VA disability combined rating calculator
Ratings of 50%, 30% and 20% combine to 72 under the VA whole-person method, which becomes an official 70% rating, not 100%. Enter each individual percentage the VA assigned and get the combined figure. Free in your browser.
- Free
- Runs in your browser
- No sign-up
- Your data stays on your device
Run — free
Worked example
- Ratings
- 50, 30, 20
- Quantity
- 3
- Combined raw
- 72
- Combined rating
- 70
Veterans Affairs combined disability ratings do not add the way a spreadsheet total does. Each additional percentage applies only to the efficiency that remains after more severe ratings have already been counted, then the result is converted to the nearest ten with values ending in five rounded up, following 38 CFR 4.25. A fifty percent rating and a thirty percent rating therefore combine to sixty-five before rounding, which becomes a seventy percent combined rating, not eighty. This VA disability combined rating calculator accepts a list of individual disability percentages, sorts them from highest to lowest, applies the whole-person formula one rating at a time, and returns both the unrounded combined value and the official combined rating.
How VA combined ratings use remaining efficiency instead of a simple sum
The Department of Veterans Affairs does not add individual disability percentages the way a payroll total adds hours. Under 38 CFR 4.25, each rating is applied to the efficiency that remains after more severe disabilities have already been counted — the whole-person method. A veteran who is already fifty percent disabled is treated as fifty percent efficient; a further thirty percent rating therefore takes thirty percent of that remaining fifty, which is fifteen points, and the running combined value becomes sixty-five, not eighty.
A later twenty percent rating takes twenty percent of the thirty-five points still considered efficient, adding seven points and bringing the unrounded combined value to seventy-two. Only after every listed rating has been applied in descending order is that combined value converted to the nearest number divisible by ten, with values that end in five adjusted upward, so seventy-two becomes a seventy percent combined rating.
This calculator sorts the list from highest to lowest, rounds the running combined value to a whole number after each rating so successive steps match Combined Ratings Table integers, and then applies that final ten-point rounding. A chain of fifty, thirty, twenty, and ten therefore lands on seventy-five unrounded and an eighty percent official combined rating, which is the figure veterans, VSOs, and claims processors expect from the published table.
The calculator does not apply the bilateral factor in 38 CFR 4.26, does not decide service connection, and does not substitute for a rating decision. You supply the individual percentages the VA already assigned; the calculator returns the combined figure those percentages produce under the published table rules, with zero-percent evaluations allowed because they do not change remaining efficiency.
Where a VA combined disability rating calculator earns its keep
Veterans and accredited representatives use a combined rating calculator to turn a list of individual evaluations into the one number that drives compensation tables, SMC screening, and whether a claim is close to a hundred percent schedular. Benefits counselors and legal clinics drop every current evaluation into one call and compare the result with the rating decision on file, which is a different job from a compensation-rate lookup, a bilateral-factor worksheet, or a TDIU income test. Failed validation does not consume balance.
Keep the list short, pin the rounded combined rating in tests, and you get a reproducible whole-person figure for teasers, case-management plugins, and edge workers without standing up a rating-schedule engine of your own.
What you can do with it
Check a proposed increase before you file
Re-run your current evaluations with one rating raised to the next schedule step and read the official combined rating, not an arithmetic total that overstates the award.
FAQ
How is a combined VA disability rating calculated?
Ratings are sorted highest-first. Each rating r updates C with C = round(C + r × (100 − C) / 100), matching the Combined Ratings Table in 38 CFR 4.25. After every rating, C is converted to the nearest number divisible by 10; values ending in 5 go up. Fifty and thirty combine to 65, which becomes a 70 percent combined rating, not 80.
What happens if a percentage exceeds 100?
Each ratings entry must be a finite number from 0 through 100 inclusive. A value above 100 is rejected, names the index, and is not billed. One hundred itself is a valid total-disability rating.
Why is 50% plus 30% plus 20% equal to 70%, not 100%?
The VA uses remaining efficiency, not addition. Fifty leaves 50 percent efficient; thirty percent of that remainder is 15, so the running combined value is 65.
Does this calculator apply the bilateral factor?
No. The bilateral factor in 38 CFR 4.26 is a separate adjustment for paired extremities or paired skeletal muscles. Apply any bilateral increase yourself before calling, or treat that as a different job.
Does the order of my ratings matter?
No. The calculator sorts them from highest to lowest before combining, as the VA table does, so you can enter them in any order. A 0% rating is accepted and does not change the result.
