Use this free Arizona spousal maintenance calculator to see how A.R.S. § 25-319 and the Arizona Supreme Court's Spousal Maintenance Guidelines (revised effective September 1, 2025) may apply to your situation. The same state law applies whether your divorce is filed in Phoenix (Maricopa County), Tucson (Pima County), Flagstaff (Coconino County), Prescott (Yavapai County) or anywhere else in Arizona. This tool checks the eligibility grounds, finds the duration range for your marriage length including the Rule of 65, and illustrates a monthly amount from the recipient's shortfall and the payor's ability to pay. For the official amount range, use the Arizona Supreme Court's calculator.
A spouse must meet at least one of five statutory grounds before the guidelines apply. A calculator cannot prove eligibility.
A.R.S. § 25-319(A)(1)-(5)
The Supreme Court's calculator turns family size and both spouses' income into an amount range. The guideline amount is ordered unless the court finds in writing that it is inappropriate or unjust.
A.R.S. § 25-319(B); Guidelines § I
Ranges run from 3 to 12 months (under 24 months of marriage) up to 12 months to the greater of 12 years or half the marriage (192 months or more). Without an agreement, courts must apply them, subject to the exceptions.
Guidelines § IV
If the recipient is at least 42, the marriage is at least 16 years, and age plus years of marriage is 65 or more, duration is decided case by case.
Guidelines § IV(B)(2)(b)
A maintenance order is made without regard to marital misconduct. Waste of property and damages from a criminal conviction against the other spouse or a child are still listed factors.
A.R.S. § 25-319(B)(11), (13), (C)
Modifiable on substantial and continuing changed circumstances. Ends on death or the recipient's remarriage unless agreed in writing or stated in the decree.
A.R.S. § 25-327; § 25-319(D)
Fields marked with an asterisk are required. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A court may award maintenance only if the spouse seeking it meets at least one of these grounds, and a calculator cannot prove eligibility. Check each ground you believe applies.
An attorney should review your agreement.
Illustrative monthly amount
The official Arizona range comes from the Supreme Court's calculator and its expenditure data, not from the expenses you entered, so treat these figures as an illustration.
A.R.S. § 25-319(B)(1)-(13). The court decides how much weight each factor carries; these are listed for discussion with an attorney, not scored.
For the amount range a court will use, see the Arizona Supreme Court's Spousal Maintenance Guidelines and Calculator.
No. 1 CA-CV 24-0293 FC, Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One, April 3, 2025
Holding: Under A.R.S. § 25-317 and Rule 69 of the Arizona Rules of Family Law Procedure, a superior court must accept or reject a written separation agreement in its entirety. It may not adopt some terms and reject others. Why it matters: If maintenance is part of a separation agreement, the court cannot keep the maintenance terms and rewrite the rest, or the reverse.
Arizona Supreme Court, adopted May 28, 2025, effective September 1, 2025
What it does: Sets the rules for family size, income, the amount range, duration ranges, the Rule of 65, deviations, temporary orders and modifications. A court may use the Guidelines only after finding the spouse eligible under § 25-319(A).
As cited in Guidelines § IV(B)(2)(c)
Point cited: When a disability exists but it is uncertain how long it will affect self-sufficiency, the court sets a fixed-term award within the standard range. The receiving spouse then bears the burden of proving the disability continues, and must seek modification before the fixed term expires.
As cited in Guidelines § VII(B)
Point cited: The paying spouse's retirement can be a change in circumstances, but a court should not guess at future retirement when setting amount or duration. The affected party waits until retirement occurs and then seeks modification or termination.
As cited in Guidelines § VI(B)
Point cited: When making temporary maintenance orders, a court must allocate community expenses, and the allocation is subject to reallocation at the final hearing.
Summaries are for general information and may not reflect later developments. Have an attorney confirm the current status of any authority before relying on it.
Arizona calls alimony spousal maintenance. A court decides in two steps. First it asks whether the spouse seeking maintenance is eligible under A.R.S. § 25-319(A), which requires at least one of five grounds: lacking sufficient property (including property apportioned to the spouse) to provide for reasonable needs; lacking earning ability adequate to be self-sufficient; being the parent of a child whose age or condition means the parent should not be required to seek employment outside the home; having made a significant financial or other contribution to the other spouse's education, training or career, or having significantly reduced income or career opportunities for the other spouse; or having had a marriage of long duration and being of an age that may preclude adequate employment.
If the spouse is eligible, the court applies the Arizona Supreme Court's Spousal Maintenance Guidelines, which produce an amount range and a duration range. Under § 25-319(B), the guideline amount is the amount ordered unless the court finds in writing that applying the guidelines would be inappropriate or unjust, and maintenance is awarded only for the period and in the amount necessary to enable the receiving spouse to become self-sufficient.
The Arizona Supreme Court adopted revised Guidelines in Administrative Order No. 2025-101, effective September 1, 2025, for spousal maintenance orders (original or modified) entered on or after that date, except in cases of default or as the parties otherwise agree.
