Spousal Maintenance in Arizona: Eligibility, the 2025 Guidelines and Duration Ranges
Arizona family law · Last reviewed November 2, 2026
Arizona calls alimony spousal maintenance. Deciding it takes two steps, and the order matters. First the court asks whether the spouse asking for it is eligible under the statute. Only then does it apply the Supreme Court's Spousal Maintenance Guidelines, which produce an amount range and a duration range. The current guidelines are the 2025 edition, which the court's spousal maintenance page lists as effective September 1, 2025, adopted by Administrative Order 2025-101.
Step one: eligibility
Section 25-319(A) lets the court award maintenance to a spouse who:
- lacks sufficient property, including property awarded in the divorce, to provide for reasonable needs;
- lacks earning ability in the labor market adequate to be self-sufficient;
- is the parent of a child whose age or condition means the parent shouldn't be required to work outside the home;
- made a significant financial or other contribution to the other spouse's education, training, career or earning ability, or significantly reduced his or her own income or career for the other spouse's benefit; or
- had a marriage of long duration and is of an age that may preclude employment adequate to be self-sufficient.
One ground is enough. The guidelines are explicit that a calculator result doesn't prove eligibility. If the court finds the spouse isn't eligible, the calculator isn't used.
Marital misconduct plays no part. The statute says:
A maintenance order shall be made without regard to marital misconduct.
Step two: the guidelines
Section 25-319(B) told the Supreme Court to write guidelines and says the court may award maintenance under them only for the time and in the amount needed for the receiving spouse to become self-sufficient. The guideline amount is the amount ordered unless the court finds in writing that applying the guidelines would be inappropriate or unjust.
The amount range. The court enters the family size and each spouse's income into the official Spousal Maintenance Calculator. The calculator draws on federal consumer expenditure data for similar households, works out the receiving spouse's share of the family's expenditures, and produces a range. The guidelines set some fixed points:
- If combined annual Spousal Maintenance Income is 80% of the state minimum wage or less, the award is zero.
- If it is above that but below $44,000, the range starts at zero.
- A high-income adjustment adds 1% for every $2,500 of intact family income starting at $175,000 a year, up to a maximum increase of 70%.
- Family size counts the spouses plus any child one of them is legally obliged to support and is actually supporting, on the date the petition is served, up to five people.
- Debt isn't a factor in the calculator, though the court may consider it.
Because the range rests on expenditure tables built into the calculator, we don't reproduce it here. Use the court's own tool, linked below.
The duration range. Marriage length is the number of months from the wedding to service of the petition; time living together before the wedding doesn't count, but time separated before anyone filed does. The 2025 guidelines set these standard ranges:
| Marriage length (to service) | Duration range |
|---|---|
| Less than 24 months | 3 to 12 months |
| 24 months to less than 60 | 6 to 36 months |
| 60 months to less than 120 | 6 to 48 months |
| 120 months to less than 192 | 12 to 60 months |
| 192 months or more (Rule of 65 not met) | 12 to 144 months, or 50% of the marriage length if greater |
The guidelines say plainly:
A court cannot deviate from the duration ranges under Section IV.
The Rule of 65. When the requesting spouse is at least 42, the marriage lasted at least 16 years (192 months), and age plus years of marriage on the date of service equals 65 or more, the duration is left to the court's discretion, case by case. The guidelines also allow case-by-case durations for a permanent disability that prevents self-sufficiency, and for extraordinary circumstances proved by clear and convincing evidence.
Deviations and agreements
The court may order an amount outside the range only with written findings: why the range is inappropriate or unjust, what it would have been, and what the order is instead. The factors it weighs are the thirteen in § 25-319(B), including the standard of living, the length of the marriage, each spouse's earning ability, contributions to the other's career, and the cost of health insurance.
Spouses can agree on maintenance in a separation agreement or consent decree without using the guidelines, if each acknowledges knowing about the guidelines and the calculator; the guidelines say an agreement isn't a deviation. A consent decree that awards maintenance must state that you reviewed the guidelines and that the award is appropriate and just (ARFLP 45(b)(1)). Spouses can also agree that the maintenance terms may never be modified (§ 25-319(D), § 25-317(G)).
Temporary maintenance
Either spouse can ask for temporary maintenance while the case is pending (§ 25-316). The guidelines apply to temporary orders too, with presumptions aimed at keeping the status quo quickly; for example, income isn't attributed to a receiving spouse who hasn't worked full-time for a bona fide employer for the 24 months before filing.
Modification and termination
- Modification needs changed circumstances that are substantial and continuing (§ 25-327(A)), unless the decree says the terms can't be modified.
- Termination: unless agreed in writing or stated in the decree, future maintenance ends on the death of either spouse or the remarriage of the spouse receiving it (§ 25-327(B)).
- Which version of the guidelines applies to a modification depends on when the original petition was filed; the guidelines' effective-date section explains the September 24, 2022 dividing line.
Frequently asked questions
Who qualifies for spousal maintenance in Arizona?
A spouse who meets at least one of the five grounds in § 25-319(A): not enough property for reasonable needs, not enough earning ability to be self-sufficient, caring for a young or disabled child, a significant contribution to the other spouse's career, or a long marriage at an age that makes self-sufficient work unlikely.
Is there a spousal maintenance calculator in Arizona?
Yes. The guidelines require the Spousal Maintenance Calculator, and the Supreme Court's spousal maintenance page links to it on the Maricopa County Superior Court's site, in a public version and an Excel version. It produces the amount range once the court has found eligibility.
How long does spousal maintenance last in Arizona?
It depends on the months of marriage to service: 3 to 12 months for under two years, rising to 12 to 144 months (or half the marriage, if greater) for 16 years or more. Under the Rule of 65 the court sets the length case by case.
Does adultery affect spousal maintenance in Arizona?
No. A maintenance order is made without regard to marital misconduct.
Does spousal maintenance end if my former spouse remarries?
Yes, unless you agreed otherwise in writing or the decree says otherwise. It also ends on the death of either of you.
Is spousal maintenance decided before child support?
Yes. The guidelines say that when both are at issue, spousal maintenance must be determined first.