Arizona alimony calculator: how spousal maintenance is figured

Last updated 2026-07-09

Why there's no single Arizona alimony calculator

You won't find a calculator that spits out a dollar figure for Arizona spousal maintenance, because Arizona law doesn't create one. Child support runs on a strict income-shares formula under A.R.S. § 25-320. Spousal maintenance (the term Arizona uses instead of alimony) is fully discretionary. The judge weighs competing facts and makes a judgment call. ^[7]

That doesn't make the process random. A.R.S. § 25-319 lays out a two-step framework. First the court decides whether a spouse even qualifies for maintenance. Then, only if they do, the court sets amount and duration. Each step has its own list of factors. ^[1]

Some counties publish worksheets that attorneys and mediators use to structure the analysis. Those worksheets don't produce binding numbers. They organize the conversation. The Maricopa County Superior Court runs a self-help center with forms and guidance for self-represented parties, and no spousal maintenance calculator lives there either. ^[4]

Here's the honest bottom line. Without hiring a lawyer, the best you can do is learn the factors, gather your financial documents, and make honest estimates. That's what the rest of this guide walks you through.

What qualifies a spouse for maintenance in Arizona?

Before any dollar figure comes up, the requesting spouse has to clear a threshold test. Under A.R.S. § 25-319(A), a court may award maintenance only if that spouse meets at least one of four conditions:

1. Lacks sufficient property, including property received in the divorce, to meet their reasonable needs. 2. Cannot be self-sufficient through appropriate employment, or has custody of a child whose age or condition makes employment inappropriate. 3. Contributed to the education or earning ability of the other spouse. 4. Had a marriage long enough that age, or reduced employability during the marriage, makes full self-sufficiency difficult. ^[1]

That fourth condition explains why long marriages so often produce awards. Many practitioners treat 10 years as a rough inflection point, though the statute names no threshold. A 55-year-old who stepped out of the workforce for 20 years to raise children faces a genuinely harder path back to self-sufficiency than someone who stayed employed the whole time.

Fail every prong and the analysis stops cold. No maintenance, regardless of the income gap between spouses. This is a real gate, not a formality.

For how spousal support works across the country, the alimony overview covers the national picture.

The 13 factors Arizona courts weigh when setting the amount

Once eligibility is settled, A.R.S. § 25-319(B) lists 13 factors the court must consider to set amount and duration. Courts don't rank them. All 13 are in play at once. ^[1]

Factor	What it measures
1. Standard of living during marriage	The lifestyle both spouses had
2. Duration of marriage	How long the marriage lasted
3. Age, employment history, earning ability, physical/emotional condition	Realistic earning capacity of the spouse seeking support
4. Ability of paying spouse to meet own needs while paying	The payor's financial floor
5. Comparative financial resources	Income, assets, and earning potential of both parties
6. Contribution to earning ability of the other spouse	Education support, relocation for their career
7. Extent the seeking spouse reduced income or career opportunities	Career sacrifices made for the family
8. Ability of both parties to fund children's future education	Shared costs ahead
9. Financial resources of the seeking spouse	Property from the divorce and other resources
10. Time needed to get education or training	Realistic runway to employability
11. Excessive or abnormal spending, hidden assets, or dissipation	Financial misconduct before divorce
12. Cost for the seeking spouse to get health insurance	Post-divorce coverage gap
13. Actual damages and judgments from conduct that led to a criminal conviction	Rare; covers things like DV-related financial harm

Most cases turn on factors 1 through 5. Length of marriage and the income gap do the heaviest lifting in practice, even though the statute gives them no explicit priority.

How long does Arizona alimony last?

Duration comes out of the same 13-factor framework, not a separate rule. But there are patterns you can see in how Arizona judges handle it. ^[1]

Here's a rough rule of thumb many family law practitioners use, and it is not a statutory rule: maintenance often runs about one year for every three to five years of marriage. A 15-year marriage might produce three to five years of support. A 30-year marriage might produce indefinite or long-term support, especially if one spouse can't realistically get back into the workforce.

Short marriages under five years rarely produce maintenance at all, unless one spouse has a disability or the income gap is severe.

Arizona maintenance is always modifiable. Either spouse can go back to court and ask to change the amount or end it early when circumstances shift a lot, such as the recipient remarrying, the payor losing a job, or either party's income swinging hard. The court can also set a specific end date, after which maintenance stops automatically. ^[10]

Remarriage of the recipient ends maintenance by operation of law. Cohabitation doesn't end it automatically in Arizona, though it can be grounds to ask for a modification. ^[10]

What does Arizona alimony actually cost a payor?

Real numbers are hard to pin down. Arizona courts don't publish aggregate data on award amounts, so nobody has clean statewide figures. What practitioners in Maricopa and Pima counties (the two largest) generally report is a spread: a few hundred dollars a month for short marriages with modest income gaps, up to several thousand a month for long marriages where one spouse earns far more.

