EI calculator (2026): your weekly benefit, the hours your region needs and how many weeks

This EI calculator estimates your regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefit: whether your insurable hours meet the requirement for your region, how much you'd receive a week, at 55% of your average earnings in your best weeks and capped at $729.00 per week in 2026, how many weeks you'd get, and roughly when your benefits would start. It uses the regional figures in force for October 11 to November 7, 2026 and applies the temporary measures where they apply, and the EI guide explains what each rule means and the parts an estimate can't see.

Updated October 19, 2026 · Figures verified against the statutes of each jurisdiction · see all figures and their sources · what's new

Quick answers

Do I have enough hours for EI?

Pick the region where you live and enter the hours from Block 15A of your ROE. The estimator sets them against that region's line, somewhere between 420 hours and 700 hours, and says first whether you clear it. Hours needed for EI explains how the line is set.

How much will EI pay me a week?

55% of your average insurable earnings over your region's best weeks, which number between 14 and 22, up to $729.00 per week. Type the earnings as a weekly average or as one total and the estimator divides it for you.

What the estimator needs

Three things, and one optional. Two of them come from your record of employment (ROE), and if the boxes don't ring a bell, the EI guide explains each one.

• The EI region where you live. Not where you worked. Your region sets the hours you need and the weeks you can draw, and the table changes every four weeks: the one in force is on the regions page.
• Your insurable hours in the last 52 weeks. Block 15A of your ROE. Depending on your region, the requirement is as low as 420 hours and as high as 700 hours.
• Your insurable earnings in your best weeks, either as a weekly average or as a total that the estimator divides by the number of best weeks your region uses. Gross earnings, before deductions.
• Optional: severance, pay in lieu or vacation pay you were paid when the job ended. It doesn't change the weekly benefit; it can change when the benefit starts.

What it gives back

Whether your hours clear the bar for your region; your weekly benefit, 55% of your average insurable earnings in your best weeks up to the maximum; the number of weeks the schedule gives you for your hours and your region's unemployment rate, from as few as 14 weeks to as many as 45 weeks; and an approximate start date. Every step shows its arithmetic.

The start date is where the temporary measures matter. Ordinarily there's a waiting period of 1 week at the front of a claim, and money paid because the job ended is spread over the weeks after your last day, so benefits start when it runs out. While the measures last, until October 9, 2027, there's no waiting period and separation money isn't allocated. The estimator applies the temporary rule while it is in force and says which rule it used, so the result you read is the one for a claim you start today, not for the law as it usually stands.

How it does the math

Hours first: your insurable hours against the requirement set by your region's unemployment rate, from 700 hours in the regions with the lowest unemployment down to 420 hours in the regions with the highest. Then the benefit: your average weekly insurable earnings in your best weeks, times 55%, capped at $729.00 per week; the number of best weeks your region counts runs from 14 to 22, again by unemployment rate. Then the weeks, from Schedule I of the Employment Insurance Act, for your hours and your regional rate. Then the calendar. The full walkthrough is in the guide: how much EI pays and how many weeks you can draw.

What it can't see: whether you left for a reason the Act accepts, whether your ROE says what you think it says, whether the family supplement lifts your rate because you have children and a low family income, and what Service Canada decides. Quitting or being fired for misconduct covers the first. The estimate follows the Act; Service Canada processes the claim.

How to use it for your situation

The same estimator serves several situations, and in each one a single input decides the result. These are the most common.

You were laid off. Pick the EI region where you live, then enter the insurable hours from Block 15A of your record of employment (ROE) and your earnings in your best weeks. It tells you whether your hours clear your region's threshold, your weekly benefit, the weeks the schedule gives you and an approximate start date. It doesn't account for the family supplement. Service Canada works from the ROE your employer issues, not from what you typed, so check that document first: your record of employment.

You quit. There's no box for how the job ended, so enter your region, hours and earnings as you would after a layoff. The result is what a claim would pay if Service Canada accepts that you left with just cause. It can't judge your reason. Quitting without just cause disqualifies you until you qualify again with new hours, and the Act lists the circumstances that can count. The test is in quitting or being fired for misconduct.

You're short on hours. Add up the insurable hours from every job in the last 52 weeks, part-time ones included, and enter the total. The estimator tells you whether they reach your region's requirement, which runs from 420 hours to 700 hours. If you enter earnings as a total, it divides by the number of best weeks your region uses even when you worked fewer weeks, so a short work history pulls the benefit down. It doesn't tell you when you'll have enough: hours needed for EI.

You work part-time while on claim. Enter the hours and earnings from before your claim, not from the new job. The result is the full weekly benefit. It doesn't work out the deduction when you earn money on claim. Part of what you earn is deducted and you keep the rest, up to a threshold past which every dollar comes off. Declare all of it for the week you did the work: working while on claim.

You got severance pay. Enter any severance, pay in lieu or vacation pay you received in the optional field. It doesn't change the weekly benefit, but it can change the start date. While the temporary measures last, until October 9, 2027, there's no waiting period and the money isn't allocated. The estimator tells you which rule it used. It doesn't check whether the amount met your statute's minimum. The severance pay calculator works that out, and severance pay and EI explains the allocation.