See what your student loans will actually cost each month and over the full repayment term. Enter your balance, interest rate, and timeline to get your monthly payment and total interest โ and test how extra payments could get you debt-free sooner.
The amount you borrow for college is only half the story; the rate and repayment term decide what you actually pay back. A student loan calculator turns your balance, interest rate, and term into a clear monthly payment and a total cost that often surprises borrowers. Federal undergraduate loans disbursed for the 2025โ26 year carry a fixed 6.39% rate, while graduate loans sit at 7.94% and PLUS loans at 8.94%. Whether you're projecting payments before borrowing or planning an aggressive payoff, this student loan calculator shows how each variable shifts the outcome. Enter your numbers and you'll see exactly what a decade of repayment looks like, and how much faster extra payments could free you.
This student loan calculator estimates what you'll pay each month and over the life of your loans, whether they're federal or private. You enter your total balance, your interest rate, and your repayment term, and it returns your monthly payment, total interest, and payoff date. Because federal loans use fixed rates set annually by Congress, the calculator works cleanly for Direct and PLUS loans, and it handles private loans just as well when you supply their rate. It's built for US borrowers navigating the standard 10-year plan, longer extended terms, or a faster custom payoff. The tool also lets you add extra monthly payments to see how much interest you'd save, making it useful both before you borrow and while you repay.
Enter your total student loan balance across all the loans you want to include.
Input your interest rate; use 6.39% for current undergraduate federal loans or your loan's actual rate.
Choose your repayment term, such as the standard 10 years or an extended schedule.
Optionally add any extra monthly payment you plan to make toward principal.
Click calculate to see your monthly payment, total interest, and payoff date.
Adjust the term or extra payment to compare how each scenario changes your total cost.
The calculator uses the standard amortizing loan formula, the same one banks use. It converts your annual rate into a monthly rate by dividing by 12, then solves for the fixed monthly payment that clears your balance over the chosen number of months: payment = principal ร r รท (1 โ (1 + r)^โn), where r is the monthly rate and n is the total number of payments. Each month, interest accrues on your remaining balance, your payment covers that interest first, and the rest reduces principal. Early payments lean heavily toward interest; later ones attack principal. When you add an extra payment, that full amount goes straight to principal, shrinking the balance faster and cutting every future interest charge.
The rate is just the surface; the type of loan changes your safety net entirely. Federal loans come with fixed rates set by Congress, plus protections private loans rarely match: income-driven repayment, deferment, forbearance, and potential forgiveness paths. Private loans, offered by banks and credit unions, may carry lower rates for borrowers with excellent credit or a cosigner, but they lack those federal flexibilities and often use variable rates that can climb. Here's what that means in practice: refinancing federal loans into a private loan might lower your rate, but it permanently surrenders income-driven plans and forgiveness eligibility. The calculator treats both the same mathematically, yet the decision between them hinges on more than the monthly payment. Weigh the protections, not just the interest.
Federal borrowers aren't locked into one schedule, and the plan you pick dramatically reshapes the math. The standard 10-year plan produces the highest monthly payment but the lowest total interest, because you clear the debt fastest. Extended and graduated plans lower the monthly burden by stretching repayment to 20 or 25 years, which feels easier but piles on interest. Income-driven repayment caps your payment at a percentage of discretionary income, helpful when earnings are low, though unpaid interest can cause the balance to grow. Each path trades monthly affordability against lifetime cost. Run the standard term first to see the baseline, then model a longer term to understand exactly what the lower payment costs you over the full repayment period.
Few borrowers grasp how interest capitalization quietly inflates their balance. When unpaid interest gets added to your principal, often after a deferment, grace period, or when leaving an income-driven plan, you start paying interest on that interest. A $30,000 loan that accrues $2,000 in unpaid interest becomes a $32,000 balance, and every future interest charge is calculated on the larger figure. This is why letting interest pile up during school or a pause can cost far more than the original delay suggests. Making even small interest-only payments during deferment prevents capitalization and keeps your principal flat. The calculator shows your cost assuming no capitalization, so treat its total as a best case and avoid the events that trigger it whenever you can.
Maria graduates with $30,000 in federal undergraduate loans at 6.39% on the standard 10-year plan. Her monthly payment comes to about $338, and over ten years she pays roughly $10,560 in interest, bringing her total repayment to around $40,560. If she adds just $50 a month toward principal, she clears the loans nearly two years early and saves close to $1,700 in interest.
James borrows $60,000 for graduate school at 7.94%. On a standard 10-year term, his payment is about $725 a month with total interest near $27,000. Tempted by a 20-year extended plan that drops the payment to roughly $497, he runs it through the calculator and sees total interest balloon to about $59,000. The lower payment nearly doubles his lifetime cost, so he sticks with the shorter term.
Pay the interest during school or grace periods if you can, to stop it from capitalizing onto your principal.
Make extra payments toward the highest-rate loan first, and specify that they apply to principal.
Think hard before refinancing federal loans privately, since you lose income-driven repayment and forgiveness options.
Use the standard 10-year term as your baseline, then justify any longer term by its true interest cost.
Set up autopay, which often earns a 0.25% federal interest rate reduction.
Recheck the calculator whenever your balance or rate changes so your payoff plan stays accurate.
A student loan calculator estimates your monthly payment, total interest, and payoff date from your balance, interest rate, and repayment term. It also shows how extra payments shorten your loan and cut interest.
For loans disbursed in the 2025โ26 year, federal undergraduate loans are 6.39%, graduate loans are 7.94%, and PLUS loans are 8.94%. These fixed rates are set annually by Congress and stay fixed for the life of the loan.
Payments use a standard amortization formula that spreads your balance plus interest evenly across the repayment term. Each month, interest accrues on the remaining balance, your payment covers it first, and the rest reduces principal.
Refinancing can lower your rate but converts federal loans to private ones, forfeiting income-driven repayment, forbearance, and forgiveness options. Refinance only if you're confident you won't need those federal protections.
Make extra payments applied directly to principal, target your highest-rate loan first, and avoid extending your term. Even an extra $50 a month can shave years and thousands in interest off the loan.
Capitalized interest is unpaid interest added to your principal, often after deferment or a grace period. Once capitalized, you pay interest on that interest, increasing your total cost, so paying interest early helps avoid it.
Brief disclaimer: This calculator provides estimates for educational and planning purposes only. Actual loan terms, rates, and repayment options depend on your loan type, servicer, and federal regulations. Results should be treated as planning guidance rather than financial advice.