OSAP Grant Amounts for 2026-27: What You Can Get and Why

You run the OSAP estimate for next year and the total looks fine, maybe even a little higher than last year. Then you read the breakdown and see that the free money has shrunk and the loan has grown. Nobody sent a letter explaining it. The calculator just gave you a number.

That reaction is the right one. The 2026-27 changes mostly moved money from grant to loan, and that matters a lot more than the total. Your OSAP package is really several separate grants and loans from two governments, each with its own rules, and a few of them are much bigger than the headlines suggest. Once you can see each piece on its own, you can tell where you'll probably land and what could push your grant down after you've already been approved.

What OSAP actually is

OSAP combines provincial aid from Ontario with federal aid from the Government of Canada. Each government offers grants, which you don't repay, and loans, which you do. When you apply, OSAP assesses you for all of them together and sends you one combined package.

Ontario says the amount depends on three things:

• Your educational costs: tuition, books, child care, supplies and equipment, plus living expenses if you study full-time.
• Your course load.
• Your financial situation: your income, your family's income, your family size and your dependants.

In practice this is a needs assessment. OSAP adds up what school costs you, subtracts what it expects you and your family to contribute, and funds the gap with a mix of grants and loans. If you want a quick refresher on how those types of money differ, see our guide to grants, scholarships and loans.

What changed for 2026-27

The changes to the provincial portion of OSAP announced on February 12, 2026 apply to programs that start on or after August 1, 2026. Three of them affect your grant.

The Ontario grant is now capped at 25% of your provincial funding. York University's OSAP FAQ explains that from fall 2026, at most 25% of your provincial OSAP can be grant and at least 75% will be loan. The cap covers only the Ontario-funded share. Federal grants are counted separately, and you are still assessed on need.

Career college students lose the Ontario grant entirely. For study periods starting on or after August 1, 2026, students at private career colleges no longer qualify for the Ontario Student Grant, so their provincial OSAP is all loan.

Timing depends on your term. York says students who got OSAP for 2025-26, including those applying for Spring/Summer 2026, stay under the 2025-26 rules for that funding. The new rules start with the fall 2026 term.

You've probably seen the 25% cap compared with an "85%" figure. That number didn't come from the government. It comes from the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations and describes the most the highest-need students could get as grant, not what a typical family received. For most families the change is smaller than "85% down to 25%" implies, but it is still real.

CBC's test of the updated calculator shows what it looks like in practice. A sample student eligible for $9,100 in 2025-26 ($3,100 grant, $6,000 loan) was estimated at $9,500 for 2026-27, with $2,300 as grant and $7,200 as loan. The total went up by $400, and the grant went down by about $800.

Which OSAP grants can you get?

This is the part most explanations skip. The federal Canada Student Grant is not under the 25% cap, and for many families it is now the largest non-repayable part of the package.

Sources: the federal full-time grant page, the federal dependants grant page, and Ontario's maximum amounts of aid. The federal full-time grant is available in every year of undergraduate study as long as you stay full-time. You're assessed for the dependants grant automatically when you apply.

Some other sites list wrong figures, such as a $1,800 or $3,600 part-time federal grant. The official 2026-27 part-time figure is $2,520. Use the government pages above if numbers conflict.

There is also a ceiling on total aid. For 2026-27, Ontario's combined-aid maximum for a full-time student at a public college or university is $530 per week for a single student with no dependants and $875 per week for a married, common-law or sole-support-parent student.

How much grant versus loan will you get?

There's no single ratio. The answer combines two calculations.

The Ontario piece. Here's a hypothetical: if your assessment produced $8,000 in provincial funding, no more than $2,000 of it could be Ontario grant, and the rest would be loan. A lower-need student might get less grant than that, because the 25% is a ceiling.

The federal piece. The full-time Canada Student Grant depends on your previous-year gross family income and family size. Below the lower threshold you get the full $4,200. At or above the upper threshold you get nothing. Between the two, the grant shrinks as income rises.

These thresholds take effect August 1, 2026. Add the two pieces together and you can see why your overall grant share can be well above 25%. A lower-income family might get the full $4,200 federal grant plus a capped Ontario grant on top. A family close to the upper federal cut-off will see mostly loan.

One more caution. The higher federal amounts have been extended one year at a time and currently run through 2026-27. If they lapse, the full-time federal maximum falls from $4,200 to $3,000 and the weekly federal loan limit from $300 to $210. If you're planning past next year, budget for the lower figure.

What changes your OSAP amount

Family income and dependency status

If OSAP treats you as a dependant, your parents' income counts, and that alone can decide whether you get the full federal grant or none of it. The official OSAP parental information form treats a full-time college or university student who has been out of high school for less than six years as a dependant whose parents' information is required. Other circumstances can make you independent, such as having been in the workforce for a period of time, but these tests are specific. Check your own situation with OSAP or your school's aid office rather than assuming.

The 2026-27 assessment normally uses your parents' 2025 income. If that income dropped in 2026 because of a job loss, retirement or a swing in self-employment income, your family can ask OSAP to use estimated 2026 income instead. That request can increase your grant. Be careful with the estimate, though: if the final verified income comes in higher, grants based on the lower figure can be converted to loans. Parents managing this paperwork may find our scholarship guide for parents useful too.

Full-time versus part-time

Full-time OSAP requires at least 60% of a full course load, or 40% with a verified permanent, persistent or prolonged disability. Part-time OSAP covers 20% to 59%. It pays for tuition, books, equipment and child care but not living expenses, so the total is much smaller.