Say a spouse earns $10,000 a month. That person might pay $1,500 to $3,500 a month to a non-working ex from a 15-year marriage. Treat that as the middle of what practitioners see, not a formula. Your case could land well outside it depending on your facts.

Federal tax treatment flipped in 2019. For divorces finalized after December 31, 2018, maintenance payments are neither deductible for the payor nor taxable income for the recipient. That change hits high-income payors hardest, because the old deduction used to blunt the real cost. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 made the new treatment permanent for new divorce orders. ^[3]

For divorces finalized before January 1, 2019, the old rules still govern existing orders. Payments stay deductible for the payor and taxable to the recipient, unless the parties modify the decree and elect the new treatment. ^[9]

How do Arizona courts handle long marriages differently?

Length of marriage is the single factor that most reliably moves outcomes. Under five years rarely produces maintenance. Ten to 20 years frequently produces time-limited maintenance scaled to how long the lower-earning spouse needs to become self-sufficient. Over 20 years, especially where one spouse has been out of the workforce for a decade or more, often produces long-term or indefinite maintenance.

Indefinite isn't the same as permanent. Arizona courts can, and often do, build in review dates or termination conditions even on long-term awards. A.R.S. § 25-319 aims for the receiving spouse to reach self-sufficiency where that's realistic, and the court tries to give them the runway to get there. ^[1]

Age matters too. A 60-year-old who left the workforce at 35 to raise children is in a structurally different spot than a 40-year-old from a 15-year marriage with recent work experience. Arizona courts weigh age and realistic earning capacity together, which is why two marriages of equal length can produce very different awards.

Can spouses agree on alimony without a judge deciding?

Yes, and in uncontested divorces this is exactly what happens. If both spouses agree on whether maintenance gets paid, how much, and for how long, the judge almost always approves the agreement as long as it isn't grossly unconscionable. Agreement hands you control that litigation strips away.

Spouses can also waive maintenance entirely. A written waiver in a separation agreement is enforceable in Arizona. Once you waive it, you generally can't come back later and ask for it. Think that through hard before signing, especially in a long marriage where one spouse has been out of the workforce.

Mediation is another route. A neutral mediator helps both spouses land on a number they can live with, which then goes into the separation agreement. Courts don't require mediation for maintenance specifically, but many Maricopa County divorce cases go through some form of alternative dispute resolution. ^[4]

If your divorce is fully uncontested, including on maintenance, the paperwork gets much simpler. DivorceClear's $149 document packet is built for this exact situation: couples who've already agreed on terms and need the correct Arizona court forms filled out right. You still make every decision. The packet just handles the paperwork.

For what divorce papers look like in Arizona, see divorce papers.

What financial documents do you need to estimate your case?

Negotiating directly or preparing for court, you need the same core documents. Gather them early. They feed the Affidavit of Financial Information that Arizona courts require in every spousal maintenance case.

The Arizona Supreme Court's Affidavit of Financial Information (Form DRFC5f) makes both parties disclose:

• Monthly gross income from every source, including wages, self-employment, rental income, and dividends
• Monthly living expenses, itemized
• All assets and liabilities
• Health insurance costs and availability ^[8]

Beyond the form, pull the last two years of federal tax returns, the last three months of pay stubs, three to six months of bank statements, any pension or retirement account statements, and documentation of health insurance premiums.

Self-employed spouses tend to have the messiest disclosure situations, because income can be buried in business expenses. If your spouse is self-employed and you suspect income is understated, that's a case where a divorce attorney review earns its cost even if you handle most of the case yourself.

Pull your child support calculator numbers at the same time. Both calculations start from the same income disclosure.

How does marital misconduct affect alimony in Arizona?

This is one of the most common misconceptions. Arizona is a no-fault divorce state. Adultery, abandonment, and most forms of marital misconduct do not affect spousal maintenance. A judge can't punish a cheating spouse by denying them maintenance they'd otherwise qualify for, and can't punish a payor by raising their obligation because they had an affair. ^[1]

The narrow exception is financial misconduct. Factor 11 in A.R.S. § 25-319(B) lets the court consider "excessive or abnormal expenditures, destruction, concealment, or fraudulent disposition of community, joint tenancy, and other property held in common." If a spouse spent marital assets on a paramour, gambled away savings, or hid assets, that conduct can affect both the property division and, indirectly, the maintenance analysis. The affair itself is legally irrelevant to maintenance.

Factor 13 covers actual damages from conduct that led to a criminal conviction, which in practice usually means domestic-violence-related financial harm. It's genuinely rare in maintenance orders, but it lives in the statute.

How does alimony interact with property division in Arizona?

