SentenceCalc

How we calculate

The calculator follows the order of operations in §1B1.1 of the Guidelines Manual effective November 1, 2025.

Order of steps

  1. The offense guideline from Chapter Two: base offense level and specific offense characteristics, applied in the manual's order, including minimum levels (“if the resulting offense level is less than level N, increase to level N”) and caps.
  2. The person's part: aiding and abetting (same guideline), attempt and conspiracy (§2X1.1), accessory after the fact (§2X3.1) and misprision (§2X4.1).
  3. Chapter Three adjustments: aggravating and mitigating role (§§3B1.1–3B1.2), obstruction (§3C1.1) and reckless flight (§3C1.2).
  4. Multiple counts: grouping and units (§§3D1.1–3D1.4); counts with consecutive statutory terms are added on top (§2K2.4, §2B1.6).
  5. Acceptance of responsibility (§3E1.1), including the level-16 condition for the third level.
  6. Criminal history points and category (§4A1.1), career offender (§4B1.1) and the zero-point reduction (§4C1.1).
  7. The sentencing table (Chapter Five, Part A), then statutory maximums, mandatory minimums, the safety valve (§5C1.2) and its 24–30 month floor.

Sources

The primary source is the official Guidelines Manual published by the U.S. Sentencing Commission at ussc.gov. Statutory maximums and minimums come from the U.S. Code and the Commission's primers, and are cited where they appear.

Review process

Every offense record was encoded from the manual's verbatim text and then put through at least five independent review rounds. In each round a fresh reviewer, with no access to earlier reviewers' notes, compared the record with the manual and ran test cases through the calculator against hand calculations. Each round used a different lens:

  1. Numbers: every level, threshold, floor and cap traced to the manual.
  2. Logic: which factors are alternatives, the order of floors and caps, and combinations the manual forbids.
  3. Wording: every label and note against the manual's exact words and definitions, so an ordinary reader picks the option the manual would apply.
  4. Test cases: realistic fact patterns worked out by hand first, then run through the calculator.
  5. Final audit: all of the above, plus internal consistency.

Any record corrected in a later round got further rounds until one found nothing to fix. The calculator's code and the written pages are reviewed in the same way. An offense is marked Verified once its latest round is clean, and Draft otherwise.

These reviews were performed by AI reviewers, not lawyers. Questions of legal interpretation that the reviewers could not settle from the manual's text are collected for review by a federal criminal defense attorney. No attorney has reviewed the site yet, and every offense page says so.

Known limits

  • Some Chapter Three adjustments are not yet modeled: the victim-related adjustments (§§3A1.1–3A1.5, including hate crime, vulnerable or official victim, restraint of a victim and terrorism), abuse of trust or special skill (§3B1.3), using a minor (§3B1.4), body armor (§3B1.5), committing an offense while on release (§3C1.3), and early disposition (“fast-track”) reductions (§3F1.1).
  • The armed career criminal (§4B1.4) and criminal livelihood (§4B1.3) provisions are not modeled.
  • Criminal history is entered as counts of prior sentences; the detailed timing and exclusion rules of §4A1.2 are left to the user, and the extra points under §4A1.1(d) are not modeled.
  • Mandatory minimum sentences are applied for drug quantities, fixed consecutive terms such as §924(c) and aggravated identity theft, and two guidelines whose statutes always carry one (continuing criminal enterprise, §2D1.5, and selling or buying children, §2G2.3). For other offenses the calculator does not apply statutory minimums; the offense pages name the main ones, and a minimum higher than the range controls.
  • For many offenses the calculator does not include the statutory maximum, because the manual does not state it; the statute could cap a range below what is shown.
  • Some rules require the reader to answer carefully rather than being enforced automatically, such as factors that apply only when another factor does not. The question text explains these.
  • Drug cases involving death or serious injury, and sales near schools, are handled by separate records or not yet modeled.
  • Variances under 18 U.S.C. §3553(a), cooperation motions and plea agreements cannot be predicted and are not included.

Updates

The Commission's amendments take effect each November 1 unless Congress acts. We intend to update the calculator for each new manual, and every page shows the manual edition it follows and the date it was last updated.

Privacy

All calculation runs in your browser. See the privacy page.