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2025 guidelines, effective September 2025

Arizona Spousal Maintenance Calculator 2026

Arizona is one of the few states where spousal maintenance runs on real guidelines with real numbers. The duration ranges are published, binding, and shown below exactly as adopted. The amount range comes out of the official calculator’s expenditure data, so for amounts this page hands you to the official tool instead of guessing.

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The Arizona maintenance framework, verified

Arizona is a guidelines state for spousal maintenance: the 2025 Spousal Maintenance Guidelines (AO 2025-101, effective 2025-09-01) produce an amount RANGE through the official calculator and set duration ranges that courts may not deviate from. The court selects the final award, including zero, from that framework.

Factors the court weighs

  • Eligibility first: the requesting spouse must qualify under an A.R.S. 25-319(A) ground before any amount or duration is considered
  • Maintenance may be awarded pursuant to the guidelines only for the period and in the amount necessary for the receiving spouse to become self-sufficient (A.R.S. 25-319(B))
  • Marital misconduct is disregarded: the award is made without regard to fault (A.R.S. 25-319(C))
  • Family size counts the spouses plus the children either party is legally obligated to and actually does support, with expenditure categories capped at a household of five
  • Combined spousal maintenance income includes both spouses actual and attributed income, counting regularly earned overtime averaged over the three years before service (broader than child support income)
  • VA and combat-related disability benefits are excluded from the paying spouse income (A.R.S. 25-530)
  • The court selects an amount from the calculator range, or deviates under Guidelines Section V, including down to zero; deviation from the duration ranges is not permitted

A.R.S. § 25-319; 2025 Spousal Maintenance Guidelines Sections I-V (AO 2025-101)

Duration limits

  • How marriage length is measured: Months from the date of marriage to the date of service of the petition.
  • Marriage under 24 months: 3 to 12 months of maintenance.
  • Marriage of 24 to just under 60 months: 6 to 36 months.
  • Marriage of 60 to just under 120 months: 6 to 48 months.
  • Marriage of 120 to just under 192 months: 12 to 60 months.
  • Marriage of 192 months or more (Rule of 65 not met): 12 months up to the GREATER of 144 months or 50 percent of the marriage length.
  • Rule of 65: Where, at service, the requesting spouse is at least 42, the marriage is at least 192 months, and age plus marriage years total at least 65, duration is within the court discretion.
  • No lifetime awards: Awards are fixed terms; disability with indefinite impact takes a fixed term within the standard range, and permanent inability or extraordinary circumstances (clear and convincing evidence) are set case by case.

Assumptions

  • This tool does not estimate an Arizona maintenance amount: the guideline range comes from a Consumer Expenditure Survey expenditure schedule that lives inside the official Spousal Maintenance Calculator and is not printed in the guidelines. Use the official calculator (linked below) for the amount range; the duration ranges shown here are transcribed exactly and are binding.
  • Published amount structure (exact, but not computable without the expenditure schedule): the receiving spouse share of combined household expenditures, proportionate to income, is subtracted from combined expenditures to form the range; a High-Income Adjustment adds 1 percent for every $2,500 of intact family income above $175,000 a year, capped at 70 percent; combined annual income at or below 80 percent of full-time state minimum wage produces a zero award, and up to $44,000 the range starts at zero.
  • Spousal maintenance is decided first and feeds the child support math: court-ordered maintenance actually paid is deducted from the paying parent Child Support Income under the 2022 Child Support Guidelines (Section II.B), and maintenance received counts as income of the receiving parent.
  • official-confirmation-required: the guideline AMOUNT range is generated from a Consumer Expenditure Survey expenditure schedule that lives inside the official Spousal Maintenance Calculator and is not printed in the guidelines, so this tool does not estimate amounts until that schedule is verified. The published amount structure is exact: the receiving spouse share of combined household expenditures (proportionate to income) is subtracted from combined expenditures to form the range; a High-Income Adjustment adds 1 percent for every $2,500 of intact family income above $175,000 a year, capped at 70 percent; combined annual income at or below 80 percent of full-time state minimum wage produces a zero award, and up to $44,000 the range starts at zero. Guidelines apply to petitions filed on or after 2022-09-24 and to orders entered on or after 2025-09-01 (except default or agreement).

Estimate only. The court or state agency calculation controls.

Arizona alimony under A.R.S. § 25-319; 2025 Arizona Spousal Maintenance Guidelines (Administrative Order 2025-101, effective 2025-09-01).

Guidelines with teeth: how Arizona maintenance works

In 2022 the legislature rewrote A.R.S. section 25-319: maintenance may be awarded pursuant to guidelines, only for the period and amount needed for the receiving spouse to become self-sufficient. That single sentence turned Arizona from a discretionary state into a guidelines state. The current guidelines are the 2025 Spousal Maintenance Guidelines, adopted by Administrative Order 2025-101 and effective for orders entered on or after September 1, 2025.

Eligibility still comes first. A spouse must qualify under one of the section 25-319(A) grounds before amount or duration is ever computed, and marital misconduct plays no role in the award either way.

The amount side is calculator-driven by design. The official Spousal Maintenance Calculator combines family size and both spouses’ incomes, including regularly earned overtime averaged over the three years before service, and applies household expenditure data from the federal Consumer Expenditure Survey to produce a suggested range with a midpoint. The court picks within the range or deviates with findings, including down to zero. High earners get a structured bump: 1 percent is added for every $2,500 of intact family income above $175,000 a year, capped at 70 percent. At the other end, combined income at or below 80 percent of full-time minimum wage produces a zero award, and up to $44,000 the range simply starts at zero.

