Military leave accrual: 2.5 days a month, the 60-day cap and SLA

Service members on active duty earn 2½ days of leave for every month of active service, which is 30 days a year. Anything over 60 days at the end of the fiscal year on September 30 is lost, unless you're approved for Special Leave Accrual (SLA), which lets you keep up to 30 more days (90 total).

Use-or-lose calculator (fiscal year 2027)

Leave balance on your latest LES (days) That LES is for the month of Leave you plan to take before Sept 30, 2027 (days)

How it works: your end-of-month LES shows your balance through that month. The calculator adds 2½ days for each remaining month through September 2027, subtracts the leave you plan to take, and flags anything above 60 on September 30, 2027. It assumes you stay on active duty all year and earn leave every month.

How leave accrual works

Rate: 2½ days for each month of active service (10 U.S.C. 701(a)). DoD applies this to members on active service orders of at least 30 days, in any component (DoDI 1327.06, para. 3.6).
The 60-day cap: leave over 60 days is lost at the end of the fiscal year, except for SLA or missing status (para. 3.6). During the year your balance can climb above 60, because leave you take is charged against leave earned that same year (10 U.S.C. 701(b)). What counts is the balance on September 30.
When you don't earn leave: while absent without leave or on unauthorized absence, confined by a court-martial sentence, on appellate leave, or on excess leave (para. 3.6).
Where to see it: your balance updates monthly on your Leave and Earnings Statement (para. 3.4). See how to read your LES.
Which leave is used first: leave is charged last in, first out. Combat-zone (CZTE) leave is used first, and any Saved Leave Balance from 1976 is used last (para. 3.9).
Advance leave: normally limited to the lesser of 30 days or the leave you'll earn in your remaining service (para. 3.10.b).
PCS: you're authorized at least 30 days of delay-en-route leave with a PCS move if no excess leave is involved (para. 3.10.e).

Special Leave Accrual (SLA): keeping more than 60 days

SLA lets you carry leave over 60 days into the next fiscal year when your duty kept you from using it. The rules from DoDI 1327.06, para. 3.8, and 10 U.S.C. 701(e):

Who can qualify: members who serve at least 120 continuous days where they're entitled to hostile fire or imminent danger pay; members on a designated deployable ship, mobile unit or other designated duty when a catastrophe, national emergency, crisis or national-security operation kept them from taking leave; and members on operational missions their service has designated for SLA.
Approval: in writing, from the first officer above O-6 in your chain of command.
Cap: up to 30 days of SLA, so a combined 90 days (60 regular plus 30 SLA).
How long you can keep it: until the end of the second fiscal year after the fiscal year in which the qualifying service ended.
Not a fix for poor planning: SLA can't be approved for leave that piled up because a member didn't manage their balance.
One-time sell-back (enlisted): enlisted members who would lose leave over 90 days can sell up to 30 SLA days, once per career. It counts toward the 60-day career sell-back cap. See the sell-back calculator.
The old 120-day cap is gone: the transition from the old 60-day SLA cap (120 total) to today's 30-day cap ended September 30, 2026. Under the law's transition rule, leave over 90 days built up before 2023 was forfeited if it wasn't used by that date.

Getting out soon?

Plan your last months with the terminal leave calculator, then decide whether to sell any days back.

Official sources

Last checked Oct 16, 2026. Rates and rules change; the official source wins. Estimates only, not financial, legal or tax advice. Pay questions: your unit finance office or DFAS. In crisis? Dial 988, then press 1.