Program guide · Updated August 2026

ACP Free Tablet: Is the Program Still Available in 2026?

No. The Affordable Connectivity Program ended on 1 June 2024 and has not returned. If you are asking whether ACP is still available, that is the whole answer — and every site still advertising an ACP free tablet today is running two-year-old copy.

That is the whole story of this page. ACP’s door was 200% of the federal poverty guidelines. Lifeline’s is 135%. Millions of households sit in the gap between those two numbers — they lost $30 a month and do not qualify for the $9.25 that supposedly replaced it. If that is you, there is still a 200% tier and almost nobody points at it.

If you fall in the gap → Check Lifeline eligibility

The short version

  • Ended June 1, 2024. No bill has restored it
  • $30 a month became $9.25 — for those who still qualify
  • 200% vs 135% is why many no longer do
  • The 200% tier still exists, just not federally

Dates and amounts from the FCC and USAC, checked August 2026.

When Did ACP End, Exactly

Searches for acp program ending and when did acp end deserve precise dates rather than “last year”, because the wind-down had stages and people were affected differently depending on their provider.

  • April 2024 — the last month ACP households received the full discount
  • May 2024 — a partial benefit month, and only if your provider chose to take part, which is why some households saw a reduced credit and others saw none
  • June 1, 2024 — the program ran out of funding. The FCC’s own wording is that this happened “due to a lack of additional funding from Congress”

What ACP actually paid. Up to $30 a month toward broadband, up to $75 a month on qualifying Tribal lands, and a one-time discount of up to $100 toward a laptop, desktop or tablet bought through a participating provider. More than 20 million households had enrolled by August 2023, and the figure kept climbing until the money ran out.

The device benefit is the part people still search for. Affordable connectivity program free tablets were real, and affordable connectivity program tablets were bought through participating providers rather than issued by the government. ACP is the only federal program that ever paid toward hardware — Lifeline never has and still does not. The rules also required the household to contribute more than $10 of its own money toward the device, which is why so many offers were priced at $10.01 or $11 rather than free. That co-pay was a compliance requirement, not a catch, and the same logic still applies to the small charges carriers ask for today. Where device money exists now →

What the Affordable Connectivity Program Qualifications Were

People still search for affordable connectivity program qualifications, and it is worth setting them out, because the ACP program qualifications are the reason the replacement does not fit everybody.

  • Income at or below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines — the figure that matters most on this page
  • Or participation in a qualifying program — SNAP, Medicaid, SSI, Federal Public Housing Assistance, a Veterans Pension or Survivors Benefit, and the Tribal programs
  • Or free and reduced-price school lunch, a Pell Grant, or WIC — routes Lifeline does not recognize at all
  • Or already receiving Lifeline, which enrolled a household automatically
  • Or meeting the criteria for a participating provider’s own low-income internet program — a detail worth remembering, because those programs are still running

Read the third line again. Free and reduced-price school lunch, a Pell Grant and WIC each opened the door under ACP and open nothing under Lifeline. That is not a small technicality — it is a large share of the households now finding that the advice they were given does not work.

And note the last line. ACP treated a provider’s own low-income internet program as a qualifying route, which is a useful hint about where to look now: those programs were considered equivalent while ACP ran, and most of them are still open.

The Gap Nobody Writes About

Every guide answers “is the acp program still available” with the same two sentences: no, and Lifeline is the alternative. For a large share of the people asking, the second half of that answer is simply wrong.

ACP qualified households at or below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines. Lifeline stops at 135%. The FCC does not pretend otherwise — its own consumer guidance says plainly that not all households who received the ACP discount will qualify for Lifeline. A household between those two thresholds lost a $30 monthly benefit and is not eligible for the $9.25 one. Being told to “just apply for Lifeline” wastes their time and ends in a denial.

The gap is worth seeing in money as well as percentages. For a household that does still qualify, the federal benefit fell from $30 a month to $9.25 — roughly a 69% cut — and on Tribal lands from $75 to $34.25. For a household in the 135-to-200% band it fell from $30 to nothing.

So the useful question is not whether ACP is coming back. It is which tier you are in. If you are under 135%, Lifeline is real and you should claim it. If you are between 135% and 200%, the next section is written for you, and it is the part of this subject that gets almost no coverage.

Check which tier you are in →

The 200% Tier Still Exists — Just Not Federally

ACP set a threshold that a whole ecosystem was built around, and that ecosystem did not disappear when the federal money did.