Arizona is a community property state. Marital assets and debts split roughly 50/50 unless there's good reason to deviate. The property settlement and the maintenance award are separate decisions, but they push on each other. ^[5]

A spouse who takes home significant assets, especially income-producing ones, may see reduced maintenance eligibility, because those assets already address their "reasonable needs." Factor 1 of the eligibility test asks whether the spouse "lacks sufficient property" to meet their needs. A large settlement can answer that question on its own.

Flip it around. A spouse who gets less property (say the marital home has negative equity, or most assets sit inside the other spouse's pension) has a stronger argument for maintenance to close the gap.

So don't negotiate property and maintenance in separate mental boxes. A deal that looks even on the property side can turn lopsided once you factor in whether those assets actually cover the income needs.

How to file for spousal maintenance in Arizona

Spousal maintenance goes straight into the Petition for Dissolution of Marriage. There's no separate application. Check the box requesting maintenance in the petition, and be ready to file the Affidavit of Financial Information (Form DRFC5f) when the court requires it, usually before any temporary orders hearing or the final decree. ^[8]

Need maintenance while the divorce is pending? A contested case in Maricopa County can take six months to over a year to finalize. File a motion for temporary orders. That triggers a hearing, usually within a few weeks, where the judge can award temporary maintenance to cover the gap. ^[4]

Arizona filing fees vary by county. In Maricopa County, the divorce petition filing fee was $349 as of 2024, and Pima County runs similarly. Fee waiver applications (Form FEE001) are available if you meet the income thresholds. ^[4]

For self-represented parties, the Arizona Judicial Branch Self-Service Center supplies forms and procedural guidance. The Maricopa County Superior Court Law Library and Self-Service Center offers in-person help on weekdays. ^[4][8]

Arizona courts use "dissolution of marriage" everywhere on their forms. Search that term on the court website, not "divorce."

What if your income or circumstances change after an order is entered?

Maintenance orders are modifiable in Arizona. Either party can petition to change the amount or duration on a "substantial and continuing change of circumstances." The statute doesn't define that phrase precisely, but courts read it to mean the change has to be material (big enough to justify reopening the order) and not temporary. ^[10]

Typical grounds: the payor loses a job or takes a pay cut, the recipient lands a significant raise or new job, either party has a major health change, or the recipient remarries (which ends maintenance automatically).

If the original order says it's non-modifiable, that holds. Spouses can agree in writing to give up the right to seek modification, and courts enforce that. This shows up in settlements where the payor buys certainty in exchange for a bigger one-time asset transfer. ^[10]

To modify, file a Petition to Modify Decree of Dissolution with the same court that issued the original order. Attach documentation of the change. The other spouse has the right to respond and contest it.

Frequently asked questions

Does Arizona use a formula to calculate alimony?

No. Arizona has no statutory formula for spousal maintenance. Child support uses a specific income-shares calculation under A.R.S. § 25-320, but alimony is entirely discretionary. A judge weighs 13 factors listed in A.R.S. § 25-319 and makes a judgment call. No worksheet, calculator, or algorithm produces a binding number. The best you can do is understand the factors and apply them honestly to your own finances.

How long do you have to be married to get alimony in Arizona?

Arizona law sets no minimum marriage length for eligibility. Even a short marriage can produce an award if the requesting spouse meets one of the four eligibility prongs under A.R.S. § 25-319(A). That said, very short marriages under three to five years rarely result in awards, unless there's a disability or severe income disparity. Length of marriage is one of the 13 factors that shapes duration, not a standalone threshold.

Is alimony taxable in Arizona?

For divorces finalized after December 31, 2018, federal law (the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017) made maintenance payments neither deductible for the payor nor taxable to the recipient. Arizona conforms to federal tax treatment for most income items, so state income tax follows the same rule. For divorces finalized before that date, the old rules apply to existing orders unless the parties modify the decree and elect the new treatment.

Can a husband get alimony in Arizona?

Yes. Arizona law is gender-neutral on spousal maintenance. Either spouse can request it, and either can be ordered to pay it. The analysis is identical regardless of gender: does the requesting spouse meet one of the four eligibility criteria, and what do the 13 factors say about amount and duration? In practice, the spouse with lower income and fewer assets after a long marriage tends to receive support, regardless of gender.

Does cheating affect alimony in Arizona?

No. Arizona is a no-fault state, and marital misconduct like adultery does not affect spousal maintenance. A judge can't deny maintenance to someone who qualifies because they cheated, and can't raise a payor's obligation because they had an affair. The narrow exception is financial misconduct: hiding assets, spending down community property, or fraud can affect the analysis under factor 11 of A.R.S. § 25-319(B).

How is alimony calculated in a long marriage in Arizona?

There's no formula, but long marriages (commonly understood as 15 years or more) weigh heavily in both eligibility and duration. Courts look at whether the lower-earning spouse can realistically reach self-sufficiency given age, work history, and time out of the workforce. A 25-year marriage where one spouse didn't work often produces long-term or indefinite maintenance. Duration might scale to retirement age or run until a significant life change makes review appropriate.

