Your StudentAid.gov account—and the username and password you use to log in to your account—are essential to your financial aid journey.

Keep reading or select a link to learn key facts about StudentAid.gov accounts:

1. What can a StudentAid.gov account be used for?
2. Who needs a StudentAid.gov account?
3. How to create a StudentAid.gov account
4. Using your StudentAid.gov account to complete the FAFSA^® form
5. Using your StudentAid.gov account after leaving school
6. Troubleshooting StudentAid.gov account issues

1

What Can a StudentAid.gov Account Be Used For?

A StudentAid.gov account allows you to access all resources and forms on StudentAid.gov. When you begin your financial aid journey, you’ll create an account that you’ll use throughout the federal student aid process. This includes

• completing and submitting the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA^®) form,
• checking the status of your FAFSA form,
• reviewing your Federal Pell Grant and student loan amounts and limits,
• accessing your account records, including your Master Promissory Note (MPN),
• tracking your student loan payments,
• accessing repayment tools and forms, and
• signing forms electronically.

Your account grants you access to StudentAid.gov and acts as a legal signature for documents. When you create an account, you’ll enter your personal information, and your identity will be verified. This means each account can be associated with only one person. This also means you can have only one StudentAid.gov account, and you can’t create a new account if you lose access to yours. Don’t share your account with anyone, including your parent(s) or spouse.

2

Who Needs a StudentAid.gov Account?

You (and any additional FAFSA contributors) will each use your own StudentAid.gov account to complete the FAFSA form online. If you accepted any federal student loans, you’ll use the same account to manage your federal student aid when you leave school and begin repayment.

Completing the FAFSA^® Form

When completing the FAFSA form online, each contributor must have their own StudentAid.gov account to access and complete their required sections of the form. A contributor is anyone who is required to provide their information on the FAFSA form, sign the FAFSA form, and provide their consent and approval for the transfer of federal tax information directly from the IRS into the form. Contributors include you (the student) but can also include your parent(s), your stepparent, or your spouse (if you’re married).

Each FAFSA^® form contributor is required to have their own StudentAid.gov account to complete and sign their sections of the form.

There are resources available to help determine who is likely to be identified as a contributor on your FAFSA form and will need a StudentAid.gov account. If you’re wondering whether you’ll need to invite any additional contributors to your form, use the image below to determine who will need a StudentAid.gov account to participate on your FAFSA form.

If you’re a dependent student, you and your parent(s) can use the Who’s My FAFSA Parent? wizard to see which parent or parents will need to create a StudentAid.gov account. The tool takes most people less than five minutes to use. Through a series of questions, it will help you determine which parent(s) will be required to participate on your FAFSA form. You can also refer to the “Is My Parent a Contributor When I Fill Out My FAFSA® Form?” infographic.

All contributors participating on your FAFSA form (including you) will need to create a StudentAid.gov account before starting the form. When you create your account, your information will be verified by the Social Security Administration (SSA) or through other identity verification processes. For some people with a Social Security number (SSN), it may take up to three days to verify the information you provide with the SSA.

After Leaving School and Repayment

After you leave school and enter repayment—if you accepted any federal student loans—you’ll use your StudentAid.gov account to manage your federal student aid and track your payments (including your payment due date and amount). You’ll also need your account to apply for income-driven repayment (IDR) plans and to submit forms and manage your progress toward student loan forgiveness or your grant service obligation.

Remember, you can have only one StudentAid.gov account. You’ll use the same account and log-in credentials through all stages of your federal student aid journey. You will not create a new account after you leave school and enter repayment. This is true for everyone who creates a StudentAid.gov account, including your parent if they take out a parent PLUS loan to help with your education costs.

3

How To Create a StudentAid.gov Account

If you have an SSN (or were assigned an SSN or pseudo-SSN as an eligible noncitizen), you can visit StudentAid.gov/create-account and follow these steps to create your StudentAid.gov account:

1. Enter your personal information, including your full legal name, date of birth, and SSN.
   To be eligible for federal student aid, you (the student) must have an SSN unless you are a citizen of the Freely Associated States (Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Republic of Palau). When entering your name, make sure you enter it exactly as it appears on your Social Security card. Don’t use a nickname. If you have multiple middle names, enter the first letter of the first middle name as it appears on your Social Security card. If you don’t have a middle name, leave the middle name field blank. If your name is too long to fit into the provided fields, enter as many characters as you can. Accepted characters include letters, numbers, spaces, periods (.), apostrophes (‘), and hyphens (-). If your name has changed and no longer matches your Social Security card, you must update it with the SSA.
2. Complete the account information fields, including creating your account username and password and entering your email address.
   An email address can be associated with only one StudentAid.gov account. You’ll use your StudentAid.gov account for all stages of the federal student aid process, so you should choose an email address you’ll continue to have access to in the future. We recommend that you don’t use a school or work email address, which you might lose access to at a later date.
3. Enter your contact information, including your mailing address and phone number (optional).
   If you’re homeless or don’t have a permanent address, you don’t need to provide a home address, but you must provide an address where you reliably receive mail. You may use the address of a relative or friend who has given you permission to use it or the address for your college, career school, or trade school. If you want to use your school’s address, you must first contact the school for permission. Although entering your phone number at this step is optional, we recommend it. You can use your phone number to log in or recover your account information if you forget your username. When entering your phone number, keep in mind that a phone number can be used for only one StudentAid.gov account―it can’t be shared with or used for any other accounts.
4. Select your communication preferences.
   This includes if you prefer to receive communications via email or postal mail, if you want to receive informational emails or text messages from the U.S. Department of Education, and what your preferred language is.
5. Create your challenge questions and answers.
   You’ll be asked to select and answer four challenge questions. These challenge questions can be used to recover your account if you forget your username or password.
6. Verify your information.
   Review the information you’ve provided and confirm that it’s correct. You’ll also need to agree to the terms and conditions for creating a StudentAid.gov account.
7. Set up two-step verification.
   To protect your account from unauthorized access, you’ll be asked to provide a one-time code each time you log in. You can select which method to use for receiving this code, including SMS (text message) verification, email verification, an authenticator app, or a backup code. Email verification is required, and while an authenticator app is optional, it is the most secure option.
8. Your account is now created.
   You’ll immediately be able to use your account to access and complete your sections of the FAFSA form, as well as sign it. However, you’ll need to wait until your information is verified with the SSA before you can use your account fully.

