Military Pay Chart 2026: Basic Pay for Every Grade, Up 3.8%

Military basic pay for 2026 runs from $2,407.20 a month for an E-1 with 4 months of service or more to $18,999.90 for a general or flag officer at the legal cap. Every uncapped rate is 3.8% higher than the rate in force at the end of 2025, effective January 1, 2026. Find your grade, then the column for your years of service, and that cell is your monthly basic pay before taxes and allowances.

Every number below is the DFAS 2026 table, checked November 3, 2026, and copied cell by cell from DFAS’s own pages. We then matched each table against Schedule 8 of Executive Order 14368, which set the rates. Two reading rules matter. “Over 3” means more than 3 years of total service counted from your pay entry base date, not time in grade. And “n/a” marks a cell where DFAS prints no rate, because nobody holds that grade that early.

This page is about how much you are paid. When the money arrives is a different page: military pay dates for 2026 has every DFAS payday, and bank pages such as USAA military pay dates cover early posting.

2026 enlisted pay chart, E-1 to E-9

Junior enlisted pay stops rising early. An E-4 tops out at $3,815.40 once past 6 years; after that, only promotion raises basic pay.

An E-1 with less than 4 months of active duty gets $2,225.70. The E-5 to E-9 table runs longer, because each grade keeps adding steps:

The senior enlisted advisor of each service (Sergeant Major of the Army, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force and their counterparts) gets $11,166.90 regardless of years. That figure matters to officers too; see the combat zone note below.

2026 warrant officer pay chart

W-5 rates start at over 20 years. A W-1 tops out at $7,010.10 after 20 years, while a W-5 keeps climbing to $13,308.30 at over 38.

2026 officer pay chart, O-1 to O-10

The officer table is split three ways so it fits a phone screen. Company grade first:

Field grade:

General and flag officers. O-9 and O-10 rates start at over 20 years.

Two caps shape the top of the chart. Basic pay for O-7 through O-10 cannot pass Level II of the Executive Schedule, $18,999.90 a month in 2026, and O-6 and below cannot pass Level V, $15,408.30. That is why an O-8 over 22 and an O-10 over 40 are paid the same.

Prior enlisted officers (O-1E to O-3E). If you were commissioned with more than 4 years of active service as an enlisted member or warrant officer, DFAS pays you from a separate table that starts at over 4 years and keeps rising after the regular O-3 table stops. Reservists qualify with more than 1,460 retirement points from enlisted or warrant service.

An O-3E over 18 gets $9,609.60, which is $605.40 a month more than a regular O-3 with the same service.

2025 vs 2026: what the raise added

Searching for the 2025 chart? There were two. Executive Order 14132 set the January 1, 2025 rates. Then section 601 of the FY2025 NDAA replaced the table effective April 1, 2025. It raised every E-1 to E-4 rate by 10% and E-5 rates at 8 years or less by 3.0% to 8.3%. Grades E-6 and up, warrant officers and officers kept their January rates.

The 2026 raise was then applied to the April table. We checked all 541 cells: every one that is not capped is exactly 3.8% higher in 2026.

Sources: Executive Order 14132 Schedule 8 (January 2025), FY2025 NDAA section 601 (April 2025), and the DFAS 2026 table checked November 3, 2026. The O-6 over 30 row shows the cap at work: 3.2%, not 3.8%.

Worked example: an E-4 over 3 and an O-3 over 6

E-4 with more than 3 years. Basic pay is $3,482.40 a month, $41,788.80 a year. At the April 2025 rate of $3,354.90 the same year would have paid $40,258.80, so the 2026 raise adds $127.50 a month and $1,530.00 a year. Against what that cell actually paid across calendar 2025 (3 months at $3,049.80, then 9 at $3,354.90, or $39,343.50), 2026 is $2,445.30 higher. Add enlisted BAS of $476.95 and the monthly total before BAH is $3,959.35.

O-3 with more than 6 years. Basic pay is $7,737.00 a month, $92,844.00 a year. The 2025 rate was $7,453.80 all year, so the raise adds $283.20 a month and $3,398.40 a year. With officer BAS of $328.48, the total before BAH is $8,065.48.

Both examples assume the member stays in the same cell all year. If you pass a service anniversary or pin on a new grade mid-year, your rate changes from that point, so check the new cell.

What basic pay leaves out

The chart is only one line of your LES. The largest omissions:

• BAH. It is set by duty ZIP code, grade and dependency status, so no national chart covers it. Run your numbers in the BAH calculator.
• BAS. DFAS lists $476.95 a month for enlisted members and $328.48 for officers, effective January 1, 2026 (checked November 3, 2026). Both rose 2.4% from 2025 ($465.77 and $320.78).
• Special and incentive pays. Hostile fire or imminent danger pay is $225 a month in DFAS’s officer table notes. Hazardous duty, sea and flight pays have their own tables. The deployment pay calculator totals what a combat zone month adds.
• Tax. IRS Publication 3, for 2025 returns, lists basic pay as gross income unless earned in a combat zone, and lists BAH and BAS among the excluded living allowances.

For an officer in a combat zone, the tax exclusion is capped at the senior enlisted basic pay plus the $225 imminent danger pay. On the 2026 tables that is $11,166.90 plus $225, or $11,391.90 a month. Enlisted members and warrant officers exclude all of it; the rules are in the combat zone tax exclusion guide.

Where basic pay meets the SCRA and the SDP

Basic pay is the number every other money decision on this site is measured against.

The SCRA caps interest on debt you took on before active duty at 6%. As an illustration, picture a $20,000 car loan at 12% from before you joined: the cap cuts roughly $1,200 of interest in the first year (6 points on $20,000, before the balance drops). For an E-4 over 3, that is more than 10 days of basic pay. The rate cap guide covers who qualifies, and the refund calculator prices your own loans.

The Savings Deposit Program runs on your pay as well. Under 10 U.S.C. § 1035, you can deposit no more than your unallotted current pay and allowances, interest is capped at 10% a year on up to $10,000, and interest stops 90 days after you return. A bigger paycheck fills the $10,000 faster. The SDP calculator runs the interest, and the SDP payoff order explains why a 6% capped loan can wait while the SDP fills.

Allotments come out of this pay before it reaches your account; how military allotments work shows which ones to set and which to refuse.

Check your 2026 pay against the chart

1. Open your latest LES in myPay and find your pay grade and pay entry base date.
2. Count your full years of service from that date and pick the matching column in the table above.
3. Compare the chart cell to the basic pay line on your LES. If they differ, ask your finance office to check your pay entry base date and grade.
4. Put your next service anniversary on your calendar, and check the following LES for the step increase.
5. Price your allowances separately with the BAH calculator.
6. If you carry debt from before service, send your lenders an SCRA request using the letter generator.

The law behind this: 37 U.S.C. § 1009

Annual adjustment of military basic pay: read the statute.