Provider low-cost plans

Comcast’s Internet Essentials uses the same 200% threshold ACP did. In August 2026 it listed $14.95 a month for up to 75 Mbps or $29.95 for up to 100 Mbps, and enrolled customers can buy a Dell laptop or Chromebook for $149.99.

State programs

New York caps qualifying households at $15 a month and sets its own threshold at 185% of the poverty guidelines — above Lifeline’s 135%. California runs a separate program worth far more than the federal benefit.

Nonprofit refurbishers

PCs for People and Human-I-T supply low-cost refurbished devices to households under 200%, and accept benefits Lifeline does not — TANF, WIC, LIHEAP, school lunch, Pell.

Two things to take from that. First, ask your own internet provider directly — this is exactly what the FCC tells former ACP households to do, and most large providers run a low-income plan they do not advertise heavily. Second, check the prices yourself rather than trusting a guide: we found articles still quoting Internet Essentials at $9.95 when the company’s own page said $14.95, and a stale price is the commonest error in this subject.

What your state does → · The refurbisher route in detail →

Is the ACP Program Coming Back?

Not as of August 2026. Several bills to restore ACP funding have been introduced since 2024 and none has passed, and there is no federal money supporting the affordable connectivity program today. So: is ACP coming back, is the affordable connectivity program still in effect, has the affordable connectivity program ending been reversed — no, no, and no. Advocacy groups continue to press for it; that is not the same as a program.

Where to check rather than trust a page like this one. For acp program news the FCC’s own site at fcc.gov is the only source that cannot be out of date, and searching for acp gov will take you there. Anything else, including us, is a snapshot.

Treat the question as settled for planning purposes. This is the same advice this site gives about state bills that have been introduced but not enacted: reporting on proposed legislation reads as though something is already in force, and households make real decisions on that misreading. If a page tells you to get ready for ACP’s return, it is describing a hope rather than a program.

It is also worth being clear about what ACP was, because “is the affordable connectivity program permanent” and “how long does the affordable connectivity program last” were common questions even while it ran — as was how long will the affordable connectivity program last, which turned out to have a date for an answer. It was never permanent. Created under the infrastructure legislation sometimes called the affordable connectivity act, it was funded with a fixed appropriation rather than an ongoing entitlement, which is precisely why it could end on a date rather than being reduced gradually. Lifeline is structured differently — it draws on the Universal Service Fund, financed by charges on phone bills, which is why it survived when ACP did not. How Lifeline is funded →

Why You Can Still Find ACP Application Forms Online

Two years after the money ran out, searches for an acp free tablet application or acp sign up still return working forms. This is worth explaining, because it is not always what it looks like.

Some of it is simple neglect. Carriers that built their business on ACP have left the application pages up. One provider we looked at still hosts its full ACP application flow alongside a notice saying Congress has not re-funded the program, and a link inviting visitors to lobby for its return. Nothing sinister — but a household landing on the form rather than the notice would reasonably think the program was live. A worked example →

They are written to catch every wording — free tablet acp, acp free phone and tablet, acp free tablet with ebt, affordable connectivity program free tablet — and the wording never changes the answer.

Some of it is an affiliate industry that never updates. Pages promising ACP free tablets in 2026 exist because the phrases still get searched, not because anyone checked. The test is simple and it works every time: any page offering a free tablet through ACP is describing something that ended in June 2024, whatever date is printed at the top of it.

And a small amount of it was fraud. The FCC pursued providers over ACP conduct — a $14 million forfeiture was imposed on one company over improperly enrolled subscribers — and separately, a major Lifeline carrier and its chief executive pleaded guilty in 2024 to defrauding that program. Neither fact makes these subsidies a scam. Both are evidence that the oversight functions. What that case actually was →

If You Were Enrolled in ACP

There is nothing to recertify, nothing to cancel and nothing owed. Searches for affordable connectivity program recertification and acp recertify still run, and the answer is that recertification ended with the program — there is no enrollment left to maintain.

  • Check what you are being charged now. Many households moved onto a full-price plan automatically when the discount stopped, and some never noticed the increase
  • Ask your provider for its low-income plan by name, rather than asking whether they have one. The FCC’s own guidance to former ACP households is exactly this
  • Apply for Lifeline if you are under 135%, since it is a live program and the application is free
  • If you are between 135% and 200%, go to the provider plans and the refurbishers rather than the federal route
  • Veterans: the affordable connectivity program for veterans was never a separate program, but a Veterans Pension or Survivors Benefit qualifies a household for Lifeline outright

One thing that did carry over: any device you received under ACP is yours. The hardware was bought outright with the one-time discount and the end of the program did not repossess it.