Keep the account username and password you create secure. Don’t share the information with anyone else, including your family members.

What if I Don’t Have a Social Security Number?

Contributors who don’t have an SSN can still create a StudentAid.gov account to fill out and sign their required sections of the online FAFSA form. Students who don’t have an SSN should create an account only if they’re a citizen of the Freely Associated States. To create a StudentAid.gov account without an SSN, visit StudentAid.gov/create-account and follow these steps:

1. Enter your personal information, including your full legal name and date of birth.
2. Under the text box that asks you to enter your SSN, select “What if I don’t have a Social Security number?” You can then check the “I do not have a Social Security number” box and select “Continue.”
3. Follow steps 2 through 7 listed above for users with an SSN.
4. As a final step, you may be asked to answer knowledge-based verification questions to verify your identity. You’ll see three to four questions, and you must answer all of the questions to continue. If no questions are generated for you, a yellow banner with information will display. You can continue creating your account.
5. When you finish entering your answers, check the box to provide digital attestation and confirm that the information you’re providing about your identity is correct.
6. After you submit your answers (if required), you’ll see a confirmation page with the results of your identity verification. If your identity is verified, you can immediately begin fully using your account. If your identity can’t be verified, you’ll still immediately be able to access your account, but it will have limited functionality. No additional steps are needed. If you’re creating an account to contribute to or submit a FAFSA form, you’ll immediately be able to access the form to complete your sections and sign the form.

4

Using Your StudentAid.gov Account To Complete the FAFSA^® Form

When you log in to your StudentAid.gov account, you’ll be taken to your account Dashboard. If you haven’t started your FAFSA form yet, you can select the “FAFSA Form” link from your Dashboard or visit fafsa.gov to begin. Once you start your form, you can check your progress or form status under the “My Activity” section of your Dashboard.

Your account Dashboard can also provide more details when you select your FAFSA form. This includes a FAFSA status tracker; a list of your invited contributors and the status of their invite(s) and sections; and a list of the colleges, career schools, and trade schools that you included on your form.

After your FAFSA form is submitted and processed, you can see additional information about your form in the “My Activity” section of your account Dashboard. This includes your FAFSA submission history, your FAFSA Submission Summary, and any next steps you’ll need to take for your FAFSA form, including alerts about any errors that you need to fix before your form can be processed. To learn more, read our “7 Things To Do After Submitting Your FAFSA^® Form” article.

5

Using Your StudentAid.gov Account After Leaving School

When you log in to your StudentAid.gov account, you’ll be taken to your account Dashboard. Once you start repaying your federal student loan(s), you can view details about your loan(s) on your Dashboard.

Under the “My Aid” section, you can see the lifetime total of all student loan and grant amount(s) you’ve received. You can select “View Details” for a breakdown of each student loan or grant and its specific details, including the interest accrued and principal balance.

You can also view records and documents related to your student loan(s) or grant(s) by visiting “My Documents.” You can then select from your completed documents in the dropdown menu, including your Master Promissory Note (MPN), your loan counseling completion documents, and your Annual Student Loan Acknowledgement (if you signed one). You’ll also have the option to download any of these documents.

Back on your account Dashboard, under the “Upcoming Payments” section, you can view your student loan payments by amount and student loan servicer. Selecting the link(s) provided will take you directly to your student loan servicer’s website. There, you can log in, find more information about your student loans, and make a payment.

Any current outstanding actions related to repayment will be listed below the “My Activity” section. This includes the application statuses for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and income-driven repayment (IDR) plans. If you’re working toward PSLF, your StudentAid.gov account is a helpful tool to manage your application and track your progress toward forgiveness. Read our “How To Manage Your Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Progress on StudentAid.gov” article for more information.

6

Troubleshooting StudentAid.gov Account Issues

Whether you’re experiencing log-in issues or problems with your StudentAid.gov account information, select the link below that best matches your question for more information and solutions.

Quick Links for StudentAid.gov Account Troubleshooting

• How do I retrieve my username?
• How do I reset my password?
• Can I get help accessing my StudentAid.gov account?
• How do I unlock my StudentAid.gov account?
• How can I recover my StudentAid.gov account?
• How do I update my StudentAid.gov account log-in information?
• What if I can’t create a StudentAid.gov account because my SSN is already in use?
• What does the error message “Multiple Students Found” mean?
• What if I didn’t receive my secure code?
• How do I set up an authenticator app for my two-step verification?
• How do I verify my identity if I create an account and don’t have an SSN?

StudentAid.gov Account Video Resources

• “Create and Access Your StudentAid.gov Account”
• “Why Do My Contributors and I Need Our Own StudentAid.gov Accounts for the FAFSA^® Form?”
• “Troubleshooting Your StudentAid.gov Account”