Student Loan Repayment Plans in 2026: Which Are Still Open, and Who Each One Is For

As of June 2026. Federal repayment rules are mid-overhaul and changing month to month — verify every plan, date, and deadline below at studentaid.gov before you act.

As of June 2026, the federal student-loan system is mid-overhaul, and “wait and see” is now the most expensive plan a borrower can choose: SAVE has ended, new plans and a 90-day auto-placement clock arrive July 1, 2026, and the right plan depends on your forgiveness path and your income. The real question is not “which plan has the lowest payment” but “which still-open plan fits my forgiveness path and income” — because the lowest payment is not the cheapest plan over time, the plan marketed as relief now costs some borrowers the most, and doing nothing routes you to a plan a servicer picks for you.

What changed, and which plans are actually open right now

As of June 2026, four plans are open for enrollment, two more arrive July 1, 2026, SAVE has ended, and a borrower who never chooses gets auto-placed into a plan a servicer picks for them. The borrower who sat on SAVE all year, assuming no news was good news, has been quietly accruing interest while earning zero forgiveness credit.

Open for enrollment now: Income-Based Repayment (Original and New IBR), Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR), and the Standard plan all accept enrollees through the IDR application at studentaid.gov 7. PAYE and ICR are open but sit on a legacy track that closes July 1, 2028 7.

Ended: SAVE is over. A court order dated March 10, 2026 ended the plan, the Department of Education (ED) is not implementing it, and about 7.5 million enrolled borrowers sit in a court-ordered forbearance 5. Interest is not waived, despite what you may have read: it has accrued on SAVE loans since August 1, 2025 even though no payments are due, and these forbearance months do not count toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) or income-driven (IDR) forgiveness 5.

Scheduled for July 1, 2026: ED has announced two new plans for that date. The Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) is a new income-driven plan created by P.L. 119-21, the FY2025 budget reconciliation law (the One Big Beautiful Bill Act) enacted July 4, 2025 1. A new Tiered Standard plan sets a fixed term by balance: 10 years under $25,000, 15 years to under $50,000, 20 years to under $100,000, and 25 years above that 9.

The default trap. ED has announced that beginning July 1, 2026, servicers issue notices giving SAVE borrowers a 90-day window to choose a legal plan; non-responders get auto-enrolled into the Standard or new Tiered Standard plan 6. ED has not said which variant applies to whom, so confirm your placement with your servicer. The clock runs 90 days from that notice — not a single calendar date.

If you’re chasing PSLF, protect the payment count, not the payment size

If you’re pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness, your goal flips the usual logic — you want the lowest qualifying payment on an open plan, because every dollar above the minimum is a balance PSLF will erase tax-free after 120 payments 10.

Think of the nurse or public defender keeping the payment low while the balance grows toward a tax-free wipe at month 120. PSLF still requires 120 qualifying monthly payments on Direct Loans while you work full-time for a government or 501(c)(3) nonprofit employer; ED’s updated PSLF regulations took effect July 1, 2026 with no announced change to payment counts (check studentaid.gov) 10.

The SAVE warning bites hardest here: those forbearance months do not count toward PSLF, so a borrower stuck in SAVE must switch to a qualifying plan to resume credit 5. The income-driven plans and RAP all qualify for PSLF, and because the balance disappears at month 120, the lowest qualifying payment usually wins — IBR’s cap at the 10-year Standard amount even works in your favor as a ceiling on what you pay before forgiveness 4. The 10-year Standard plan qualifies too, but stay on it the whole time and nothing remains to forgive 10.

If you’re a lower-income borrower without PSLF, go income-driven — but know what forgiveness now costs

If your income is low relative to your balance and you’re not chasing PSLF, an income-driven plan still gives you the affordable payment you need — but the tax shield on forgiven debt expired December 31, 2025, so any balance forgiven in 2026 or later now counts as taxable income, changing what “forgiveness” is really worth 11.