Related tools
For developers — API access
Everything on this page is available programmatically. This section is for teams who want to wire it into their own systems; everyone else can just use the tool above.
API endpoint
Prefer to automate it? One authenticated POST creates the task; the result comes back by webhook or a signed link. The same capability also runs here on the web, by email and from Telegram — and soon from our app too.
Call it from your stack
curl -X POST https://api.kit.forhosting.com/fin/va-disability \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $KIT_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"ratings":[50,30,20]}'const res = await fetch("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/fin/va-disability", {
method: "POST",
headers: {
"Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.KIT_KEY}`,
"Content-Type": "application/json"
},
body: JSON.stringify({
"ratings": [
50,
30,
20
]
})
});
const { task_id } = await res.json();import os, requests
res = requests.post(
"https://api.kit.forhosting.com/fin/va-disability",
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['KIT_KEY']}"},
json={
"ratings": [
50,
30,
20
]
},
)
task_id = res.json()["task_id"]<?php
$res = file_get_contents("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/fin/va-disability", false, stream_context_create([
"http" => [
"method" => "POST",
"header" => "Authorization: Bearer " . getenv("KIT_KEY") . "\r\nContent-Type: application/json",
"content" => '{"ratings":[50,30,20]}',
],
]));
$task = json_decode($res, true);body := bytes.NewBufferString(`{"ratings":[50,30,20]}`)
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.kit.forhosting.com/fin/va-disability", body)
req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("KIT_KEY"))
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)Example request
{
"ratings": [
50,
30,
20
]
}Example response
{
"task_id": "tsk_a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6",
"type": "fin.va_disability",
"status": "queued",
"_links": {
"result": "/tasks/tsk_…/result"
}
}The API is asynchronous: the call returns a task_id immediately and the result arrives by webhook. Polling is capped at 1 req/s per task.
Pricing
Published price — no tokens, no invented credits. A failed task is never charged.
Limits
max_items | 50 |
Errors
| HTTP | Code | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
401 | unauthorized | Missing or invalid API key. |
402 | insufficient_balance | Your balance doesn't cover the task price. |
404 | unknown_type | That task type doesn't exist. |
429 | rate_limited | Too many requests. Use the webhook instead of polling. |
Technical notes
Any percentage above one hundred is rejected with invalid_input and is not billed.
Input contract, rounding rules, and error behaviour
Every percentage must lie from zero through one hundred inclusive. A negative percentage is also rejected, because a VA evaluation is never less than zero. An empty list, a missing field, null, NaN, and infinities fail the same way. At most fifty ratings are accepted. POST a JSON body with one required field: ratings, a non-empty array of finite disability percentages. Aliases percentages, disabilities, and values map to the same list so a claims worksheet can keep its column names. Each entry may arrive as a JSON number or a numeric string, and a comma-separated or semicolon-separated string is accepted for the same field so a pasted row still parses. A value above one hundred fails with invalid_input naming the index and stating that VA disability percentages cannot exceed one hundred; those failures are not billed. On success the body echoes ratings in the order you sent them, reports count, then combined_raw as the integer Combined Ratings Table value after every rating has been applied, combined_rating as that value rounded to the nearest ten with fives going up and capped at one hundred, and a formula string restating the identity. Example: fifty, thirty, and twenty yield combined_raw seventy-two and combined_rating seventy. Pair the JSON with your own note for diagnostic codes and effective dates — this endpoint combines percentages only. It does not apply a bilateral factor, does not read a rating decision PDF, and does not convert a combined rating into monthly compensation dollars. Keep every percentage finite and at most one hundred, pin combined_rating in tests, and you get a reproducible VA combined figure for worksheets, LMS plugins, and edge workers without standing up a claims engine of your own.
Where a VA combined disability rating calculator earns its keep
A VSO preparing a fully developed claim re-runs the same list when a proposed increase would move a thirty to a fifty, then pins combined_rating in the worksheet so the veteran sees the official rounded figure rather than an arithmetic total that overstates the award.
Integration use cases
VSO and claims-worksheet cross-check
Drop every evaluation from the rating decision into one list and pin combined_rating next to the decision so the file and the veteran share one number.
Benefits and case-management automation
Feed individual percentages from a case record into CI fixtures and trackers that must reproduce 38 CFR 4.25 rounding without calling a VA endpoint.
Technical questions
What does the VA disability combined rating calculator cost?
The browser tool is free. API requests use prepaid KIT balance at $0.002 per successful call; invalid input is not billed.