ApexLogics · Topical Guide · OBBBA 2025 — Effective July 1, 2026

2026 Student Loan Changes

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act rewrote federal student lending. SAVE is gone, RAP launches July 1, Grad PLUS borrowing caps take effect, and 529 qualified expenses expand. Four tools to model what this means for your situation.

Tools

Policy Mandate Export

Workflow

API Calls

What changed

Five provisions from OBBBA 2025. Most take effect July 1, 2026.

Eliminated · March 10, 2026

SAVE plan vacated

A federal court vacated the SAVE income-driven plan on March 10, 2026, following a settlement with the state of Missouri. OBBBA permanently eliminates it by statute. Borrowers on SAVE receive servicer notices July 1, 2026 with 90 days to choose a replacement. No action means auto-enrollment in Standard or the new Tiered Standard plan.

Launches · July 1, 2026

Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP)

The new income-driven option for borrowers with any loan disbursed July 1, 2026 or later. Payment = 1–10% of AGI on a sliding scale tied to FPL multiples. $10 monthly floor. $50/dependent reduction. On-time payments waive any unpaid interest — your balance goes down. Forgiveness after 30 years. Once you enroll in RAP you cannot revert to Standard.

Eliminated · July 1, 2026

Grad PLUS loans capped

New graduate and professional borrowers face hard limits: $20,500/yr · $100K lifetime for most grad programs; $50,000/yr · $200K lifetime for professional programs (MD, JD, DDS). Loans no longer cover full cost of attendance — creating a gap that must be filled with private loans or savings. Borrowers who enrolled before July 1, 2026 are grandfathered through June 30, 2029 or program completion.

Expanded · July 1, 2026

529 qualified expenses broadened

529 plans now cover: CDL and vocational training, CPA and bar exam fees, professional license renewal, CPE/CE credits, and K-12 tuition up to $20,000 per year. Federal tax-free growth and state deduction benefits now apply to workforce education spending, not just traditional college costs.

Sunset · July 1, 2028

ICR and PAYE eliminated

Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) are scheduled to sunset on July 1, 2028. Borrowers on these plans must switch before then or will be auto-assigned. Extended and Graduated repayment plans are also eliminated. Income-Based Repayment (IBR) is the only legacy IDR plan that survives permanently under OBBBA.

Use this when…

Common decision scenarios these tools address.

🔄

You're on SAVE and need a new plan

Model RAP vs. the Tiered Standard plan across your income, balance, and employer type. Includes PSLF track under RAP.

🎓

Starting grad school after July 2026

Quantify your federal borrowing gap vs. cost of attendance under the new caps. Model private loan gap-fill scenarios year by year.

📊

Deciding between RAP and Standard repayment

Compare 30-year RAP vs. 10-year Standard by monthly payment, total paid, interest waived, and forgiveness value at your income level.

💼

Using a 529 for professional development

Check eligibility for expanded 529 expenses (CDL, professional exams, license renewal, CPE/CE) and model state deduction + federal tax-free growth.

Tools

All tools run entirely in your browser. Zero PII. Policy Mandate (JSON) export on every tool.

#101 Policy Mandate ↔

RAP vs. Standard Decision Engine

Compares RAP and Standard 10-year repayment for your income, loan balance, and employer type under OBBBA parameters. PSLF track modeled under RAP.

RAPPSLFAGIOBBBA

#102 Policy Mandate ↔

Grad Loan Cap Gap Planner

Quantifies the federal borrowing gap vs. cost of attendance under new Grad PLUS caps ($20,500/yr grad; $50,000/yr professional). Year-by-year gap modeling with private loan fill scenarios.

Grad PLUSFunding GapCOAOBBBA

#103 Policy Mandate ↔

529 Lifelong Learning Maximizer

Eligibility checker for expanded OBBBA 529 qualified expenses — CDL, professional exam fees, license renewal, CPE/CE, K-12 up to $20K. Models federal + state tax benefit.

529 PlanVocationalProfessional DevOBBBA

#22 Policy Mandate ↔

Student Loan Repayment Optimizer

Compares all federal repayment plans — IDR, PSLF, Standard, Graduated — by monthly payment, total interest, and forgiveness value. Includes PSLF payment counter.

IDRPSLFIBRPlan Comparison

Multi-tool workflow

A sequenced workflow that chains these tools — each step pre-fills the next.

Student Loan Payoff Decisions →

Policy Mandate & MCP integration

For developers and AI agents.

Every tool emits a structured Policy Mandate JSON — schema-validated for agent handoff, pipeline ingestion, or advisor review. Each tool ships with a manifest.json for MCP agent discovery. The RAP and Grad Gap tools accept inbound loan_repayment_record from the Repayment Optimizer.

rap_decision_record grad_loan_gap_record 529_lifelong_record loan_repayment_record

suite-registry.json ↗ .well-known/mcp.json ↗ llms.txt ↗