Two plans fit this reader and survive the overhaul. RAP charges 1% to 10% of total adjusted gross income (AGI) with a $10 minimum, cuts the payment by $50 per dependent, waives unpaid interest when your payment falls below the interest accruing, and forgives any balance after 360 payments (30 years) — so a single parent near the poverty line can land at or near the $10 floor with interest not piling up 3. IBR charges 10% of discretionary income with 20-year forgiveness for New IBR borrowers, or 15% with 25-year forgiveness for Original IBR 8. PAYE and ICR exist now too, but they sunset July 1, 2028, so a new enrollee should weigh the surviving plans 7.

But the math has a catch. The ARPA exclusion that made forgiven balances tax-free expired December 31, 2025, so non-PSLF IDR forgiveness in 2026 and later is again taxable federal income — a balance still standing at year 20, 25, or 30 is now a tax event to plan for 11. State tax treatment varies; this is general information, not tax advice, so talk to a tax professional and verify current rules at studentaid.gov.

If you’re a higher earner with a moderate balance, the “income-driven” plan can cost you more

If you earn well but still carry a moderate balance, the plan branded as relief can be the expensive one — RAP charges a percentage of your total AGI with no payment cap, while IBR caps your payment at the 10-year Standard amount, so the legacy plan can be both cheaper monthly and cheaper overall 4.

Take the new attorney with graduate debt and a near-six-figure AGI who assumes “income-driven” means “cheaper.” RAP’s payment is a straight 1% to 10% of total AGI with no cap, so high income produces a high payment 3. IBR, by contrast, caps the payment at the 10-year Standard amount; if your income-based figure runs higher, you pay the Standard amount instead 4. For a high earner with a moderate balance, that cap can make IBR the cheaper income-driven plan.

A fixed plan wins outright when you will pay the balance off before any forgiveness date arrives — your comparison points are the 10-year Standard plan and the new Tiered Standard tiers (scheduled for July 1, 2026) 9. Chasing 20-, 25-, or 30-year forgiveness is doubly weak here: the balance left to forgive is small, and whatever is forgiven is taxable since the ARPA shield expired 11. Confirm terms at studentaid.gov.

If you don’t know your plan — or you have Parent PLUS, FFEL, or Perkins loans

If none of the situations above cleanly fits you, find out which plan you’re actually on at studentaid.gov first, and know that Parent PLUS, FFEL, and Perkins borrowers face extra steps — and, for Parent PLUS, a narrowing window — before they can reach the main income-driven plans.

Every recommendation above depends on your starting point, so log in and check your plan and loan types. FFEL and Perkins loans are not Direct Loans, so you must consolidate into a Direct Consolidation Loan to reach Direct-only plans like RAP and IBR 12.

Parent PLUS borrowers face a tighter squeeze: these loans are excluded from RAP and from IDR generally, and the only path runs through consolidating into a Direct Consolidation Loan that reaches ICR — which itself sunsets July 1, 2028 7. That door is closing, so check studentaid.gov soon.

Run your own numbers before the clock runs

The one move that’s right for every reader is to run your specific numbers now: open the student loan repayment calculator, compare your monthly payment and lifetime cost across the plans still open to you, and choose before a 90-day notice chooses for you. If you carry other debts, the debt payoff priority tool helps you sequence them, and the debt-to-income calculator shows whether a payment is affordable.

Refinancing to a private lender forfeits your federal protections and access to forgiveness, so it stays out of scope. The costliest plan is the one you get by default — choose actively, and re-check studentaid.gov, because the rules are still moving.

Sources

• ED / FSA — Dear Colleague Letter: student-loan provisions under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (2025-07-18)
• ED — Fact Sheet: Simplifying Student Loan Repayment; CRS IF13075 (RAP)
• CRS IF13075 — The Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) in P.L. 119-21
• CRS IF13075 / R48727 — RAP and IBR payment provisions
• ED — Next Steps for Borrowers Enrolled in the SAVE Plan
• ED — SAVE next steps: the 90-day notice and auto-placement
• CRS IF13243 — Direct Loan Program: Student Loan Repayment Plans
• CRS IF13243, Table 1; studentaid.gov — Loan Repayment Plans
• ED Fact Sheet / CRS IF13243 — Tiered Standard terms
• studentaid.gov — Public Service Loan Forgiveness Q&A; ED PSLF regulations
• IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service — Student loan forgiveness and your taxes; IRS Pub 4681
• CRS IF13075 — Parent PLUS / FFEL / Perkins consolidation