Loan calculator.
This free loan calculator works out the monthly payment on any fixed-rate loan, personal, auto or home, and shows what it really costs: the total interest, the total of payments, and a year-by-year amortization schedule. For context as you test rates: the Federal Reserve puts the average 24-month personal loan rate at 11.40% APR as of February 2026.
Estimate your payment
LiveMonthly payment
$501
over 5 years
Assumes a fixed rate and equal monthly payments. Estimate for planning, not financial advice. Calculations run in your browser; nothing you enter is stored.
The short answer
What is an amortized loan?
An amortized loan is repaid in equal monthly payments that cover the interest due and steadily reduce the balance to zero by the end of the term. Mortgages, auto loans and personal loans all work this way. The payment depends on three numbers: the amount, the rate and the term.
How this loan payment calculator works
Each month, the interest due on the balance you still owe is taken first, and the rest of your payment reduces the principal. The calculator uses the standard amortization formula to find the fixed payment that clears the loan exactly on time, then adds everything up to show the total interest and the full cost of borrowing.
For a $25,000 loan at 7.5% over 5 years, the monthly loan payment is about $501, and you pay roughly $5,057 in interest on top of the amount you borrowed. Stretch the same loan to 7 years and the payment falls, but the interest bill grows: time is what interest charges for.
Make it count
Borrow for less.
A shorter term
A shorter term raises the monthly payment but cuts the total interest sharply, because the balance is owed for less time.
A lower rate
Shopping the rate, and improving your credit first, lowers both the monthly payment and the total cost. Compare offers by APR, not the headline rate.
Pay extra early
Extra payments go straight to principal and remove the future interest on it. The debt payoff calculator shows how much sooner you finish.
Year by year
Your loan amortization schedule.
Early payments are mostly interest because the balance is largest at the start. As the balance falls, more of each payment goes to principal. The schedule below shows it for every year of the loan; for a month-by-month view, use the amortization calculator.
| Year | Principal paid | Interest paid | Balance |
|---|
At today’s average rate
Monthly payment by loan amount.
Computed at 11.40% APR, the average rate on a 24-month personal loan at commercial banks reported in the Federal Reserve’s G.19 Consumer Credit release for February 2026. Your rate will differ with your credit; enter it above for exact numbers.
| Loan amount | 3-year payment | 5-year payment |
|---|---|---|
| $10,000 | $329 | $219 |
| $15,000 | $494 | $329 |
| $20,000 | $659 | $439 |
| $25,000 | $823 | $549 |
| $30,000 | $988 | $658 |
| $50,000 | $1,646 | $1,097 |
How to calculate a loan payment
Divide the annual interest rate by 12 to get the monthly rate, and multiply the term in years by 12 to get the number of payments.
Multiply the loan amount by the monthly rate times (1 plus the monthly rate) raised to the number of payments.
Divide by (1 plus the monthly rate) raised to the number of payments, minus 1. The result is your fixed monthly payment.
Multiply the payment by the number of payments and subtract the loan amount to see the total interest you will pay.
The full guide
The complete loan guide.
How a loan payment is built, what your rate really means, and the difference between the loans you can get.
How loan interest is calculated each month
A fixed-rate loan charges interest on the balance you still owe. Each month the interest due is the outstanding balance times the monthly rate; that is taken from your payment first, and whatever is left reduces the principal. Because the payment is fixed, the interest portion shrinks and the principal portion grows as the balance falls.
The size of the payment comes from the amortization formula, which spreads the loan evenly across every month of the term at your monthly rate. A longer term means more payments and more total interest; a higher rate means a bigger payment for the same loan.
APR vs interest rate: fees change the real cost
The interest rate prices the borrowing itself. The APR, annual percentage rate, folds in compulsory fees, most importantly origination fees, which on personal loans typically run 1% to 10% of the amount and are often deducted from what you receive. A loan advertised at 9% with a 5% origination fee costs meaningfully more than 9%; the APR exposes that, which is why lenders must quote it and why you should compare offers by APR alone. The APR calculator turns a rate plus fees into the true figure.
One letter apart, APY is the savings-side number: the annual percentage yield an account earns once compounding is counted. When you borrow, compare by APR; when you save, compare by APY.
What rate should you expect? Credit and the five C’s
The Federal Reserve’s G.19 release puts the average 24-month personal loan rate at commercial banks at 11.40% APR as of February 2026. Around that average, real offers spread widely: strong credit can price several points below it, while thin or damaged credit can price far above, into the twenties and thirties.
Lenders set your rate by weighing the five C’s of credit: Character (your repayment record), Capacity (income versus existing debts), Capital (your own assets), Collateral (anything pledged) and Conditions (the loan purpose and the wider economy). Improving the first two, by paying down balances and correcting credit-report errors before you apply, is the fastest way to a cheaper loan.
