Elterngeld Germany

Basiselterngeld or ElterngeldPlus, and how long can we stay at home?

Parents normally share twelve Basis months, with two additional months when the partner-month conditions are met. Plus stretches each remaining Basis month into two months and can help when working part time. Compare benefits and household cash over the same period.

Your family plan

For two parents with regular employment income. Enter the birth parent first. The official planner covers single parents, self-employment and special cases.

Birth date or expected birth dateLife months start on the birth date. The displayed date selects the applicable calculation year. Household taxable income before the birth€Use the combined taxable income from the prior calendar year, not gross salaries. Check the income limit before planning payments.

Birth parent

Monthly gross before the birth€Average regular pay in the assessment period. Exclude one-off payments; maternity-related exclusions can shift this period. Tax class Part-time monthly gross during Plus or bonus months€ Average weekly hours in those monthsUse zero without work. Benefit months allow at most 32 hours; the partnership bonus requires both parents to work 24–32 hours.

Tax details and amounts from your assessment

Tax class IV factor, if registered Church tax applies Elterngeld-Netto before birth€Optional. Leave blank for an estimate. Elterngeld-Netto is the statutory assessment amount and differs from payslip net pay. Elterngeld-Netto during part-time work€Optional. Leave blank for an estimate. Elterngeld-Netto is the statutory assessment amount and differs from payslip net pay. Actual monthly net pay before leave€Optional. Leave blank for an estimate. Elterngeld-Netto is the statutory assessment amount and differs from payslip net pay. Actual monthly net pay during part-time work€Optional. Leave blank for an estimate. Elterngeld-Netto is the statutory assessment amount and differs from payslip net pay.

Other parent

Tax details and amounts from your assessment

Children and partnership bonus

Older sibling bonusCheck the age and household conditions in the official sibling-bonus guidance. Additional children in this birthZero for one baby, one for twins, two for triplets. Consecutive partnership bonus months

Actual maternity benefits after birth

Include maternity pay and the employer supplement attributable to each life month. Enter the covered days too: payments only offset the same days of Elterngeld.

Does the birth parent receive maternity benefits?

Life month 1 · Maternity payment€ Covered days in this life month

Life month 2 · Maternity payment€ Covered days in this life month

Life month 3 · Maternity payment€ Covered days in this life month

Life month 4 · Maternity payment€ Covered days in this life month

Basiselterngeld, every month

€1,589 65 % of a pre-birth Elterngeld-Netto of €2,444

ElterngeldPlus€794a month, for twice as many months

Floor and ceiling€300 – €1,800§ 2 BEEG bounds the monthly amount whatever the salary was

Five ways to take it

The same entitlement every time. What changes is how far it is stretched, and whether anybody works while it runs.

Sequential Basiselterngeld months

most money

The parents claim sequentially, so no restricted simultaneous Basis month is assumed.

Elterngeld: €22,663
Mutterschaftsgeld: €0
Reaching the household: €151,523
Paid until: Lebensmonat 14

Month by month

1 €1,589
2 €1,589
3 €1,589
4 €1,589
5 €1,589
6 €1,589
7 €1,589
8 €1,589
9 €1,589
10 €1,589
11 €1,589
12 €1,589
13 €1,800
14 €1,800
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32

Mutterschutz Basiselterngeld ElterngeldPlus Partnerschaftsbonus Left column: the parent who gives up the income. Right column: the other one.

Basis maternity months, then ElterngeldPlus

longest

Maternity months remain Basis claims; every remaining entitlement month is converted to two Plus months.

Elterngeld: €22,663
Mutterschaftsgeld: €0
Reaching the household: €117,885
Paid until: Lebensmonat 28

Month by month

1 €794
2 €794
3 €794
4 €794
5 €794
6 €794
7 €794
8 €794
9 €794
10 €794
11 €794
12 €794
13 €794
14 €794
15 €794
16 €794
17 €794
18 €794
19 €794
20 €794
21 €794
22 €794
23 €794
24 €794
25 €900
26 €900
27 €900
28 €900
29
30
31
32

Mutterschutz Basiselterngeld ElterngeldPlus Partnerschaftsbonus Left column: the parent who gives up the income. Right column: the other one.

How long you can stay at home is a different question

Elterngeld is the money. Elternzeit is the job protection, and it is 3 years per parent per child whether or not any Elterngeld is still arriving. Up to 24 of those months can be moved to between the third and the 8th birthday, in at most 3 blocks. Tell your employer 7 weeks before, or 13 weeks for a block after the third birthday.

Both parents have their own three years, at the same time if you want. So the longest anyone is paid is Lebensmonat 32 and the longest anyone is protected is the third birthday – those two numbers are nearly two years apart, and the gap is unpaid.

Basiselterngeld a month, by salary before the birth

BasiselterngeldFloor €300 and ceiling €1,800

Monthly gross before the birth · the marker is where you are

Monthly gross	Basiselterngeld a month	Share of that gross
€603	€384	63.76 %
€1,278	€655	51.29 %
€1,952	€947	48.5 %
€2,627	€1,233	46.95 %
€3,302	€1,509	45.7 %
€3,976	€1,779	44.74 %
€4,651	€1,800	38.7 %
€5,325	€1,800	33.8 %
€6,000	€1,800	30 %

What to actually do

Before the birth: tell your employer about Elternzeit. 7 weeks of notice in text form for births from 1 May 2025, specifying the requested period. Registration before the third birthday normally commits you for the following two years.
After the birth: apply, and do it inside three Lebensmonate. Apply after birth. Payments can cover the 3 life months before the life month in which the application arrives. Arrival in life month four can still cover life month one; arrival in month five generally cannot.
Where: the Elterngeldstelle for the child's home address. Every federal state also has a digital route, and most of them use ElterngeldDigital, which walks through the form and catches contradictions before they become a query letter.
What to attach. The birth certificate in the original issued for Elterngeld, proof of income for the twelve months before the birth, and – for the mother – the Mutterschaftsgeld certificate and the employer's statement about its supplement.
Both parents sign. One application each, one per child however many arrive at once, and each has to countersign the other's. Say in it which Lebensmonate each of you is claiming – that is the plan you chose above.
Tell them when the plan changes. Hours above 32 a week end the entitlement for that month, and a partnership-bonus month worked outside 24 to 32 hours has to be paid back.

A 2027 reform has been reported but not enacted: fewer months, a higher floor and ceiling, more reserved months for each parent. No figure on this page uses it. Reported details still differ between sources and an unpassed bill has no amount to calculate, so this page stays on the law in force and will be re-checked when a bill is passed. Reviewed 3 September 2026.

Elterngeld-Netto is not the net on your payslip. A flat work-expenses allowance comes off, then the tax that was actually withheld, then a flat 21 percent for social contributions instead of the real ones. Entitlement stops entirely above a taxable household income of €175,000.

See where that net came from

What this answers

Which way of claiming the same months pays the household most

The entitlement is fixed. What is not fixed is how it is spent: sequential Basis months, twice as many Plus months at half the rate, or a partnership bonus. Each plan is priced over the same number of months, counting net Elterngeld, Mutterschaftsgeld and part-time net salary – so the totals are comparable.

The part that decides it

Whether either parent works while it runs

Anything earned during a month is set against that month's Elterngeld, which is why ElterngeldPlus exists and why the plan that shows the least Elterngeld often puts the most money in the household. Part-time net salary is counted as net, never added to a net benefit as gross.

What it does not answer

Which parent should take which months

Reserved months, tax class, career effects and who can actually take leave decide the split, and none of those is a number this page holds. It prices the plans you could choose; it does not choose between the two of you.