Pay & Entitlements
OCONUS COLA Calculator
OCONUSOverseas Cost of Living Allowance — how it works and where to look up your rate.
Official rate lookup
Look up your OCONUS COLA
Enter your overseas location, rank, years of service, and dependency status to see your current COLA amount. Rates can change as often as twice monthly.
Open DTMO OCONUS COLA lookupOpens travel.dod.mil — the official Defense Travel Management Office
What is OCONUS COLA?
Overseas COLA compensates service members stationed at OCONUS locations where the cost of living exceeds the average CONUS. Unlike CONUS COLA, OCONUS COLA is non-taxable.
Rates are calculated based on your location, rank, years of service, dependency status, and current exchange rates. Because exchange rates fluctuate, your COLA can change every pay period.
How OCONUS COLA is calculated
Step 1 — Spendable income
DTMO determines your "spendable income" based on rank, YOS, and dependents. This is the portion of pay expected to go toward daily living (food, goods, services — not housing or savings).
Step 2 — Cost comparison
DTMO surveys overseas living costs, comparing prices at your location against average CONUS prices. This produces a COLA index.
Step 3 — Exchange rate adjustment
The COLA index is adjusted based on current USD/local currency exchange rates. DoD adjusts for currency fluctuations as frequently as twice monthly, which is why your COLA can change from one pay period to the next (DoD FMR Vol. 7A, Ch. 68, para. 3.1.5).
Step 4 — Your COLA amount
Subtract 100 from your location's COLA index and divide by 100 — an index of 120 pays 20% of spendable income. Multiply that percentage by your annual spendable income for the annual COLA, then divide by 360 for the daily rate (DoD FMR Vol. 7A, Ch. 68, Tables 68-8 and 68-9).
OCONUS COLA vs CONUS COLA
| OCONUS COLA | CONUS COLA | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxable? | No — non-taxable | Yes — taxable |
| Where? | Overseas duty stations | 17 high-cost CONUS areas |
| Rate changes | As often as twice monthly (exchange rates) | Annually (Jan 1) |
| Locations | Hundreds overseas | 17 MHAs in 2026 |
| Authorization | 37 U.S.C. § 405 | 37 U.S.C. § 403b |
| LES line | "COLA" under entitlements | "COLA" under entitlements |
Common questions
When does OCONUS COLA start? Starts the day you report to your new OCONUS duty station — or the day after, if you receive MALT Plus per diem for the reporting day (DoD FMR Vol. 7A, Chapter 68, para. 3.2.1). It appears on your LES once your gaining finance office processes your arrival.
Can my COLA go down? Yes. If the USD strengthens against local currency, your COLA decreases — even if local prices haven't changed. Can happen pay period to pay period.
Do I receive COLA during leave? Generally yes — COLA continues during leave, TDY, and R&R while your PDS remains OCONUS. Exception: leave away from the PDS vicinity has a 30-day limit. A member without a dependent keeps COLA for the first 30 days of leave away from the PDS vicinity; it stops on day 31 and starts again the day you return to the PDS (DoD FMR Vol. 7A, Chapter 68, para. 3.4.3). The same day-31 cutoff applies to a member with dependents who is on leave away from the PDS vicinity for 31 or more days accompanied by all command-sponsored dependents (Table 68-3, Rule 1).
What about dependents? Your COLA rate accounts for dependents. If dependents are command-sponsored at your OCONUS location, COLA is "with deps." If they remain in CONUS, you get the "without deps" rate.
About this entitlement
What you need to know — straight from the regulation
What Overseas (OCONUS) COLA is
Overseas Cost-of-Living Allowance (OCONUS COLA) is a non-taxable supplemental payment made to service members assigned to permanent duty stations outside the contiguous United States (including Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. territories, and foreign countries) where the local cost of goods and services exceeds what the member would pay in CONUS.
OCONUS COLA is authorized under 37 U.S.C. § 405 and administered under the DoD Financial Management Regulation (FMR), Volume 7A, Chapter 68. Rates are published and updated frequently by the Defense Travel Management Office (DTMO) based on foreign-currency exchange rates and local retail price indexes, so the allowance changes through the year — sometimes each pay period.
37 U.S.C. § 405 · DoD FMR Vol. 7A, Chapter 68
How it is computed
OCONUS COLA is computed as a location-specific index applied to the member's "spendable income" — a portion of pay defined in DoD FMR Vol. 7A that varies with grade, years of service, and dependency status. The index reflects costs for goods and services at the OCONUS location versus the CONUS baseline; the exchange-rate component is reviewed and adjusted as frequently as twice monthly.
DoD FMR Vol. 7A, Chapter 68
Tax treatment
OCONUS COLA is non-taxable. It is not included as wages on the W-2 and no federal, FICA, or state income tax is withheld from the allowance. This is the opposite of CONUS COLA, which is taxable.
IRS Publication 3 (Armed Forces' Tax Guide) · DoD FMR Vol. 7A
Source & references
- Primary source
- Defense Travel Management Office (DTMO) — Overseas COLA program — view official publication
- Regulatory reference
- DoD FMR Vol. 7A, Chapter 68 · 37 U.S.C. § 405
- Effective date
- Rates can change as often as twice monthly — verify on DTMO
- DTMO Overseas COLA rate lookup
- https://www.travel.dod.mil/Allowances/Overseas-Cost-of-Living-Allowance/Overseas-COLA-Rate-Lookup/
Military Toolkit is not affiliated with the Department of Defense, DFAS, DTMO, the Department of Veterans Affairs, or any government agency. Rates and rules on this page are pulled directly from the publications cited above. Always verify with your finance office, TMO, or the official rate page before making financial or planning decisions.
Keep going
OCONUS pay siblings
REF: 37 U.S.C. § 405 · DoD FMR Vol 7A, Ch 68, effective Rates can change as often as twice monthly
Defense Travel Management Office (DTMO)
Results are estimates. Always verify with your finance office.
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