Secured vs unsecured loans
A secured loan is backed by an asset, called collateral, that the lender can take if you stop paying. Mortgages and auto loans are secured by the home or the car, which lowers the lender’s risk and usually means a lower rate. An unsecured loan, such as a personal loan or a credit card, has no collateral, so approval and pricing rest entirely on your creditworthiness.
That is why the same borrower might pay 6.5% on a mortgage and 11.4% on a personal loan in the same month: the collateral, not the borrower, explains most of the gap.
Amortized, interest-only and deferred loans
This calculator models amortized loans, the kind almost every consumer loan is: equal payments, balance reaching zero at the end. Two other structures exist. Interest-only loans charge just the interest for an initial period, so the balance never falls until the period ends and payments jump. Deferred or balloon loans postpone some or all repayment to a single large payment at the end; bonds work this way, repaying their face value at maturity.
Both alternatives lower the early payments but raise the total cost and the risk, because the balance keeps earning interest against you for longer. If an offer’s payment looks surprisingly low for the amount, check which structure it is.
Loan term: what time really costs
The term is how long you take to repay. At the 11.40% average rate, a $25,000 loan costs $823 a month over 3 years with about $4,636 total interest. Over 5 years the payment drops to $549 but the interest grows to about $7,914. Over 7 years it is $433 a month and roughly $11,400 of interest, almost two and a half times the 3-year cost.
The right term balances a payment you can comfortably afford against the total interest you are willing to pay for that comfort. Try a few terms in the calculator and watch the total of payments line, not just the monthly figure.
Paying a loan off early
Extra payments go straight to principal, and every dollar of principal removed cancels all the future interest it would have generated. Paying early in the term matters most, when the balance and the interest charges are largest. Check for prepayment penalties first; most personal loans have none, but some lenders charge them.
If you hold several debts, pay minimums on all and target the extra at one: highest rate first saves the most money. The debt payoff calculator compares strategies, and the refinance calculator shows whether replacing an expensive loan beats overpaying it.
The formula
No black box.
Here is the math.
Your payment is the loan amount scaled by how the balance amortizes across every month of the term at your monthly rate.
See amortization ›# Monthly payment
M = P × [ r(1+r)ⁿ ] / [ (1+r)ⁿ − 1 ]
# where
P = loan amount
r = annual rate / 12
n = term in months
# worked example
$25,000 at 7.5% / 5y → $501/moQuestions
Loan questions.
How do I calculate a monthly loan payment?
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Use the amortization formula: multiply the loan amount by the monthly rate times (1 plus the monthly rate) to the power of the number of months, then divide by that same power minus one. Or enter the amount, rate and term above and the calculator does it instantly.
What is the monthly payment on a $20,000 loan?
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At the February 2026 average personal loan rate of 11.40% APR, a $20,000 loan costs about $439 a month over 5 years, with roughly $6,331 of total interest, or $659 a month over 3 years. A better rate or shorter term lowers the total cost.
What is a good interest rate for a personal loan?
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The Federal Reserve’s G.19 release reports the average 24-month personal loan rate at 11.40% APR as of February 2026. Anything below that average is good; borrowers with excellent credit often beat it by several points, while weaker credit prices well above it.
What is the difference between APR and interest rate?
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The interest rate prices the borrowing alone. APR adds compulsory fees, such as origination fees, and spreads them across the term, so it reflects the true yearly cost. Two loans with the same rate can have different APRs; always compare loans by APR.
What is a secured versus unsecured loan?
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A secured loan is backed by collateral, such as a house or car, that the lender can take if you default, which usually means a lower rate. An unsecured loan, like a personal loan or credit card, has no collateral and is priced on your credit, so rates are usually higher.
What happens if I pay extra on my loan each month?
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Extra payments reduce the principal directly, so every future interest charge is calculated on a smaller balance. You finish the loan early and pay less interest overall. Confirm your lender applies extra amounts to principal and charges no prepayment penalty.
What are the five C’s of credit?
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Character, Capacity, Capital, Collateral and Conditions: your repayment history, income versus debts, own assets, anything pledged against the loan, and the loan’s purpose and economic backdrop. Lenders weigh all five to set your rate or decline the application.
About the developer
Jean Borg
Jean builds and maintains every calculator on freecalculators.pro from Malta, with a focus on tools that are fast, free and show their working. The loan calculator uses standard amortization maths, cites average rates from the Federal Reserve’s G.19 release, and is provided for planning and education, not as personalised financial advice. Page last updated June 10, 2026.