Calculate the monthly payment and total interest of an amortized loan, auto, personal or student loans.
| Input | Result |
|---|---|
| $20,000, 6.5%, 5 yrs | $391.32/mo · $3,479.20 interest |
| $300,000, 5%, 30 yrs | $1,610.46/mo |
| $10,000, 0%, 2 yrs | $416.67/mo |
Using the standard amortization formula with the monthly interest rate and total number of payments.
No. This shows principal and interest only; add taxes, insurance and fees separately.
Shorter terms, lower rates or extra principal payments all reduce total interest, compare a few scenarios above.
An amortised loan's payment is constant, but its composition is not. Early payments are mostly interest, because interest is charged on the full outstanding balance; late payments are mostly principal, because there is little balance left to charge on. On a 5-year, $20,000 loan at 6.5%, the first payment splits roughly $108 interest / $283 principal; the final payment is almost entirely principal. Nothing about the loan changed, only the balance underneath the arithmetic.
| Same payment, different loans | What the calculator shows | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Shorter term | Higher payment, dramatically less total interest | You buy interest savings with monthly cash flow |
| Lower rate | Lower payment and less interest, term unchanged | Refinancing's value, worth a fee only if the gap is real |
| Extra principal | Payment unchanged, term shrinks | The early-payoff calculator prices this exactly |
Zero-rate financing sounds free because the interest line is genuinely zero, the payment is just the principal divided by the number of months ($20,000 over 24 months is $833.33 exactly). The cost moves elsewhere: 0% offers usually forgo a cash rebate that would have lowered the amount financed, and the promotional rate often snaps to a punitive retroactive rate if a payment is late. Compare the rebate you give up against the interest you save, using this calculator, before signing.
This tool computes principal and interest only. A lender's "monthly payment" may additionally wrap in origination fees funded into the balance, required insurance, or precomputed-interest structures (the Rule of 78s front-loads interest, making early payoff less valuable). If a quote's payment differs from yours, ask for the loan's amortisation schedule, the first three lines will tell you which arithmetic the lender is actually using.
How this page is built and kept current. Written and fact-checked by the MoneyCalcsHub editorial team. We do not sell financial products and we accept no payment to change a result, the arithmetic on this page runs in your own browser from the numbers you type.
Official sources used on this page:
Source-dependent figures are reviewed when the cited issuer publishes an update. Worked examples show the formula applied to the listed inputs; interactive results are calculated in your browser.
Spotted an error? Write to [email protected], corrections are published on the page and the last-updated date changes with them. Full process: editorial policy.