The 2026 DUO guide: up to 1.355,27 euro a month

Study in the Netherlands and someone will tell you that DUO pays students. The hard part is never how much. It is three things nobody writes down together: whether you are in the group that can get it at all, what the monthly figure actually is, and what you owe afterwards. Those three sit on seven or eight different pages of duo.nl, where the eligibility page carries no amounts, the amounts page carries no conditions, and the repayment page mentions neither. This guide puts them on one page, with the 2026 official figures and the date they were read at the bottom.

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1. The first gate: are you in the group at all

DUO's nationality condition is two lines long and it decides everything. Dutch nationality, or a residence permit of type II, III, IV or V, and you qualify outright. A type I permit has to go through DUO's eligibility assistant one case at a time — and a study permit is normally type I, so being enrolled at a Dutch university is not by itself a route to studiefinanciering.

If you hold EU/EEA, Swiss or UK nationality — or your partner or one of your parents does — there is a separate route: migrant worker status. The test is paid work in the Netherlands of at least 32 hours a month, roughly eight hours a week, one day of work. A monthly income of at least 50% of the bijstandsnorm counts instead. If you have already been working for six months or more, an average of 24 hours a month is enough; between 24 and 32 hours DUO assesses case by case, and under 24 hours is a no unless you can otherwise demonstrate migrant worker status. There is also a route with no work in it at all: five unbroken years of living in the Netherlands. People under the Temporary Protection Directive Ukraine cannot apply.

2. What the monthly figure actually is, September to December 2026

Maximum monthly amounts for HBO and university:

• ✓ Basic grant, basisbeurs: 130,21 euro living with parents, 324,52 euro living independently
• ✓ Supplementary grant, aanvullende beurs: up to 491,08 euro, set by your parents' income
• ✓ Interest-bearing loan, rentedragende lening: 315,17 euro
• ✓ Tuition fee loan, collegegeldkrediet: 224,50 euro
• ✓ Total: 1.160,96 euro at home, 1.355,27 euro living independently

One figure you can check yourself: statutory tuition for 2026-2027 is 2.694 euro, and 2.694 divided by twelve is exactly 224,50. The tuition fee loan is your tuition spread over twelve months and not a cent more. If you pay institutional tuition instead, you can borrow up to 1.122,50 euro a month, five times the statutory fee, but never more than the tuition you actually owe.

The basic grant, the supplementary grant and the travel product are all a prestatiebeurs at HBO and university: they convert into a gift if you graduate within ten years, and become a debt with interest if you do not. One exception: the first five months of supplementary grant at HBO or university never have to be repaid. The interest-bearing loan and the tuition fee loan are repayable either way.

What the eight-hours-a-week route is worth can be calculated. On 2026 figures, the basic grant living independently is 3.894,24 euro a year and 15.576,96 over four years; the travel product is booked at 110,95 euro a month, 5.325,60 over four years. Graduate within ten years and those two together, 20.902,56 euro, all become a gift. That is what 32 hours a month is actually buying. Amounts are revised annually, so treat this as an order of magnitude on 2026 numbers.

3. The travel product: week or weekend, and why summer decides it

The student travel product covers train, tram, bus and metro across the Netherlands. Trains are second class; first class costs extra. You pick one of two subscriptions when you apply, and you can switch later:

• ✓ Week subscription: free all day Tuesday to Friday; Monday discounted until 04.00 then free; Saturday free until 04.00 then discounted; Sunday discounted.
• ✓ Weekend subscription: free from Friday 12.00 to Monday 04.00; Tuesday to Friday full fare 04.00 to 09.00, discounted after.
• ✓ The discount: 40% on trains, 34% on tram, bus, metro and water bus.
• ✓ Bringing people: up to three companions travel at a discount with you on the train, off-peak only.

Summer is where the two diverge. From 16 July 04.00 to 16 August 04.00 the week subscription drops to discount only, while the weekend subscription behaves exactly as it does the rest of the year. So if you plan to travel around the Netherlands in July and August, the week subscription is not helping you in that month; if you are away those weeks anyway, the difference costs you nothing. You may switch at most twice per calendar year, not at all between 1 May and 25 August, and never twice within two months.

4. Collecting it starts the meter

The travel product does not arrive by itself. You take your OV-chipkaart to an ophaalautomaat and collect it. DUO's own page is explicit: the prestatiebeurs starts accruing monthly from the moment you collect it, whether or not you ever travel with it. In 2026 that is 110,95 euro a month.

The other side of that rule is easier to trip over: if you never collect it, no money is added, but your months of travel entitlement are consumed anyway — unless you stop your whole studiefinanciering in Mijn DUO. If you want to save the entitlement for later, you have to stop the studiefinanciering as well, and do it on or before the first of the month. Later in the month and the saving only starts the month after.

After switching subscription the new one is ready within five working days and you have six weeks to collect it before the request lapses; the collection date is the date it takes effect. On a four-year HBO or university programme the travel product runs five years at most: the length of the course plus one.

5. What stopping it late costs, with your own numbers

Graduate, drop out, or move to a programme without studiefinanciering and the entitlement ends — but nothing stops automatically. You have to stop it yourself at an ophaalautomaat, by the tenth day of the first month in which you no longer have the right. DUO adds a practical warning of its own: many machines have been removed from shops, so do not start looking on day nine. Find one on the servicepuntenzoeker first.