The duration side is a table, and it is strict. Marriage length is measured in months from the wedding to the date the petition was served, each length band carries a floor and a ceiling, and the guidelines forbid deviating from the duration ranges. Marriages of 16 years or more can reach 144 months or half the marriage length, whichever is greater, and the Rule of 65 removes the ceiling entirely for long marriages plus older spouses: at least age 42, at least 192 months married, and age plus marriage years totaling 65 or more, all at service.

Why does this page not print a dollar figure? Because the expenditure schedule that drives the amount range lives inside the official calculator workbook and is not reproduced in the printed guidelines. Any amount we computed would be a guess wearing a citation. The duration ranges, the high-income adjustment, and the floors are printed and verified, so those are rendered exactly, and the official calculator link below covers the rest.

Statutory basis
A.R.S. § 25-319(B): awards pursuant to guidelines, aimed at self-sufficiencysource
Current guidelines
2025 Spousal Maintenance Guidelines, AO 2025-101, effective September 1, 2025source
Amount
Range with midpoint from the official calculator’s expenditure data; deviation allowed, to zero if warrantedsource
High-Income Adjustment
+1% per $2,500 of intact family income above $175,000 a year, capped at +70%source
Duration
Binding ranges by marriage length; no deviation from the duration tablesource
Rule of 65
Age 42+, 192+ months married, age plus marriage years at least 65: duration is discretionarysource

How to use this page

Start with duration, because it is the fully verified half. Count the months from your marriage date to the date the petition was served, find your band in the table this page renders, and you have the binding floor and ceiling a court must work within. Check the Rule of 65 if the marriage passed 16 years and either spouse is over 42.

For the amount, open the official Spousal Maintenance Calculator linked in the sources. It holds the expenditure schedule the printed guidelines omit, and it produces the range and midpoint the court will actually look at. Bring both spouses’ incomes including averaged overtime, and your family size.

Remember the sequencing with child support: maintenance is decided first, and whatever is ordered and actually paid moves out of the payer’s income and into the recipient’s before the child support worksheet runs. Our Arizona child support calculator has a field for exactly that hand-off.

What this estimate includes

  • The complete 2025 duration table, transcribed from Administrative Order 2025-101
  • The Rule of 65 and the no-lifetime-award rule
  • The published amount structure: the High-Income Adjustment and the low-income floors
  • The eligibility and self-sufficiency framework of section 25-319

What it leaves out

  • A computed dollar amount or range; the expenditure schedule behind it is not published outside the official calculator
  • Eligibility predictions under section 25-319(A), which are fact-bound judicial calls
  • Pre-2022 petitions, which the guidelines do not reach absent agreement
  • Tax modeling; maintenance is not federally deductible for post-2018 orders

Arizona spousal maintenance FAQs

Does Arizona have a spousal maintenance formula?

Yes, and that makes it unusual. Since the 2022 amendment to section 25-319, maintenance awards follow guidelines: an amount range generated by the official calculator plus fixed duration ranges. Most states hand alimony entirely to judicial discretion. In Arizona the discretion lives inside the range, and duration is boxed in by a table the court may not leave.

How long does spousal maintenance last in Arizona?

It depends on marriage length, measured in months from the marriage to service of the petition. Under 24 months: 3 to 12 months of maintenance. From 24 to just under 60 months: 6 to 36. From 60 to just under 120: 6 to 48. From 120 to just under 192: 12 to 60. At 192 months or more, the range runs from 12 months up to the greater of 144 months or half the marriage length. These ranges are mandatory, and lifetime awards are gone.

What is the Rule of 65?

The escape hatch for long marriages late in working life. If, on the date of service, the requesting spouse is at least 42, the marriage has lasted at least 192 months, and age plus years of marriage add to 65 or more, duration is left to the court instead of the table. It recognizes that a 60-year-old leaving a 25-year marriage cannot realistically retrain into self-sufficiency on a 12-year clock.

Why will this page not estimate an amount?

Because the number would be invented. The 2025 guidelines describe the amount method exactly, but the expenditure schedule that turns income and family size into a dollar range is embedded in the official calculator and is not printed anywhere we can verify. We publish what is verified, render the duration table exactly, and link the official calculator for the range. When the schedule becomes verifiable, an amount mode can ship with real citations.

What changed between the 2023 and 2025 guidelines?

The 2025 guidelines, effective September 1, 2025, superseded the 2023 set that had been in force since July 2023. The framework stayed calculator-plus-duration-ranges; the 2025 order refreshed the methodology and codified case law like the disability rules from Huey v. Huey. Orders entered before September 2025 stay under the version in force when they were entered, and the first quadrennial review report is due by March 2029.

Does cheating or fault change the award?

No. Section 25-319(C) tells the court to decide maintenance without regard to marital misconduct. The guidelines are about economics: what the receiving spouse needs to reach self-sufficiency, what the paying spouse can provide, and for how long.

How do maintenance and child support interact in Arizona?

In strict order: maintenance first. Court-ordered maintenance actually paid is subtracted from the payer’s Child Support Income and counted in the recipient’s under Section II.B of the child support guidelines, which shifts both parents’ shares before the schedule lookup. Veterans’ disability compensation for combat-related injuries stays out of the payer’s income entirely.

Good to know in Arizona

  • The guidelines apply to petitions filed on or after September 24, 2022. For older petitions they cannot apply absent agreement, and on modification of such orders a court may consult the amount framework but not the duration table.
  • If you searched for an Arizona alimony calculator: the state’s official one is real, current, and linked in the sources. It is the same tool courts use, which is precisely why we point at it rather than approximating it.

Official sources

Official sources last verified: .

Reviewed by SupportDecode Editorial Team Page content reviewed Sources Methodology Update log

Changelog: page first published with the 2025 guideline duration ranges, the Rule of 65, and the High-Income Adjustment structure, with amounts deferred to the official calculator. Material changes are dated in the update log.