Loan Calculator
Calculate loan payments, interest, and create amortization schedules for any loan type
Your Monthly Payment
First Year Amortization Schedule
| Period | Payment | Principal | Interest | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $489.15 | $353.74 | $135.42 | $24,646.26 |
| 2 | $489.15 | $355.65 | $133.50 | $24,290.61 |
| 3 | $489.15 | $357.58 | $131.57 | $23,933.03 |
| 4 | $489.15 | $359.52 | $129.64 | $23,573.51 |
| 5 | $489.15 | $361.46 | $127.69 | $23,212.05 |
| 6 | $489.15 | $363.42 | $125.73 | $22,848.63 |
| 7 | $489.15 | $365.39 | $123.76 | $22,483.24 |
| 8 | $489.15 | $367.37 | $121.78 | $22,115.87 |
| 9 | $489.15 | $369.36 | $119.79 | $21,746.51 |
| 10 | $489.15 | $371.36 | $117.79 | $21,375.15 |
| 11 | $489.15 | $373.37 | $115.78 | $21,001.78 |
| 12 | $489.15 | $375.39 | $113.76 | $20,626.38 |
About This Tool
Our comprehensive loan calculator helps you calculate monthly payments, total interest costs, and amortization schedules for personal loans, auto loans, student loans, and any fixed-rate installment loan. Whether you're planning to borrow money or evaluating existing loans, this free tool provides detailed financial insights to help you make informed borrowing decisions and understand the true cost of financing.
How Loan Payments Work
Loan payments typically consist of two components: principal and interest. The principal is the amount you borrowed, while interest is the cost of borrowing money charged by the lender as a percentage of the outstanding balance. With each payment, you simultaneously reduce the loan balance and pay the accrued interest. Early in the loan term, a larger portion of your payment goes toward interest because the outstanding balance is higher. As you gradually pay down the principal, the interest portion decreases and more of each payment goes toward reducing your debt, accelerating your path to becoming debt-free. This systematic payoff process is called amortization.
Key Features
- Flexible Payment Frequency: Calculate for monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly payment schedules to match your pay cycle
- Extra Payment Impact: See how additional principal payments reduce interest costs and shorten loan terms significantly
- Detailed Amortization: View first-year payment breakdown showing principal, interest, and balance for each period
- Total Cost Analysis: Understand total interest paid and total amount repaid over the loan's lifetime
- Interest Savings Calculator: Quantify savings from extra payments to motivate accelerated payoff strategies
- Any Loan Type: Works for personal loans, auto loans, student loans, consolidation loans, and more
- Instant Recalculation: Modify any value and see results update immediately for quick scenario comparison
Common Use Cases
Loan calculators serve essential purposes throughout your borrowing journey, from initial planning to debt payoff acceleration.
- Personal Loans: Calculate monthly payments for debt consolidation, home improvements, or major purchases
- Auto Financing: Determine car loan payments and compare dealer financing offers versus bank loans
- Student Loans: Understand education loan repayment costs and evaluate refinancing opportunities
- Debt Consolidation: Calculate combined payment for multiple debts consolidated into a single loan
How to Use
- Enter your total loan amount or the amount you plan to borrow
- Input the annual interest rate (APR) offered by your lender
- Select your loan term in years (how long you'll take to repay)
- Choose your payment frequency: monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly
- Optionally add an extra payment amount to see accelerated payoff benefits
- Review your payment, total interest, and amortization schedule instantly
Payment Frequency Options
Choosing your payment frequency can significantly impact the total interest paid over your loan's lifetime. Monthly payments are most common and align with typical salary schedules. Bi-weekly or weekly payments can help you pay off the loan faster and save on interest because you make more frequent payments each year. Making 26 bi-weekly payments is equivalent to 13 monthly payments per year rather than 12, effectively creating one extra monthly payment annually that goes entirely toward principal reduction. This seemingly small change can shave years off your loan term and save thousands in interest costs without requiring a significant change to your budget, as you're simply splitting your monthly payment in half and paying every two weeks.
Benefits of Extra Payments
Making extra payments toward your loan principal can dramatically reduce the total interest paid and shorten the loan term substantially. Even small additional payments each month - such as $50 or $100 - compound over time to create massive savings. For example, an extra $100 monthly payment on a $25,000 five-year loan at 6.5% could save over $1,000 in interest and pay off the loan several months early. The key is that extra payments go entirely toward reducing principal, not interest, which reduces the balance on which future interest is calculated. Always verify with your lender that extra payments are applied correctly to principal and that there are no prepayment penalties that could negate your savings. Many online lenders and modern loan servicers make it easy to schedule automatic extra payments for consistent debt reduction.