The arithmetic is short. The first month runs at 96,09 euro per half calendar month, and every half month after that at 192,21 (the first half of a month runs to the 15th). Put your own case in:

• ✓ One month forgotten: 96,09 × 2 = 192,18 euro
• ✓ Two months: 192,18 + 384,42 = 576,60 euro
• ✓ Three months: 192,18 + 384,42 + 384,42 = 961,02 euro

The 2025 rates were 92,98 and 185,98 euro. If the card is lost, broken or expired and you no longer have the right, stop it by phone on +31 85 110 99 88. Confirm your de-registration date with your institution: de-registered on the 1st and you lose the right that same month; de-registered later and you lose it from the following month.

6. Applying late: the grant is recoverable, the travel is not

DUO asks you to apply at least eight weeks ahead. You need a DigiD, and the login letter arrives within three working days. The valuable part is an asymmetry: for the current academic year — from 1 September for HBO and university — you can claim grant for months that have already passed, but you cannot claim the travel product retroactively.

So someone who remembers in November recovers the September and October basic grant and loses those two months of free travel permanently. The retroactive request sits in Mijn DUO under starting your studiefinanciering earlier. Two more things people miss: always apply for the supplementary grant — once is enough, DUO recalculates every year, and not applying simply means zero — and since 2020 there is no earnings limit, so a side job never reduces your grant. Enrolment dates count too: you must be enrolled on the first of the month, or your studiefinanciering starts a month later.

7. After graduation: the 4% sum, and writing off at 35 years

On 1 January of the year after your studiefinanciering stops, a two-year aanloopfase begins: nothing to repay, but interest still runs. After that comes a repayment phase of up to 35 years under the SF35 rules, which is what today's students fall under.

The monthly amount is not set by what you owe but by what you earn: 4% a year of the part of your income above the exempt threshold. For 2026 the threshold is 26.819,42 euro if you are single without children and 38.351,77 euro with a partner or as a single parent. Put your own salary in:

• ✓ 30.000 euro a year, single: (30.000 − 26.819,42) × 4% ÷ 12 = about 10,60 euro a month
• ✓ 40.000 euro a year, single: about 43,94 euro a month
• ✓ 50.000 euro a year, single: about 77,27 euro a month
• ✓ Income at or below the threshold: nothing; below 5 euro a month you pay nothing at all

The 2026 rate is 2,33% under SF35, fixed for five years at a time from the start of the aanloopfase. DUO uses your income from two years earlier; if it has fallen since, you can ask for a more recent year. Whatever is left after 35 years is written off. Paying to capacity costs more total interest, so raise the monthly amount yourself in Mijn DUO if you can afford to.

8. If you do not qualify, what is left

EU/EEA and Swiss nationals, and British nationals with a Dutch Article 50 residence permit, can apply for the tuition fee loan on its own even without meeting the nationality condition for studiefinanciering. You must be under 30, enrolled full-time or dual on a recognised Dutch bachelor, master or associate degree lasting at least a year, and paying your tuition in the Netherlands. It goes in on a paper form, not through Mijn DUO. If you later become entitled to studiefinanciering, the months of tuition fee loan are deducted from your total.

For a non-EU student outside all of those groups — which includes most people here on a study residence permit — this route does not open, and neither does the travel product: its nationality conditions are identical to studiefinanciering's. The places to look are your institution's own scholarships and eligibility for the lifelong learning credit, rather than more pages on duo.nl. If your permit later becomes a type II to V, or a partner or parent meets the migrant worker test, come back to this page.

9. One-page checklist

• ✓ Dutch nationality or a type II–V permit qualifies outright; type I goes through the eligibility assistant.
• ✓ EU/EEA, Swiss and UK nationals: 32 paid hours a month (24 after six months of work) or five years' residence.
• ✓ Living independently, the monthly ceiling is 1.355,27 euro; the basic grant part of it is 324,52.
• ✓ Collect the travel product at an ophaalautomaat; collecting starts the 110,95 a month, not travelling.
• ✓ Stop it by the 10th of the first month without the right; two months forgotten is 576,60 euro.
• ✓ Grant can be claimed back to September; the travel product cannot.
• ✓ Repayment is 4% a year of income above 26.819,42 euro, with the balance written off after 35 years.
• ✓ Apply once for the supplementary grant; there is no earnings limit on a side job.

AmountsSeptember to December 2026, HBO and university monthly maximums: basic grant 324,52 euro living independently, supplementary grant 491,08, interest-bearing loan 315,17, tuition fee loan 224,50, total 1.355,27EligibilityDutch nationality or a type II–V permit; EU/EEA, Swiss and UK nationals also qualify via 32 hours of paid work a month or five years of residenceDeadlinesApply at least eight weeks ahead; stop the travel product at an ophaalautomaat by the 10th of the first month you no longer have the rightRepaymentStarts after a two-year run-up, runs up to 35 years, 4% a year of income above 26.819,42 euro, 2026 interest 2,33%NoteNon-EU students on a study residence permit generally get neither studiefinanciering nor the travel product. Stopping the travel product two months late costs 576,60 euro. All amounts and conditions were read from official duo.nl pages on 31 August 2026; they are revised annually, so Mijn DUO and the official pages are decisive. This guide contains no affiliate or partner links; every outbound link goes to duo.nl.

Official pages: eligibility, amounts, conditions for EU/EEA, Swiss and UK nationals, week and weekend subscriptions compared, stopping the travel product, calculating the monthly amount.