Student Loan Payoff Calculator
This student loan payoff calculator shows exactly when you'll be debt-free and how much interest you'll pay in total, based on your current balance, rate and monthly payment. Enter your numbers to see a concrete payoff date instead of an open-ended balance.
Your total outstanding student loan balance.
The annual interest rate on your loan — check your servicer's portal if you're not sure.
How much you're paying (or plan to pay) each month.
Months to pay off
113
How long until this loan reaches $0 at your current payment.
How to use this student loan payoff calculator
- 1Current loan balance and interest rate: from your loan servicer's account — if you have multiple loans, run each one separately or use a weighted-average rate.
- 2Monthly payment: what you're actually paying, or what you're considering paying if you increase it.
Understanding your results
Months to pay off is your real finish line at this payment level. Total interest paid shows the true cost of the loan beyond what you originally borrowed — a useful number to compare against increasing your monthly payment, since even a modest increase often cuts both figures substantially.
The formula
Each month: Interest = Balance × Rate ÷ 12, then Payment reduces the remaining balanceEvery month, interest accrues on the current balance, and your payment first covers that interest with the remainder reducing principal. As the balance shrinks, less of each payment goes to interest and more to principal — which is why payoff accelerates over time, even at a fixed payment amount.
A worked example
A $35,000 balance at 5.5% APR, paid down at $400/month, clears in about 113 months (a little over 9 years) and costs roughly $9,471 in total interest. Bumping the payment to $500/month cuts that down to about 85 months (7 years) and roughly $7,106 in interest — a meaningful reduction from a modest payment increase.
Notes for the UK, US and India
If you have federal student loans in the US, income-driven repayment plans can lower your monthly payment based on income rather than balance — sometimes at the cost of paying more interest over a longer term. Use the income-driven repayment estimator alongside this calculator to compare a standard fixed payment against an income-based one.
Frequently asked questions
Does extra payment go straight to principal?+
With most student loan servicers, yes — but confirm with yours, and explicitly mark any extra payment as 'apply to principal' if the option exists, since some servicers default to applying it toward future payments instead, which doesn't speed up payoff the same way.
Should I pay off student loans or invest instead?+
It generally depends on comparing your loan's interest rate to a realistic expected investment return — a low-rate loan (under 5%) is often worth carrying while investing extra cash, while a high-rate loan is harder to beat with typical investment returns.
What if my payment doesn't cover the monthly interest?+
The balance will grow instead of shrink — this calculator will show an unusually high months-to-payoff figure (or cap out) in that scenario, a sign your payment needs to increase to make real progress.
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