As for "prior years"-----there has been one tax year in which the child tax credit was more----2021. That was the year in which the IRS sent out advance child tax credit payments from July to December 2021----$300/month for children under 6 and $250/month for children 6 to 17. Then they sent you letter 6419 which had to be entered on your 2021 tax return. You could still get the other "half" of the total amount for your child when you filed your 2021 return---it would have been on line 28----up to $1800 for a child under 6, or up to $1500 for a child 6 to 17.
The tax law changed back to the "old" amounts for 2022 and beyond and is still $2000 per child under the age of 17. For 2023, the refundable portion--called the additional child tax credit--is up to $1600 per child ---and the amount is calculated based on the amount you earned from working.
If your child was older than 16 at the end of 2023, you get the $500 credit for other dependents instead of the CTC.
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