Calculators
Student Loan Calculator
Work out the monthly payment on a student loan and what it actually costs once the loan fee and capitalized interest are counted. Most calculators show neither, which understates the debt before you have made a single payment.
The values below are an illustration, not a quote. Enter the rate, fee and term from your own loan documents — this page looks nothing up and holds no current federal rates.
Monthly payment
$441.34
Reached your school
$29,683
$317.10 fee withheld
Balance at repayment
$38,816
$8,815.50 interest capitalized
Total cost of borrowing
$23,277
78.4% of what you received
You repay $52,960 over 120 payments on $29,683 that actually reached your school.
Where the money goes
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Amount borrowed | $30,000.00 |
| Loan fee (1.057%) | − $317.10 |
| Reached your school | $29,682.90 |
| Interest capitalized after 54 months | + $8,815.50 |
| Balance when repayment starts | $38,815.50 |
| Monthly payment | $441.34 |
| Interest during repayment | $14,144.44 |
| Total repaid | $52,959.94 |
| Total cost of borrowing | $23,277.04 |
| Estimated effective annual cost | 6.25% |
The same debt over standard terms
$30,000 at 6.53%, same fee and deferment. Extra payments are excluded so the terms compare like for like.
| Term | Monthly payment | Interest | Total repaid | Cost of borrowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 years | $441.34 | $14,144 | $52,960 | $23,277 |
| 15 years | $338.77 | $22,162 | $60,977 | $31,294 |
| 20 years | $290.09 | $30,803 | $69,619 | $39,936 |
| 25 years | $262.82 | $40,025 | $78,841 | $49,158 |
| 30 years | $246.11 | $49,780 | $88,596 | $58,913 |
Repayment schedule
Built on the $38,815.50 balance at the start of repayment, capitalized interest included.
| Year | Payments | Paid | Principal | Interest | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12 | $5,296.08 | $2,845.60 | $2,450.48 | $35,969.90 |
| 2 | 12 | $5,296.08 | $3,037.06 | $2,259.02 | $32,932.84 |
| 3 | 12 | $5,296.08 | $3,241.44 | $2,054.64 | $29,691.40 |
| 4 | 12 | $5,296.08 | $3,459.54 | $1,836.54 | $26,231.86 |
| 5 | 12 | $5,296.08 | $3,692.35 | $1,603.73 | $22,539.51 |
| 6 | 12 | $5,296.08 | $3,940.82 | $1,355.26 | $18,598.69 |
| 7 | 12 | $5,296.08 | $4,205.98 | $1,090.10 | $14,392.71 |
| 8 | 12 | $5,296.08 | $4,489.01 | $807.07 | $9,903.70 |
| 9 | 12 | $5,296.08 | $4,791.08 | $505.00 | $5,112.62 |
| 10 | 12 | $5,295.22 | $5,112.62 | $182.60 | $0.00 |
The two costs before you pay anything
A student loan charges you twice before the first payment is due. The fee is withheld at disbursement, so less money reaches your school than you borrowed. Then, on an unsubsidized loan, interest accrues through school and grace and is added to the balance — after which you pay interest on that interest.
| Stage | Amount | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| You sign for | $30,000.00 | The face amount of the loan |
| Loan fee (1.057%) | − $317.10 | Withheld before the money is sent |
| Your school receives | $29,682.90 | The only cash the loan actually buys you |
| Interest over 54 months | + $8,815.50 | Accrues in school and grace, then capitalizes |
| Balance when repayment starts | $38,815.50 | What the monthly payment is calculated from |
The gap is the part people miss. Your school received $29,682.90, but by the time you start paying you owe $38,815.50 — a difference of $9,132.60 before a single payment. The monthly figure is calculated from the larger number, never the smaller one.
Subsidized versus unsubsidized
On a subsidized loan the government pays the interest while you are in school and during grace, so nothing capitalizes. Same amount, same rate, same term — and a materially different debt.
| Loan type | Balance at repayment | Monthly payment | Total repaid | Cost of borrowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subsidized | $30,000 | $341.11 | $40,932 | $11,249 |
| Unsubsidized | $38,816 | $441.34 | $52,960 | $23,277 |
Over this example the subsidy is worth $12,028 — $100.23 a month for 10 years. That is the practical reason to exhaust subsidized eligibility before borrowing unsubsidized, and the reason paying accrued interest before it capitalizes is worth doing if you can.
