Federal Student Aid has released volumes of the 2025-26 FAFSA Specifications Guide. The volumes contained in this guide contain FAFSA Processing System (FPS) technical information for the 2025-26 award year and are only available as PDF documents at this time.
Update on August 28, 2025:
FSA has updated Volume 4A, the Excel version of the ISIR record layout, and Volume 5 – Edits & Rejects. For more information, review the Change History Table in each volume and the “Changes” column in the Excel file.
View the specification guide here.
2025–26 FAFSA Specifications Guide
- Introduction: 2025–26 FAFSA Specifications Guide – Introduction in PDF Format, 7 Pages, 310KB
- Volume 1 – Summary of Changes: 2025–26 FAFSA Specifications Guide Volume 1 – Summary of Changes in PDF Format, 22 Pages, 790KB
- Volume 2 – FPS Schedule and Getting Help: 2025–26 FAFSA Specifications Guide Volume 2 – FPS Schedule and Getting Help in PDF Format, 16 Pages, 527KB
- Volume 3 – Electronic Data Exchange and FAFSA Processing: 2025–26 FAFSA Specifications Guide Volume 3 – Electronic Data Exchange and FAFSA Processing in PDF Format, 29 Pages, 513KB
- Volume 4A – Record Layouts
- Volume 4B – Processing Codes: 2025–26 FAFSA Specifications Guide Volume 4B – Processing Codes in PDF Format, 65 Pages, 1.09MB
- Volume 5 – Edits and Rejects: 2025–26 FAFSA Specifications Guide Volume 5 – Edits and Rejects in PDF Format, 63 Pages, 732KB
- Volume 6 – ISIR Guide: 2025–26 FAFSA Specifications Guide Volume 6 – ISIR Guide in PDF Format, 46 Pages, 538KB
- Volume 7 – Comment Codes: 2025–26 FAFSA Specifications Guide Volume 7 – Comment Codes in PDF Format, 139 Pages, 1.20MB
- Volume 8 – Agency Matches: 2025–26 FAFSA Specifications Guide Volume 8 – Agency Matches in PDF Format, 19 Pages, 725KB
- Volume 9 – Testing and Web Demo System
SOURCE: 2025–26 FAFSA Specifications Guide (August 2025 Update)