Student Loan Payoff Calculator
See how long your student loans take to clear, the total interest they cost, and how many months and dollars an extra payment each month saves you.
Student Loan Payoff Calculator
Your loan
The total principal still owed today, including any interest already capitalised onto the balance. One loan at a time: run it again for each of the others.
The fixed rate on this loan, not a blended average across loans sitting at different rates.
Tap one for a ballpark, or type the rate from your servicer. Federal rates reset every July 1, so the exact figure on your account is the one that counts.
What you pay every month, before any extra. The $432 default is roughly the ten year payment on $38,000 at 6.5%.
Anything above the required payment, applied straight to principal. Set it to 0 to hide the comparison.
Each chip fills the field above and reruns the whole schedule, so you can see what an amount buys before you commit to it.
Interest is charged once a month at the rate divided by 12, then the payment is applied. The plan assumes a fixed rate, no new borrowing and no missed months.
What the extra buys
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Year by year
| Year | Paid | Interest | Principal | Balance left |
|---|
First 12 months, month by month
| Month | Interest | Principal | Balance left |
|---|
What the payoff math is actually doing
Interest is charged first each month, and only what is left of the payment touches the principal. Month one on $38,000 at 6.5% is $205.83 of interest and, at $432 alone, $226.17 of principal. Nearly half of that first payment is interest before a cent reaches the debt. Because the balance shrinks, the interest charge shrinks with it and the principal share climbs every month, which is why the tenth year of that loan retires $4,924.29 of principal against $2,796.33 in the first.
Every figure on this page comes straight out of that schedule. Interest is rounded to the cent each month, the way a servicer posts it, and the totals are the sum of those monthly charges rather than a formula run backwards from the payment. It is also why the final payment comes in short: the balance runs out part way through the last month, so you pay what is left instead of the full amount.
The assumptions are worth naming, because they are the ones that break in real life: a fixed rate, a fixed payment, no new borrowing, no missed months, and a monthly interest charge standing in for daily accrual. Nothing here is a lookup table. Every number recomputes on each keystroke from the balance, the rate and the payment you typed.
What an extra payment buys, in months and in dollars
The regular payment has to clear this month's interest before it touches principal. An extra payment has no interest to cover, so every cent of it is principal, and principal removed today stops accruing for the whole remaining term. That is why small amounts do more than their size suggests. On $38,000 at 6.5% while paying $432 a month:
- Extra $25 a month: 111 months instead of 120, and $1,115.38 less interest.
- Extra $50 a month: 104 months instead of 120, and $2,059.59 less interest.
- Extra $100 a month: 91 months instead of 120, and $3,572.09 less interest.
- Extra $200 a month: 73 months instead of 120, and $5,650.80 less interest.
- Extra $300 a month: 62 months instead of 120, and $7,014.22 less interest.
The servicer mechanics decide whether any of that happens. Ask for the extra to be applied to principal, and where the option exists, ask that it not advance your due date. Otherwise the money just buys you a month off later, at full interest cost. Federal loans carry no prepayment penalty, and most private notes do not either, though that one is a term in your contract rather than a rule.
A few related questions have their own tools. A credit card at 20% or more usually deserves the extra money before a student loan does, and the credit card payoff calculator runs the same engine against a card so you can compare the two directly. If the question is where to find the $50 in the first place, a subscription cost audit is usually the fastest place to look. And if you are paid every two weeks, the biweekly paycheck budget calculator finds the two extra paychecks a year that make an obvious source for it.
Turning a payoff date into something you will actually finish
A ten year plan is long enough that it stops feeling real around month four unless you can see it. The habits that help are small ones. Set the standing transfer for the day after payday rather than the day before the due date. Keep the extra as a separate, clearly labelled payment, so next month you can check that it hit principal. Revisit the amount whenever your pay changes. Federal borrowers who cannot hold the payment have income driven repayment options, and studentaid.gov is the place to check which ones are available now.
In Budget44 a student loan is a liability account, so the balance you typed above is the balance the app carries. Each payment posts as a payment transaction and lowers what you owe. The monthly amount sits on the calendar as a recurring bill before it is due, and the net worth screen shows the liability shrinking month over month. Everything stays on the device, with no account and no bank login. Amounts are held as integer minor units, so the totals reconcile with this page to the cent. For the one off version of that picture, the net worth calculator puts the loan against the asset side.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about student loan payoff calculator
How long will it take to pay off my student loans?
Three numbers decide it: the balance, the rate, and what you pay each month. A $38,000 balance at 6.5% takes 120 months (ten years) at $432 a month, and costs $13,752.82 in interest. Add $100 a month and it clears in 91 months for $10,180.73. The payment is the only one of the three you can change this month.
How much does an extra $100 a month actually save?
On $38,000 at 6.5% while paying $432, an extra $100 cuts 29 months and $3,572.09 of interest. An extra $25 still saves 9 months and $1,115.38. Nothing is taken out of an extra payment for interest, so the whole amount retires principal, and that principal stops costing you anything for the rest of the term.
How is student loan interest calculated?
Federal servicers use simple daily interest: the outstanding principal times the rate divided by 365, times the number of days since your last payment. This calculator charges the monthly equivalent, the rate divided by twelve, once per month. Across a full payoff the gap between the two methods comes to well under a month of timeline.
Will my extra payment actually go to the principal?
Only if you tell the servicer. Many will treat a surplus as paying your next installment early and push the due date forward, which saves you nothing in interest. Ask for the extra to be applied to principal and, where the option exists, to leave the due date where it is. Then check the next statement to confirm it landed.
Is there a penalty for paying student loans off early?
Federal student loans have no prepayment penalty. Most private lenders do not charge one either, but that is a term in your promissory note rather than a rule, so read the note before you commit to an aggressive payoff.
What if my payment does not cover the interest?
Then the balance grows and the loan never clears. At $38,000 and 6.5%, the first month alone accrues $205.83, so anything at or below that figure is treading water. This calculator detects that case before it runs any schedule and tells you the minimum that makes progress.
Can I use this for more than one loan?
It handles one loan at a time. Run it once per loan, because averaging several rates into one figure hides the expensive loan, and the expensive loan is the one doing the damage. If you do combine them, expect the result to be optimistic.
Should I pay off the highest rate first or the smallest balance?
Highest rate first costs less in interest, because you retire the expensive debt first. Smallest balance first closes loans sooner, and some people stay with it for that reason. Run this calculator once per loan, and if the interest gap between the two orders is small, take the one you will actually finish. A card at 20% or more usually outranks all of them, which the credit card payoff calculator will show you.