Look up a budget
Search by name, or enter the billed entity number (BEN) if you have it.
The short answer
- The budget is $201.57 per student for schools and $5.43 per square foot for libraries, with a $30,175 floor per school or library, set once for FY2026 to FY2030.
- "Left to request" is the budget minus the pre-discount Category 2 requested under the applicant's BEN since FY2026, funded or pending. Denied and cancelled requests don't count.
- It's a working estimate from public data, not USAC's official figure. Requests a consortium filed for the district aren't included.
How the numbers are worked out
- Find who holds the budget.Budgets belong to the district or library system, so a school or branch that's part of one sends you to its parent's figures.
- Count students or square feet.From the first Form 471 the applicant filed in the cycle (USAC dataset upfy-khtr), each school or library counted once. If it hasn't filed a 471 since FY2026, the lookup estimates from USAC's entity profiles and says so.
- Apply the rate and the floor.Students × $201.57, or square feet × $5.43 for libraries. If that comes to less than $30,175 per school or library, the floor applies.
- Subtract what's been requested.The pre-discount cost of every Category 2 funding request under the BEN since FY2026 (USAC dataset qdmp-ygft), using the latest version of each request. Funded and pending requests count; denied and cancelled ones don't.
Rates and floors: USAC, Category Two budgets. Data: USAC Open Data, read live when you search. See also how Category 2 budgets work.
What it can't see
- Consortium requests. Category 2 a consortium requests on a district's behalf is filed under the consortium's BEN, so it isn't subtracted here.
- Recalculations. If USAC has adjusted a budget, for example after an enrollment change, the public data may not show it yet.
- Library square footage before a 471. USAC's entity profiles don't carry square footage, so a library system that hasn't filed in the cycle shows the floor only.
- Tribal libraries. Their floor is $66,385, not $30,175; the lookup uses the standard floor.
For the official figure, the applicant can see its budget in EPC, and USAC publishes a C2 Budget Tool on its Open Data site.
Using it before you bid
A Form 470 asks for equipment; the budget says whether the district can pay for it with E-Rate. If what's left is less than the work on the 470, the applicant either scales back, pays more itself, or doesn't file. That's worth knowing before you spend a day on a quote.
E-Rate Workbench does this for every Category 2 Form 470 that matches your rules and shows it on the match, next to the incumbent, so you don't have to look each district up.
Questions providers ask
Is this the official USAC budget?
No. It's worked out from USAC's public data with USAC's published rates, and it's usually close, but the applicant's figure in EPC is the official one. Consortium requests and USAC recalculations aren't reflected.
Why does a school show its district's budget?
Category 2 budgets are set for the whole district or library system, which can spend them at any of its sites. A school that's part of a district doesn't have a budget of its own.
Does 'requested' mean the money was spent?
It means requested on a Form 471, pre-discount, and not denied or cancelled. Pending requests count because they'll draw on the budget if they're funded.
Does it cost anything or need an account?
No. It runs in your browser against USAC Open Data, and nothing you search is stored.