Why the effective rate can look lower than your rate
The effective-cost figure on this page is the rate at which your payments discount back to the money your school actually received. It is an estimate for comparing scenarios, not a disclosed APR.
| Scenario | Cost of borrowing | Effective annual cost |
|---|---|---|
| No fee, repayment starts immediately | $10,932 | 6.53% |
| 1.057% fee, repayment starts immediately | $11,249 | 6.77% |
| 1.057% fee, 54 months deferred | $23,277 | 6.25% |
Notice rows two and three. Deferring repayment more than doubles the cost in dollars — from $11,249 to $23,277 — while the annualised rate falls from 6.77% to 6.25%. That is not a bug. Interest during deferment accrues simply and capitalizes once, whereas an annualised rate compounds. Spread over more years, the same dollars become a smaller rate.
The lesson: judge a deferment by the dollar figure, not the rate. Rates only compare fairly between loans with the same timing.
Our effective-cost number is not a Truth in Lending APR. A disclosed APR has prescribed inclusions, conventions and tolerances under Regulation Z; ours counts only the loan fee and the timing of your payments. Use it to compare the scenarios here, not as a substitute for the disclosure your servicer gives you.
How student loan payments are calculated
Standard repayment is fully amortizing: the same payment every month until the balance reaches zero. The payment comes from the standard formula, where L is the balance at the start of repayment — amount borrowed plus any capitalized interest — r is the annual rate divided by twelve, and n is the number of payments.
P = L × r(1 + r)n / ((1 + r)n − 1)
All figures are computed in whole cents, so the schedule reconciles exactly: the principal column sums to the balance at repayment and the final balance is zero rather than a fraction of a cent.
Extra payments and early payoff
Anything above the scheduled amount goes to principal and removes every future interest charge that principal would have produced. Enter a figure in Extra monthly payment above to see the effect.
Two things worth knowing. Paying accrued interest before it capitalizes is the highest-value payment you can make on an unsubsidized loan, because it stops that interest from becoming principal that earns more interest. And federal servicers apply overpayments in a defined order — typically fees, then interest, then principal — and may advance your due date rather than reduce the balance unless you instruct otherwise. If the balance does not fall, tell them to apply it to principal.
Common questions
Why is my balance higher than what I borrowed?
Because unpaid interest capitalized. On the example above, $30,000 borrowed becomes $38,815.50 owed at the start of repayment, after $8,815.50 of interest was added.
Where do I find my interest rate and loan fee?
On your loan documents or your servicer’s site. This page holds no current federal rates or fees on purpose — they change by year and by loan type, and a copy stored here would eventually be wrong.
Does this cover income-driven repayment or forgiveness?
No. It models standard, fully amortizing repayment only. Income-driven plans recalculate payments from income and family size and can end in forgiveness, which is a different calculation entirely.
Is the effective annual cost my APR?
No. See why the effective rate can look lower than your rate above.
Methodology
Everything on this page is arithmetic over the values you enter. No rate, fee, borrowing limit or plan eligibility rule is looked up or stored — those change by year and by loan type, and a hard-coded copy would go stale.
- Amount borrowed, interest rate, term, loan fee, loan type, months before repayment, extra payment, first payment dateYour input
- Loan fee and amount disbursedCalculated on this pagefee = amount borrowed × fee rate; disbursed = amount borrowed − fee
- Capitalized interestCalculated on this pageamount borrowed × (rate ÷ 12) × months before repayment, for unsubsidized loans only
- Monthly payment and repayment scheduleCalculated on this pageStandard amortization on the balance at repayment (amount borrowed + capitalized interest)
- Estimated effective annual costDerived by DotGovSourceThe rate at which the payment stream discounts back to the amount disbursed, shifted by the defermentOur own metric. Not a lender APR and not a Regulation Z disclosure.
What this calculator does not model
Income-driven repayment, graduated or extended plans, forgiveness programmes, consolidation, deferment or forbearance after repayment begins, variable rates, and any accrual convention other than simple monthly interest. Interest during school is treated as accruing simply and capitalizing once at the start of repayment, which is the standard federal structure but not every loan’s. Check your servicer’s figures before relying on this.
Further reading
Background on loan terminology from federal consumer agencies. These explain the concepts — none of them supplies any number on this page.
- What is the difference between a loan interest rate and the APR?Consumer Financial Protection BureauWhy the rate you are quoted and the APR you are disclosed are different numbers.
- § 1026.22 Determination of annual percentage rateConsumer Financial Protection Bureau — Regulation ZThe prescribed method a disclosed APR must satisfy — which the estimate on this page does not attempt to meet.