Under them, the calculator's high-income adjustment adds 1% for every $2,500 of intact family income starting at $175,000 a year, up to a 70% increase; below $44,000 of combined income the range begins at zero; for marriages of 192 months or more that are not covered by the Rule of 65, duration runs from 12 months up to the greater of 144 months or 50% of the marriage; and a court may attribute a four percent rate of return to income-producing property when equitable. Debt is not part of the calculator, though a court may consider it when deciding whether to deviate.
Duration is set by ranges tied to the length of the marriage, measured in months from the date of marriage to the date the petition was served: under 24 months, 3 to 12 months; 24 to under 60 months, 6 to 36 months; 60 to under 120 months, 6 to 48 months; 120 to under 192 months, 12 to 60 months; and 192 months or more, 12 months up to the greater of 144 months or 50% of the marriage.
Without the parties' agreement, a court must apply these ranges, unless the recipient has a permanent disability, the court finds extraordinary circumstances, or the Rule of 65 applies, in which cases duration is decided case by case. Arizona has no lifetime awards. An award is fixed-term or indefinite, and that choice decides who must later prove a substantial and continuing change.
The Rule of 65 applies when three things are true on the date the petition was served: the spouse seeking maintenance is at least 42 years old, the marriage lasted at least 16 years (192 months), and the spouse's age plus the length of the marriage in years is 65 or more. The duration is then decided case by case instead of from the standard range. If any one condition is missing, the standard range applies. For example, a 42-year-old after a 23-year marriage meets the rule, while a 43-year-old after a 17-year marriage does not (43 + 17 = 60).
A maintenance order is made without regard to marital misconduct (§ 25-319(C)). Two listed factors do look at conduct with financial effects: excessive or abnormal expenditures, destruction, concealment or fraudulent disposition of community or jointly held property (§ 25-319(B)(11)), and all actual damages and judgments from conduct that resulted in a criminal conviction of either spouse in which the other spouse or a child was the victim (§ 25-319(B)(13)).
The Guidelines treat the second as a factor for deviating from the amount range and as an example of extraordinary circumstances for duration. Section 25-319 does not make a conviction an automatic bar to maintenance.
Yes. Under A.R.S. § 25-317, spouses may settle maintenance in a written separation agreement. The Guidelines say that adopting an agreement outside the guideline ranges is not a deviation if it is in writing or stated on the record under Rule 69, was made free of duress and coercion, and, for a separation agreement or consent decree, the court finds it complies with § 25-317. Each party should acknowledge awareness of the Guidelines and calculator.
In Jacobs v. Jacobs, No. 1 CA-CV 24-0293 FC (Ariz. App. Apr. 3, 2025), the Court of Appeals held that a superior court must accept or reject a separation agreement in its entirety. If both parties agree, the decree may also state that the maintenance terms shall not be modified (§ 25-319(D)).
Modification is governed by A.R.S. § 25-327 and requires changed circumstances that are substantial and continuing. Unless otherwise agreed in writing or expressly provided in the decree, the obligation to pay future maintenance ends on the death of either party or the remarriage of the party receiving maintenance (§ 25-327(B)). If the parties agreed the terms are non-modifiable, § 25-319(D) says they shall not be modified.
Under the Guidelines, extending a fixed-term award requires the receiving spouse to show substantial and continuing changed circumstances, and the extension generally may not exceed the maximum standard range unless a disability or extraordinary circumstance arises after the award. The retirement of the paying spouse can be a change in circumstances, but courts generally wait until it happens (Chaney v. Chaney, 145 Ariz. 23 (App. 1985)). Stop paying only after a court order or a properly approved written agreement.
For divorce or separation agreements executed after December 31, 2018, maintenance is not deductible by the payor and is not taxable income to the recipient for federal income tax purposes, under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. That federal change has no scheduled expiration. Agreements executed on or before December 31, 2018 keep the old federal treatment unless a later modification expressly states that the new rules apply. Arizona has a state income tax, so ask a tax professional how your Arizona return treats maintenance.
Duration comes from the Guidelines: the calculator converts the marriage length to months, picks the standard duration range, and tests the Rule of 65 using the recipient's age. It flags permanent disability and extraordinary circumstances, which move duration to the court. The amount works differently. The official calculator builds its range from Consumer Expenditure Survey data for your family size and combined income. Those tables are not reproduced here, so this tool illustrates an amount from the expenses you enter: the recipient's monthly shortfall (needs minus income) compared with what the payor has available (take-home income minus expenses). The illustrative amount is the smaller of the two.
It is not the court's range, it does not model the high-income adjustment or the $44,000 threshold, and it does not predict an award. For the range a judge will see, use the Arizona Supreme Court's Spousal Maintenance Calculator on azcourts.gov.
Alimony law differs across the country. See the national alimony calculator for a general benchmark, or browse the calculators for every state.