation, or judicial decision in an official worksheet. A result is not a court order and should not be used as a filing-ready calculation.
For a filing, enforcement action, or decision that affects your rights, use the linked official worksheet and consult a licensed family law attorney or your state child support agency. We welcome corrections at the address below and review reported source or formula issues against the controlling government material.
Transparency & Security
We believe your private information should remain private. Unlike other online tools that require a paid account, ChildSupportEstimate.com is free and requires no registration for calculations. Your income, parenting time, and financial calculations are processed in real-time and are never stored on our servers.
Use Our Calculator in Claude or ChatGPT
You can connect this site's calculator to an AI assistant, so it can run real estimates and look up a state's official guideline source instead of guessing. It is free, needs no sign-in, and only shares the calculator and public guideline information.
Connector address: https://www.childsupportestimate.com/mcp
- Claude: open Settings, then Connectors, choose Add custom connector, paste the address, and leave sign-in and headers empty.
- ChatGPT: turn on Developer Mode in Settings, then Connectors, create a new connector, paste the address, and choose no authentication. Availability depends on your ChatGPT plan.
Then ask something like "Estimate child support in Texas for a parent earning $5,000 a month and another earning $3,000 with two children." The assistant provides a simplified estimate and links the official state source. Results are educational, not legal advice.
Legal Disclaimer
ChildSupportEstimate.com is an independent educational publisher and is not a law firm or a government agency. The calculators on this website provide estimates based on current state statutory guidelines. They do not constitute formal legal advice, representation, or a binding judicial determination. For official calculations to file with your local family court, please consult a licensed family law attorney or your state's child support enforcement agency.
Contact
Founder: Daniel Terry
Contact & Feedback: [email protected]
Mailing Address: 130 11th St NE, East Wenatchee, WA 98802