GIS Calculator 2026: Guaranteed Income Supplement

GIS by income, October to December 2026

Monthly supplement for a pensioner with a full OAS pension. The couple column gives the amount paid to each spouse when both receive OAS, for a combined income twice the figure in the first column, so that the two columns compare households with the same income per person.

How the supplement is calculated

The amount Service Canada publishes as the maximum is the sum of two parts that shrink at different speeds. The calculator keeps them apart because that is what explains the result.

The basic supplement

For a single person it starts at $962.49 a month and falls by $1 for every $2 of monthly income, the income being rounded down to an even dollar amount. For each member of a couple on OAS it starts at $635.57 and falls by $1 for every $4 of combined monthly income, which comes to the same 50% rate on each dollar the household receives. When the spouse receives no benefit, the pensioner is paid on the single scale, and the supplement falls by $1 for every $4 of combined monthly income above the amount of a full OAS pension (rounded up to the next $4), which is why that situation keeps GIS up to the highest income.

The top-up

Added in 2011 and enlarged for single pensioners in 2016, the top-up is worth $176.41 a month for a single pensioner and $49.99 for each spouse in a couple. It falls by $1 for every $4 of monthly income above $2,000 a year for a single person; for a couple, the same rate applies to half of the combined income above $4,000 a year. It therefore disappears well before the basic supplement: a single person with $9,600 of income keeps $18.41 of it, against a basic supplement of $562.49.

What counts as income

The income test uses net income as defined by the Income Tax Act, with a few differences that all work in your favour. OAS and GIS are left out. The first $5,000 of employment and self-employment income is exempt, and half of the next $10,000, so that a pensioner earning $15,000 from a job is counted as earning $5,000. Employee CPP and EI contributions are deducted. CPP and QPP pensions, workplace pensions, RRSP and RRIF withdrawals, interest, dividends, the taxable part of capital gains, rental income and foreign pensions all count in full. A withdrawal from a TFSA does not count, because it is not income for tax purposes, which makes the TFSA the account of choice for a future GIS recipient.

Who can receive it

• You receive an OAS pension. No OAS, no GIS: a person with fewer than 10 years in Canada after 18, or who has deferred OAS, receives none.
• You live in Canada. The supplement stops after six consecutive months abroad, even for someone whose OAS continues to be paid outside Canada.
• Your income is below the cut-off for your situation, using last year's tax return.
• A sponsored immigrant is not eligible while the sponsorship undertaking is in effect, with the exceptions set out in the regulations.

If your spouse is 60 to 64, the household may also receive the Allowance, calculated on the Allowance calculator. The full set of rules is explained in the Guaranteed Income Supplement guide, and the interaction with CPP in the CPP + OAS + GIS calculator.

Limits of the estimate

The calculator applies the Act to the parameters of the quarter, and it lands exactly on each income limit Service Canada publishes. It does not deduct your own CPP and EI contributions if you still work, which slightly overstates the income counted, and it does not handle spouses living apart for reasons beyond their control, which Service Canada can treat as single people on request.