About Rank and Pay

Who runs this site

Rank and Pay is an independent site run by an individual based in the United States. It is published under its own name, Rank and Pay, which is the author of every tool and guide, and every one of them shows its arithmetic and its sources so you can check them yourself.

Rank and Pay claims no military service, rank or credentials. It is not run by an attorney, an accredited VA representative, a tax professional or a medical professional, and it does not give legal, tax, financial, medical or benefits advice. It shows the arithmetic and reports what the agencies’ own tables and rules say, with the sources linked.

You can reach the site at hello@rankandpay.com.

Why it exists

Pay, VA and fitness rules changed many times in 2025 and 2026: a new Army fitness test and combat standard, a new Air Force test with a waist-to-height component, new Navy and Marine Corps rules, new pay, BAH and VA rate tables, and mid-year changes such as PCS mileage. Many calculators online were never updated, and some read the official tables in ways the tables don’t support. A wrong number shows up as a wrong budget for a move, a wrong training target or a wrong expectation about a VA payment.

Rank and Pay puts the current tables in one place, read the way the agencies publish them, with the source and the date next to every number.

How the tools work

The calculators are free, with no account and nothing to install. They run entirely in your browser: the grades, ZIP codes, ratings, test results and amounts you enter are not sent to this site, not stored on it and never put in the page address. When you press a link that carries them to another calculator (“Use this BAH in the pay calculator →”), they pass through your browser’s session storage and are deleted as soon as the next page reads them.

Each tool looks values up in the agency’s own published table and lists each rule with a link to its source. Where a rule could not be confirmed, the tool says “Not modeled” instead of guessing. The arithmetic is covered by automated tests.

What the “as of” dates mean

Next to every result you will see “Rates as of …, verified …”. The first date is when the table or rate took effect; the second is the last time the agency’s own page was read and the numbers checked against it. Rates are stored with the dates they take effect, so a tool can already apply a change that an agency has announced for a later date. Confirmed changes are listed in the change log, newest first, each with its source. Every dataset, with its version, dates and the checksum of its source file, is on Data and sources.

How the guides are made

• Each guide answers one question a service member, veteran or family member actually has.
• Facts come from primary sources — DFAS, the Defense Travel Management Office, VA, the services’ own directives and tables, the TSP, the IRS and the law itself — and each guide lists them with the date they were read.
• Every figure in a guide is recomputed with the same tested rules the calculators use, and a separate review pass checks each statement against its cited source before the guide is published. The guides are researched and drafted with AI writing tools working to those rules; they never claim service, testing, credentials or results that do not exist.
• Every guide shows when it was published and when it was last updated.
• Factual corrections are shown on the page itself, with the date.
• The photos on the site are original images generated for it with an AI image model. They show everyday civilian scenes, not real people, places or service settings, and every number on the site is in the drawings and the text.

The full process is in the Editorial Policy, and the limits of what the site can tell you are in the Disclaimer.

How the site is funded

Rank and Pay is free to use and will be paid for by ads and by commissions on some links; links that pay us are marked next to the link. No agency, school, lender or claims service pays for anything on this site.

• Ads (Google AdSense): once AdSense approves the site, on the home page, tool pages, guides and the change log, labeled “Advertisements” — never inside a tool or its results.
• Amazon Associates: training-gear lists on the fitness test pages and the gear page, with “(paid link)” next to each link. As an Amazon Associate, Rank and Pay earns from qualifying purchases.

The site never sells leads or contact details. See the Privacy Policy for how advertising uses data and how to opt out.

Independence

Rank and Pay is not affiliated with the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs or any branch of the U.S. military.

Rank and Pay is a private, independent website. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the Department of Defense (also called the Department of War), the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force, Coast Guard, the Department of Veterans Affairs, DFAS, DTMO or any other government agency. Official rates and decisions come only from those agencies.

Get in touch

Spotted a number that changed, a mistake, a tool that misbehaves or a question a guide doesn’t answer? Use the contact page or email hello@rankandpay.com.