| Mo. | Payment | Principal | Interest | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200.00 | $141.67 | $58.33 | $9,858.33 |
| 2 | $200.00 | $142.49 | $57.51 | $9,715.84 |
| 3 | $200.00 | $143.32 | $56.68 | $9,572.52 |
| 4 | $200.00 | $144.16 | $55.84 | $9,428.36 |
| 5 | $200.00 | $145.00 | $55.00 | $9,283.35 |
| 6 | $200.00 | $145.85 | $54.15 | $9,137.51 |
| 7 | $200.00 | $146.70 | $53.30 | $8,990.81 |
| 8 | $200.00 | $147.55 | $52.45 | $8,843.26 |
| 9 | $200.00 | $148.41 | $51.59 | $8,694.84 |
| 10 | $200.00 | $149.28 | $50.72 | $8,545.56 |
| 11 | $200.00 | $150.15 | $49.85 | $8,395.41 |
| 12 | $200.00 | $151.03 | $48.97 | $8,244.38 |
| 13 | $200.00 | $151.91 | $48.09 | $8,092.48 |
| 14 | $200.00 | $152.79 | $47.21 | $7,939.68 |
| 15 | $200.00 | $153.69 | $46.31 | $7,786.00 |
| 16 | $200.00 | $154.58 | $45.42 | $7,631.42 |
| 17 | $200.00 | $155.48 | $44.52 | $7,475.93 |
| 18 | $200.00 | $156.39 | $43.61 | $7,319.54 |
| 19 | $200.00 | $157.30 | $42.70 | $7,162.24 |
| 20 | $200.00 | $158.22 | $41.78 | $7,004.02 |
| 21 | $200.00 | $159.14 | $40.86 | $6,844.88 |
| 22 | $200.00 | $160.07 | $39.93 | $6,684.80 |
| 23 | $200.00 | $161.01 | $38.99 | $6,523.80 |
| 24 | $200.00 | $161.94 | $38.06 | $6,361.85 |
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Loan Payoff Calculator — Personal, Auto & Student Loans
How Long Will It Take to Pay Off Your Loan?
Whether you're managing a personal loan, an auto loan, or a student loan, knowing your exact payoff date and total interest cost is essential financial knowledge. Yet most borrowers only look at the monthly payment — missing the bigger picture of how long they'll be paying and how much interest will accumulate.
This free loan payoff calculator gives you the complete picture instantly. Enter your outstanding balance, APR, and monthly payment to see your full amortization schedule, total interest cost, and payoff timeline. Switch to Target Date mode to find the monthly payment needed to pay off your loan in a specific number of months. Add an extra payment to see exactly how much interest you'd save and how many months you'd shave off the term.
All calculations run entirely in your browser — no data is uploaded to any server. Your financial details stay private.
The Real Cost of a Loan: Principal vs Interest
When you take out a $10,000 personal loan at 11% APR and pay $250 per month, you'll be debt-free in about 47 months — but you'll pay $1,714 in interest on top of the $10,000 you borrowed. That's a 17% surcharge for the privilege of borrowing.
The amortization schedule reveals something counterintuitive: in the early months, most of your payment goes to interest, not principal. On that same loan, month 1 sees $91.67 go to interest and only $158.33 reduce your balance. By month 40, the ratio flips — more goes to principal and less to interest. This front-loading of interest is why extra payments made early in the loan life save disproportionately more than extra payments made near the end.
The extra payment feature makes this concrete. Adding just $50/month to a $10,000 loan at 11% APR cuts the term by 5 months and saves $380 in interest. Adding $100/month saves $660 and knocks off 9 months. These savings compound — every month of interest you avoid is a month of the outstanding balance shrinking faster.
Calculator Features
How to Use the Loan Payoff Calculator
- 1Select your loan type (optional)Click Personal, Auto, or Student to auto-fill a typical APR. Or skip this and enter your exact rate manually in the APR slider.
- 2Enter your loan balanceType your current outstanding loan balance. Use the currency dropdown if you're not in the US — the calculator supports USD, GBP, EUR, and 17 more currencies.
- 3Set your APRDrag the slider or type your annual interest rate. Your lender's statement or loan agreement will show your APR. Ranges from 0% (interest-free loans) to 36%.
- 4Choose your mode and paymentIn Fixed Payment mode, enter your monthly payment to see how long payoff takes. In Target Date mode, enter the number of months you want to pay off the loan and see the required payment.
- 5Add an extra payment (optional)Enter any additional amount you can pay each month beyond the minimum. The calculator shows how much interest this saves and how much faster you'll be debt-free.
- 6Review the resultsThe hero shows payoff time or required payment. Below: total interest, total paid, the amortization schedule, and (if applicable) the extra-payment comparison panel.
Who Uses a Loan Payoff Calculator?
Frequently Asked Questions
The payoff time formula is: months = -log(1 - (balance × monthly_rate) / payment) / log(1 + monthly_rate). For example, a $10,000 loan at 7% APR with $200/month payments would take about 58 months (4 years 10 months). This calculator handles the math automatically — just enter your balance, APR, and monthly payment.
Extra payments directly reduce the principal balance, which reduces the interest charged in subsequent months. Even a small extra payment — say $50/month on a $10,000 personal loan at 11% APR — can save hundreds of dollars in interest and cut months off the repayment term. The calculator shows a before/after comparison when you add an extra payment amount.
APR (Annual Percentage Rate) includes the interest rate plus any additional fees or costs associated with the loan, expressed as a yearly rate. The nominal interest rate is just the cost of borrowing without fees. For simple personal, auto, and student loans with no origination fees, APR and the interest rate are often the same. This calculator uses APR as the input rate.
Typical APR ranges vary by loan type and creditworthiness. Personal loans: 6–36% APR (good credit averages ~11%). Auto loans: 4–10% APR (new car average ~7%, used car higher). Federal student loans: 5–8% APR (undergraduate loans fixed by government). Private student loans: 4–15% APR. The loan type preset buttons in this calculator set common representative rates for quick estimates.
Each month, interest is calculated on the remaining balance: interest = balance × (APR / 12). The principal portion of the payment is: principal = payment − interest. The balance reduces by the principal each month. Early in the loan, most of the payment goes to interest; near the end, most goes to principal. The complete month-by-month breakdown is shown in the amortization table.
If your payment is less than or equal to the monthly interest charge (balance × APR/12), the principal never decreases — the loan can never be paid off. The calculator detects this and shows an error message with the minimum payment required to start reducing the balance. This situation is called negative amortization and can occur with very high APR loans or very low payment amounts.
The decision depends on the loan's APR versus expected investment returns. If your loan is at 7% APR and you expect the stock market to return 8–10% annually, investing may come out ahead on average. If your loan is at 20%+ (credit card rates), paying it off is almost always the better return since guaranteed 20% "savings" beat expected market returns. Use the extra payment calculator to see exactly how much you'd save by paying off the loan early.
Yes. This calculator uses standard amortization formulas: monthly payment = balance × r × (1+r)^n / ((1+r)^n - 1), where r is the monthly rate (APR/12) and n is the number of months. The amortization schedule is computed month by month. Results match standard loan calculators from banks and financial institutions. All calculations run entirely in your browser — no data is uploaded. For your exact loan terms, always verify with your lender's statement.