ACP Questions

No. The Affordable Connectivity Program ran out of funding on June 1, 2024, April 2024 was the last month households received the full discount, and May 2024 was a partial month only where providers chose to take part. No federal money supports it today and no bill restoring it has passed.

Not as of August 2026. Several bills to restore funding have been introduced since 2024 and none has passed. Advocacy continues, but for any practical decision the program should be treated as ended rather than paused.

For households at or below 135% of the federal poverty guidelines, Lifeline — worth up to $9.25 a month, or up to $34.25 on qualifying Tribal lands. For households between 135% and 200%, nothing federal replaced it, and the realistic options are a provider’s own low-income plan, a state program where one exists, or a nonprofit refurbisher.

Because the thresholds are different. ACP admitted households at or below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines while Lifeline stops at 135%. The FCC states directly that not all households who received the ACP discount will qualify for Lifeline. If you fall between the two figures you are not doing anything wrong and a Lifeline application will simply be denied.

Up to $30 a month toward broadband, up to $75 a month on qualifying Tribal lands, and a one-time discount of up to $100 toward a laptop, desktop or tablet bought through a participating provider. Lifeline’s $9.25 is roughly a 69% reduction on the standard monthly amount, and it carries no device money at all.

No. ACP was the only federal program that ever paid toward hardware and it ended in June 2024. Any page offering an ACP free tablet, an ACP tablet program or an ACP free tablet application in 2026 is describing something that no longer exists, regardless of the date shown on the page.

Because the rules required the household to contribute more than $10 of its own money toward a subsidized device. A provider charging nothing would have been the irregular one. That is why a small co-pay on a free tablet offer today is a sign of a provider following the rules rather than a warning sign.

No. Recertification ended with the program, so there is no enrollment to maintain, nothing to cancel and nothing owed. If you are still being billed for something you believe was an ACP plan, that is a question for your provider about what you were moved onto when the discount stopped.

Not as a separate program — veterans qualified through the same routes as everyone else. Under Lifeline today, a Veterans Pension or Survivors Benefit qualifies a household outright, with no income test needed on top of it.

No, and it never was. ACP was funded by a fixed appropriation rather than an ongoing entitlement, which is why it stopped on a date instead of shrinking gradually. Lifeline draws on the Universal Service Fund, financed by charges that appear on ordinary phone bills, which is why it continued when ACP did not.

It was a real federal program administered by the FCC and USAC, and it is now closed. The FCC did pursue enforcement against some providers over how they enrolled subscribers, which is a sign the oversight worked rather than that the program was fraudulent. What is not legitimate is any site still taking ACP applications today.

There is no live enrollment site. The FCC keeps information pages about the program at fcc.gov for reference, but the application system closed with the program in 2024, and any other site presenting itself as an ACP sign-up page is not one.

Find Out Which Tier You Are In

Under 135% and Lifeline is real money you should claim. Between 135% and 200% and there is a different route. The checker settles it in thirty seconds and stores nothing.

Check my eligibility →

Sources: the April 2024, May 2024 and June 1, 2024 wind-down dates, the quoted explanation that funding lapsed “due to a lack of additional funding from Congress”, the guidance to former households and the statement that not all ACP households will qualify for Lifeline all come from the FCC’s own Affordable Connectivity Program consumer FAQ; the $30, $75 and $100 benefit amounts from USAC; the 20-million enrollment figure from an FCC news release of August 2023; Lifeline’s $9.25 and $34.25 amounts and its 135% threshold from USAC; Internet Essentials pricing, its 200% threshold and the $149.99 device offer from Comcast’s own page in August 2026; New York’s $15 cap and 185% threshold from New York State sources; the $14 million ACP forfeiture from FCC enforcement reporting; the Lifeline guilty pleas from the U.S. Department of Justice.

The ACP device co-pay rule is stated here as requiring more than $10 from the household, which is how USAC and the FCC described it; the precise upper bound sits in the FCC’s ACP order rather than in consumer guidance. Prices for provider low-income plans move — we found widely published figures for Internet Essentials that were out of date by five dollars a month, so confirm current pricing with the provider before relying on it. Last updated August 2026 and reviewed quarterly. FreeTabletWithEBT.net is an independent resource and is not affiliated with any government agency, carrier, or program.