Do SNAP Benefits Expire? Rollover, the 274-Day Rule & How to Keep Every Dollar

Unused benefits roll over — there is no month-end deadline

SNAP does not reset on the 1st of the month. Whatever you don't spend stays on your card and adds to the next deposit. Say you receive $291 in January and spend $200 — the leftover $91 carries into February and sits on top of February's new $291, giving you $382 to work with. Nothing is taken away just because a new month started.

This is by design: you can let a balance build for a few weeks to cover a big grocery trip, stock up when there's a sale, or smooth out a month where you were traveling. There is no use-it-or-lose-it at month-end, and you are never penalized for carrying a balance. The only way unused benefits ever disappear is the inactivity rule below — and that takes the better part of a year.

The real deadline: 274 days with no activity

The one way to actually lose SNAP benefits is to stop using the card entirely. Under federal rule (7 CFR § 274.2), if your EBT account goes 274 days — about 9 months — without any balance-changing activity, the state expunges the benefits: removes them from the account permanently.

Notice what the clock is not tied to. It's not the calendar month, not your certification period, not whether you're still eligible. It is purely about whether the card is being used. An active household that shops every week will never hit this. The rule exists to clear out accounts that have genuinely been abandoned — but if you're sitting on a balance you've been saving and you go quiet for nine months, it can catch you too.

A real example of the clock

Picture someone who lands a new job in March and stops needing SNAP, but still has $240 sitting on the card. They don't close the case and they don't spend the balance. The 274-day clock runs from their last purchase. Around month eight, a notice arrives: the account is inactive and benefits will be removed in 30 days. If they read it and make a single purchase — or call the office — the $240 is saved and the clock restarts from zero.

But if that envelope goes straight into a drawer, then around the nine-month mark the $240 is expunged and gone. Nothing dramatic happened and no one made a mistake; the rule simply ran out the clock on an account nobody touched. The entire loss would have been avoided by one $2 purchase, or by opening the mail. That's the pattern almost every expungement follows — not fraud or a denial, just silence.

What counts as "using" your card — and what doesn't

This is the part that catches people off guard. Only a transaction that changes your balance resets the 274-day clock: a purchase (a debit) or a refund/return (a credit). That's the legal definition — "activity that affects the balance of the household's SNAP EBT account, such as a purchase or return."

What does not count, and surprises almost everyone: checking your balance. A balance inquiry — at an ATM, in your state's EBT app, or over the phone — does not move your balance, so it does not reset the clock, no matter how many times you do it. A declined purchase doesn't count either. So "I checked my balance last month" will not protect your benefits; a single $1 purchase will. And the amount truly doesn't matter — a 99-cent purchase resets the clock exactly as well as a $100 one; what counts is that a balance-changing transaction happened at all. If you want to keep an account alive, you have to actually buy something. To see your balance without affecting the clock, the EBT balance helper shows how.

Why a friend in another state might tell you something different

States are allowed to run the 274-day rule one of two ways, and they don't all pick the same one:

• Inactive-account method: the clock runs on the whole account. Any balance-changing transaction resets it for everything sitting in the account. Use your card and your full balance is protected.
• Unused-allotment method: each monthly deposit has its own 274-day clock from the day it was issued. That specific allotment is expunged 9 months later even if you've been spending newer benefits.

Under the second method you can be actively using your card every week and still lose an old, untouched chunk from many months ago. The safe move if you've let a large balance pile up: spend the oldest benefits down first, rather than assuming recent activity protects all of it. Your state's SNAP office can tell you which method it uses.

Here it is in numbers. Say you get $200 a month and tend to spend only $150, so $50 piles up each month. Under the unused-allotment method, the $50 left over from last January is expunged this October — nine months later — even though you shopped in September. Under the inactive-account method, that same September purchase would have protected the whole balance. Same household, same habits, different outcome purely because of which method the state chose.

You get a warning first — and a short recovery window

Benefits don't vanish silently. Before expungement, a long-inactive account is moved to "off-line storage," and the state must mail you a notice at least 30 days before benefits are removed. While benefits are in off-line storage — that is, before the 274-day mark — they are recoverable: contact your SNAP office and they must restore access, generally within about 48 hours.

That mailed notice is your last clear chance to act, which is one more reason never to ignore an envelope from your SNAP office. The recoverable window is the off-line-storage stage; once the 274 days are up, that window closes. One catch worth flagging: if you've moved and your address on file is out of date, you may never see that notice — which is exactly how some people lose benefits with no warning at all. Update your mailing address with the SNAP office the moment it changes, even after your case is inactive.

Once they're expunged, they're gone for good

After the 274 days, expunged benefits are permanent. The regulation is blunt about it: expunged benefits "shall not be reinstated" (7 CFR § 274.2(i)(3)). There's no appeal that brings them back, because nothing was decided incorrectly — the rule simply ran its course. This is the sharp line to keep in mind: off-line storage is recoverable; expungement is not. Everything in this guide is really about staying on the right side of that line.

Does a replacement card reset anything?

Losing your card or getting a replacement does not erase your balance — the new card draws from the same account, and your rolled-over balance moves to it automatically. But ordering a new card does not, by itself, reset the inactivity clock; only a purchase or return does. So if your card was missing for a while and benefits sat unused, make a small purchase once the replacement arrives to restart the clock cleanly. For getting a new card quickly, see replace a lost or stolen EBT card.

Whose purchase keeps the card active?

The clock looks at activity on the account, not at who physically used the card. So if an authorized representative or another household member shops with the EBT benefits, those purchases count toward keeping the account active just the same. You don't have to be the one who taps the card — any legitimate, balance-changing transaction by someone authorized to use the benefits resets the clock. That's helpful for households where one person does most of the shopping, or where an elderly or homebound member relies on a representative to buy groceries for them.

How to make sure you never lose a dollar

None of this requires effort — just a little awareness. A few simple habits keep your benefits permanently safe:

• Use the card at least once every few months. Even a small purchase resets the 274-day clock.
• Don't rely on balance checks. They don't count as activity — only purchases and returns do.
• If a balance has been piling up, spend the oldest benefits first (this matters under the per-allotment method).
• Open and read every notice your SNAP office mails. The 30-day off-line-storage warning is your safety net.
• After any gap in benefits or a replaced card, make a purchase once benefits resume to restart the clock cleanly.

Did the 2025 law change any of this?

No. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act made major SNAP changes in 2025 — work requirements, state cost-sharing, tighter eligibility — but it did not touch rollover, the 274-day expungement window, or what counts as activity. The 9-month rule works the same after OBBBA as before.

Bottom line: your benefits won't disappear at the end of the month, but they won't wait forever either. Use the card every few months, read your mail, and you keep every dollar. To check what's on your card right now, use the EBT balance helper; for what it pays for, see what you can buy with SNAP.

General guidance, not a determination — rules vary by state. Confirm with your state SNAP office.