Rates effective
01 JAN 2026 · CONUS

Basic Allowance for Housing by duty station, pay grade and dependency status. Official DoD rates, no login, no email.

Duty station or MHA
    Try Fort Liberty, Cavazos, Moore or a ZIP — old and unofficial names resolve.
    Or type your rank
    Dependents
    With $1,926Without $1,686

    O-1 at Columbus draws $1,926 per month with dependents in 2026, $1,686 without

    Permalinkbahratedesk.com/columbus-oh/o-1/ExcelCSVDownloads cover this station.
    Columbus, OH
    O-1 · with dependents
    $1,926/ month
    $23,112 / year
    At O-1, this is #201 of 338 stations loaded · high San Francisco $5,172 · low Youngstown $1,218
    MHA OH230 · ZIPs 43001 43002 43004 43008 43013 43016 +92 more
    Your grade is calledARMY2LTUSMC2ndLtNAVYENSUSAF2d Lt
    Untaxed — matching it with taxable pay takes$2,469 / mo gross
    Without dependents here$1,686 / mo
    In government quarters, no dependents$50.10 / mo partial
    Columbus — full sheetTap a row
    PCS compareColumbus · O-1 · $1,926/mo
    Aberdeen Proving Grounds$2,517/mo · $30,204/yr
    ▲ RAISE+$591+$7,092/yr · like +$9,092 of salary

    What this rate means

    O-1 with dependents, nearest stations0 – $5,172 / month
    San Francisco$5,172
    Roanoke$1,941
    County Cost Group 790$1,938
    Davis-Monthan AFB$1,938
    Fort Gordon$1,929
    Columbus$1,926
    Indianapolis$1,923
    Bangor$1,920
    Baton Rouge$1,920
    Bloomington$1,920
    Youngstown$1,218

    Columbus is #201 of 338. The spread between the dearest and cheapest station at this grade is $3,954 a month — $47,448 a year, untaxed.

    Every pay grade at Columbus0 – $2,991 / month
    E-1$1,782
    E-2$1,782
    E-3$1,782
    E-4$1,782
    E-5$1,875
    E-6$2,238
    E-7$2,364
    E-8$2,496
    E-9$2,640
    W-1$2,259
    W-2$2,418
    W-3$2,583
    W-4$2,664
    W-5$2,766
    O-1E$2,385
    O-2E$2,556
    O-3E$2,679
    O-1$1,926
    O-2$2,235
    O-3$2,577
    O-4$2,793
    O-5$2,949
    O-6$2,973
    O-7$2,991

    Promoting to O-2 here adds $309 a month. The pay chart moves this allowance far less than the map does.

    01

    Where you are stationed outweighs what you are paid. Moving from Columbus to San Francisco at O-1 is worth $3,246 a month — about 11 promotions worth of housing allowance, at $309 per grade here.

    02

    Dependency status is worth 14% here. That is a status your finance office determines, not a box you tick — and it is the single largest lever on this page that is not a change of address.

    03

    None of it is taxed. $1,926 a month of BAH takes more than $1,926 of basic pay to match, which is why comparing a civilian salary against military base pay alone understates the gap.

    Ad slot — in-content, after the answerPlaced below the number, never above it. VA-loan and PCS-move advertisers bid here.

    Things the rate table doesn't tell you

    01

    “With dependents” is a dependency status, not a marital status. A single member paying child support can be authorized BAH-Diff; a married dual-military couple with no children is not automatically the with-dependents rate for both. If your situation is unusual, your finance office decides — not this table.

    02

    O-8, O-9 and O-10 draw the same BAH as O-7. The table stops there for a reason, not because it is missing rows.

    03

    This is CONUS BAH only. Overseas is OHA, which works differently — it reimburses actual rent up to a cap, with separate utility and move-in allowances. Alaska and Hawaii are BAH; Germany, Japan and Korea are OHA.