The University of Toronto adds two details that catch students out. The 60% applies in each semester, and you can't average it across two. Your faculty's definition of full-time may also differ from OSAP's. The two are also separate programs: if you had full-time OSAP one term and go part-time the next, you need to submit a new part-time application.

Type of school

At a public college or university, you're eligible for the capped Ontario grant plus the federal grants. At a private career college, your provincial OSAP is all loan for study periods starting on or after August 1, 2026. Some public universities also have a Student Access Guarantee, which York describes as extra support for low-income students when OSAP doesn't fully cover tuition, books and mandatory fees. You have to apply for OSAP to be considered.

How to keep your grant from becoming a loan

The most painful OSAP surprise is a grant that disappears after the money has already arrived. Ontario says that any change to your course load or application details triggers a reassessment. Grants can be converted to loans in two situations:

• You withdraw or drop below the minimum load within the first 30 days and don't return full-time within five months in the same academic year.
• A reassessment shows you weren't entitled to the grant, for example because of dropped courses or unreported income.

Overpayments also carry over. U of T notes that withdrawing from full-time study in the fall creates an overpayment that is deducted from your winter assessment, so you may get little or no OSAP in winter. Repeated overpayments can bar you from full-time OSAP after three overpayments of $2,000 or more, or after overpayments totalling $10,000 or more. That restriction applies to full-time aid only, so part-time OSAP stays available.

Ontario also lists reasons you can be ineligible for OSAP altogether: reporting income that differs significantly from what you reported to the CRA, having unresolved grant or bursary overpayments, having defaulted on a student loan, being an international student, or reaching the lifetime limit (340 weeks, 400 for doctoral studies, up to 520 for students with disabilities).

How to estimate your own number

The calculator gives you one number. Working through it in this order lets you see where that number comes from.

Once you've worked out your federal band and dependency status, go straight to the official OSAP Aid Estimator on Ontario's OSAP site, then compare it with your real assessment when it arrives. Those are the only figures you can count on. When the estimate comes back, look at the grant line and the loan line separately, because the loan line is the part you'll be paying back after graduation.

How to replace the grant money you lost

In CBC's example, total aid held steady while the grant shrank. If your estimate looks like that, the 25% cap itself won't change, though a reassessment with updated income still might. What you can change is how much non-repayable money you bring in from elsewhere: bursaries from your school, the Student Access Guarantee where your university offers it, and scholarships.

Scholarships are the piece you have the most control over. ScholarshipsCanada.com estimates that $10 to $20 million in Canadian scholarship money goes unclaimed each year. Its database lists more than 98,000 awards worth over $281 million, and about 3% of them get zero applications in a given year.

Getting to the awards that fit you takes real time, though. It means reading eligibility rules on dozens of sites, ruling out the ones you don't qualify for, keeping track of deadlines that fall all year, and writing a new essay for each prompt. That is a lot to fit around a full course load and a part-time job, especially in the same year your grant just got smaller.

Award Scholar does that work for you. It checks active listings against your profile (school year, program, GPA, location, citizenship, activities) and shows the scholarships you actually qualify for in Canada and the US, including ones with no minimum GPA. You can browse scholarships in Canada or by province, and need-based scholarships are especially relevant here, because the financial details you gathered for OSAP often make you a strong fit.

For the essays, Award Scholar's AI scholarship essay writer drafts from the scholarship's prompt and your own details and writing samples, so the essay uses your real story, and you can edit every line. Check each scholarship's policy on AI-written text before you submit. On scholarships that support it, and only when you choose it for that scholarship, Apply with AI fills the provider's form, uploads your saved documents and submits. If a required detail is missing, it stops and leaves the application to you instead of making something up. Your matches, deadlines and drafts all stay in one dashboard.

Setting up a profile and seeing your matches is free. Apply with AI is a paid subscription, with the price shown before you pay. If you actively use Award Scholar for a year and win less in scholarships than you paid, you get everything back.

Your OSAP grant is now partly fixed by provincial policy. The scholarship side isn't, and it depends on how many awards you actually go after. Build your free profile and see what you qualify for this year.

Frequently asked questions

How much OSAP grant will I get in 2026-27?

It depends on your needs assessment, but the pieces are predictable. Full-time students can get up to $4,200 from the federal Canada Student Grant depending on family income, plus an Ontario grant capped at 25% of provincial funding at a public school. Run the official OSAP Aid Estimator for your actual figure, then use Award Scholar to find scholarships that cover what's left.

Is OSAP 25% grant and 75% loan now, and does that include the Canada Student Grant?

The 25% cap applies only to the Ontario-funded share of OSAP for programs starting on or after August 1, 2026. The federal Canada Student Grant is assessed separately and isn't subject to the cap. That's why your overall grant share can be higher than 25%, especially if your family income is below the federal threshold.

Can I still get OSAP grants if my parents make over $100,000?

Often, yes, depending on family size. For a family of four, the federal full-time grant only reaches zero at $129,769 in previous-year gross family income, so a family earning $100,000 would still get a partial grant. The Ontario grant is need-based, and it varies more with your costs.

What happens to my OSAP grant if I drop a course or go part-time?

Any change in course load triggers a reassessment. If you drop below the minimum load early in the term and don't return to full-time within five months in the same academic year, grants can be converted to loans. Going part-time also requires a separate part-time application, so talk to your aid office before you drop anything.

Do private career college students still get OSAP grants?

Not from Ontario. For study periods starting on or after August 1, 2026, career college students no longer qualify for the Ontario Student Grant, so their provincial OSAP is all loan. Check your assessment for any federal grant, and look into scholarships that cover career and trade programs, which Award Scholar can match you with.