Calculators › Rent-to-Income Ratio Calculator
Tenant screeningBy Cedrick Reese, Property Rental Calculator
Free calculator that instantly checks a tenant's rent-to-income ratio against the standard 30% and 3x-rent guidelines.
Income & rent
Before taxes. For an applicant, this is the figure you'd verify with pay stubs or an offer letter.
Enter an income and a rent amount above zero to see the ratio.
A screening yardstick, not a guarantee of on-time payment or a legal requirement. Apply any income standard consistently, and check your local source-of-income and fair housing rules before rejecting an applicant on income alone. Not legal advice. Last reviewed September 2026.
Enter the applicant's (or your own) gross monthly income and the monthly rent. The tool shows the ratio, the income multiple of rent, and the maximum rent or minimum income each yardstick allows, updating as you type.
Both express roughly the same affordability line, just measured from different directions. The 30% rule caps rent at 30% of gross monthly income. The 3x rule requires gross monthly income of at least three times the rent, which works out to about 33%, close enough that most landlords use them interchangeably. A 2.5x multiple is the stricter version of the same idea, capping rent closer to 40% of income.
On $6,000 of gross monthly income and $1,800 rent, the ratio is exactly 30% and the income multiple is 3.33x, comfortably clearing both the 30% guideline and the 3x rule.
30% of gross income or less is the standard benchmark, which is the same idea as requiring about 3x the rent in gross monthly income.
It's a rough national yardstick, not a fixed law. Many landlords flex it up to 35–40% in high-cost markets, and a strict 3x cutoff can unfairly exclude otherwise qualified applicants, especially in expensive areas. Income ratio works best paired with credit history and rental history, not used alone.
Many states and cities have source-of-income protection laws that require voucher income to be counted and limit blanket rejections based on income ratio alone. Rules vary by location, so check your local ordinance. See how to screen a rental applicant for the fuller fair housing picture.
They're the same concept at slightly different strictness. 30% (about 3.33x) is the most common; 3x (about 33%) is close behind; 2.5x (40%) is the stricter version some landlords use in higher-risk situations.
Cedrick Reese, a web developer, built this calculator around the two screening yardsticks landlords and property managers actually use day to day: the 30% income rule and the 3x-rent multiple. Those benchmarks are checked against current tenant-screening guidance, cited below, and this page gets updated if that guidance changes.