Monthly payment, interest & payoff.
| # | Payment | Principal | Interest | Balance |
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This calculator handles any fixed-rate loan with equal monthly payments: a car loan, a personal loan, a debt consolidation loan, or anything else with a set payment and a set end date. Everything runs in your browser; nothing you type is uploaded, and there is no sign-up. Enter your extra monthly payment to see exactly how much sooner you'd be debt-free and what it saves in interest.
Three inputs drive everything: the loan amount you are borrowing, the annual interest rate on the offer, and the term, which is how long you have to repay. From those the tool produces the level monthly payment, the total interest across the life of the loan, the total amount repaid, and the time to payoff. The donut splits that total into principal and interest, so the cost of borrowing is visible at a glance instead of buried at the bottom of a table.
The optional extra monthly payment field adds a fourth input: any amount you pay above what the lender requires. Fill it in and the payoff line shortens, and a savings note appears showing how many months you cut off and how much interest you avoid. Use the Years and Months toggle to match however your offer is quoted; a 5 year term and a 60 month term produce identical results. Everything recalculates as you type, and nothing is stored between visits.
One thing the calculator does not do is guess at fees. It treats the rate you type as the annual rate on the amount you type. If a lender rolls an origination fee, tax, or add-on into the balance, include it in the loan amount so the payment reflects what you will actually owe.
Open Show amortization schedule and you get one row for every payment in the loan, with five columns: the payment number, the payment amount, how much of it goes to principal, how much goes to interest, and the balance left afterward. Every twelfth row is highlighted so you can find the year boundaries quickly.
Reading down the interest column shows the most useful fact about installment debt. The interest charge falls every single month, because interest is charged on the balance that remains and the balance keeps shrinking. The principal column rises by exactly the same amount, so the payment itself never moves. On the last row the balance reaches zero, which is what people mean when they call a loan fully amortizing: the schedule is built to clear the debt precisely at the end of the term, with nothing left over.
Add an extra payment and the table simply gets shorter. The loan ends on an earlier row, and the final payment is often smaller than the rest because only the leftover balance is due. The CFPB's explainer on amortization describes the same mechanic in plain language.
Take a $25,000 loan at 6.5% over 5 years, the example used throughout this site. The monthly payment works out to $489.15, total interest to $4,349.22, and total repaid to $29,349.22. Here is what the schedule looks like at five points along the way, with every figure computed by the same formula the calculator uses.
| Payment | To interest | To principal | Balance after |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | $135.42 | $353.74 | $24,646.26 |
| #12 | $113.76 | $375.39 | $20,626.38 |
| #24 | $88.62 | $400.53 | $15,959.86 |
| #48 | $33.17 | $455.98 | $5,668.30 |
| #60 | $2.64 | $486.52 | $0.00 |
The payment is $489.15 on every one of those rows. What changes is the split: interest starts at $135.42 and finishes at $2.64. Adding $100 a month to the same loan clears it in 49 months instead of 60 and cuts total interest to $3,483.78, a saving of $865.44. The loan payoff calculator is built around exactly that comparison. The 6.5% rate here is an illustration, not a quoted market rate; use the number on your own offer.
Buying a car. Dealers usually negotiate in monthly payments, which hides the price, the rate, and the term inside a single number. Working the payment out yourself lets you check the quote and see what a longer term really costs. Enter the amount financed after any down payment or trade-in; the auto loan calculator covers this case directly, and there are focused versions for a motorcycle loan, an RV loan, and a boat loan.
Comparing personal loan offers. Two offers with the same monthly payment can differ by hundreds of dollars in total interest if the terms are different lengths. Run both and compare the total paid rather than the payment. The personal loan calculator is set up for unsecured borrowing, and auto loan vs personal loan shows the secured and unsecured gap on the same amount.
Consolidating debt. Replacing several balances with one fixed-rate loan gives you a single payment and a known end date. As an illustration, $12,000 at 14% over 36 months comes to $410.13 a month and $2,764.74 of interest. Whether that beats what you are paying now depends on the rates and balances you already carry, so it is worth running both sides before deciding.
Every page here is free, ad-supported, and independent of any lender or broker. Start with how loan payments work for the full walkthrough of the amortization formula, front-loaded interest, and how the term changes what a loan costs. The loan FAQ answers the short, specific questions in one place. APR vs interest rate explains why the two numbers on your paperwork differ and which one to compare offers with, and the loan terms glossary defines the vocabulary lenders use. How to pay off a loan faster walks through the practical side of overpaying, and about this site and the privacy policy cover who builds it and what happens to your data, which is nothing: it never leaves your browser.
This page is general information, not financial advice. Rates shown are illustrative examples, not quoted offers. Confirm all figures with your lender.