Can spouses waive alimony in Arizona?

Yes. Both spouses can agree in a written separation agreement to waive maintenance entirely, or to fix a specific amount and duration. Courts enforce these agreements as long as they aren't grossly unconscionable. Once you waive maintenance in a signed agreement, you generally can't return to court and request it later. Think carefully before waiving in a long marriage where one spouse has been out of the workforce.

What is the Affidavit of Financial Information and do I need it?

The Affidavit of Financial Information (Arizona Supreme Court Form DRFC5f) is a required disclosure in any Arizona case involving spousal maintenance or child support. Both parties must complete it, listing all income sources, monthly expenses, assets, and debts. It's filed with the court and exchanged between parties. Providing false information is perjury. You can find the current form on the Arizona Judicial Branch Self-Service Center website.

How do I get temporary alimony while my Arizona divorce is pending?

File a Motion for Temporary Orders with the court handling your dissolution case. The motion asks for maintenance (and potentially other temporary relief) during the divorce. Courts typically set a hearing within weeks of filing. Bring your financial documentation. Temporary orders stay in effect until the final decree replaces them. Temporary awards don't automatically become permanent; the final hearing revisits the analysis from scratch.

Can I modify an Arizona alimony order after the divorce is final?

Yes, unless the original order specifically says it's non-modifiable. Either party can petition for modification by showing a substantial and continuing change of circumstances, such as a major income change, job loss, or health issue. File a Petition to Modify Decree of Dissolution at the original court. Remarriage of the recipient ends maintenance automatically under Arizona law. Cohabitation alone doesn't end it but can be grounds to seek modification.

What's the difference between spousal maintenance and alimony in Arizona?

They mean the same thing. Arizona statutes use "spousal maintenance" exclusively. "Alimony" is the older common-law term still used conversationally and in federal tax law. If you see "spousal support" in an Arizona context, that's another synonym. All three refer to the same court-ordered payments from one ex-spouse to the other after divorce. Arizona court forms and A.R.S. § 25-319 always say "spousal maintenance."

Does Arizona award permanent alimony?

Arizona courts can award indefinite maintenance, which some people call permanent alimony, but true permanent awards are rare and generally limited to long marriages where one spouse is elderly or disabled and can't realistically become self-sufficient. Even indefinite orders are modifiable if circumstances change. Most long-marriage awards set a specific end date or review date rather than running indefinitely without conditions.

How much does it cost to file for alimony in Arizona?

Spousal maintenance is requested in the divorce petition itself, so there's no separate filing fee for it. The petition filing fee in Maricopa County was $349 as of 2024, and Pima County runs similarly. If you file a separate Motion for Temporary Orders, additional fees may apply. Fee waivers are available for low-income filers using Arizona Form FEE001. Attorney fees, if you hire one, are separate and typically run $3,000 to $10,000 or more for a contested maintenance hearing.

Sources

1. Arizona Legislature, A.R.S. § 25-319 (Spousal Maintenance): A.R.S. § 25-319 sets out the two-step eligibility and 13-factor framework for Arizona spousal maintenance awards; misconduct other than financial is not listed as a factor
2. IRS, Topic No. 452 Alimony and Separate Maintenance: For divorce or separation agreements executed after December 31, 2018, alimony and separate maintenance payments are not deductible by the payor and not includable in income by the recipient under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
3. Maricopa County Superior Court, Self-Service Center: Maricopa County Superior Court operates a self-service center with divorce forms, filing fee information, and in-person help; the 2024 divorce petition filing fee was $349
4. Arizona Legislature, A.R.S. § 25-318 (Disposition of Property): Arizona is a community property state; marital property is generally divided equitably, with the division interacting with maintenance eligibility
5. Arizona Legislature, A.R.S. § 25-320 (Child Support): Arizona child support uses a statutory formula under A.R.S. § 25-320, in contrast to spousal maintenance which is fully discretionary
6. Arizona Judicial Branch, Self-Service Center (Family Law Forms, DRFC5f Affidavit of Financial Information): Arizona courts require both parties to complete Form DRFC5f (Affidavit of Financial Information) in any case involving spousal maintenance or child support, and publish official family law forms including the Petition for Dissolution of Marriage
7. IRS, Publication 504 (Divorced or Separated Individuals): IRS Publication 504 details the federal tax treatment of alimony under pre- and post-2018 divorce instruments, including the election to apply new rules to pre-2019 orders
8. Arizona Legislature, A.R.S. § 25-327 (Modification and Termination of Maintenance): A.R.S. § 25-327 governs modification and termination of maintenance orders; remarriage of the recipient terminates maintenance; parties may agree to make an order non-modifiable