Loan Calculator

How to Use This Loan Calculator

This calculator gives you an instant breakdown of any fixed-rate loan — monthly payment, total interest, and a full amortization schedule. Enter your numbers and the results update automatically as you type. No need to click Calculate first.

1. Enter the loan amount

Type the total amount you want to borrow. This is the principal — the sum you receive from the lender, before any interest accumulates. For a personal loan, this is commonly $5,000–$50,000. Our default of $25,000 is a typical amount for debt consolidation or a major home repair.

2. Set the loan term

Enter the number of years you'll have to repay the loan. Personal loans typically range from 2 to 7 years. Shorter terms mean higher monthly payments but significantly less total interest. A 3-year term on $25,000 at 8.5% costs roughly $1,100 less in interest than a 5-year term — the trade-off is a $250/month higher payment.

3. Enter your interest rate

Use the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) you've been quoted. If you're still shopping, use Bankrate's current average as a benchmark — around 12%–13% APR in 2026 for a well-qualified borrower. Entering different rates shows you immediately what a better credit score or lender could be worth: the difference between 10% and 14% on a $25,000 loan adds up to over $1,400 in extra interest over 5 years.

4. Try the advanced options

Click Show advanced options to set payment frequency. Switching from monthly to biweekly payments (every two weeks) means 26 half-payments per year instead of 12 full ones — effectively one extra full payment annually. On a $25,000 loan at 8.5%, biweekly payments pay off the loan about 5 months early and save roughly $300 in interest.

How Loan Payments Are Calculated

Every fixed-rate loan uses the standard amortization formula. Your payment is calculated once and stays the same for every period — what changes each period is how much of that payment goes to interest versus how much reduces your balance.

Where:

• M = payment per period
• P = principal (loan amount)
• r = periodic interest rate (annual rate ÷ periods per year ÷ 100)
• n = total number of payments (years × periods per year)

A worked example

For a $25,000 personal loan at 8.5% for 5 years, paid monthly:

• P = $25,000
• r = 8.5 ÷ 12 ÷ 100 = 0.007083 (monthly rate)
• n = 5 × 12 = 60 (total payments)
• M = $512.66/month

Over 60 months, you pay $512.66 × 60 = $30,759.60 total. You borrowed $25,000, so the cost of borrowing is $5,759.60 in interest — about 23% of the loan amount. That's the real price of the loan, and it's the number worth shopping around to reduce.

How biweekly and weekly payments change the math

With biweekly payments, the formula uses r = annual rate ÷ 26 and n = years × 26. Each payment is roughly half the monthly amount, but because you make 26 payments per year instead of 24 equivalent half-payments, you're applying extra money to principal each year. That extra principal reduces your balance faster, which means less interest accrues — and the loan ends early.

Understanding Your Results

Monthly Payment

This is the fixed amount due every period for the life of the loan. It never changes — every payment is identical from month one to the last. What changes is the internal split: early payments are mostly interest; later payments are mostly principal. The amortization schedule below shows this shift year by year.

Total Interest

This is the true cost of borrowing the money — the lender's fee for fronting you the principal. A $25,000 loan at 8.5% for 5 years costs $5,760 in interest. The same loan at 14% costs $9,271 — over $3,500 more for the same $25,000. This single number is why your credit score and rate shopping matter so much.

Total of Payments

This is the full amount you'll send to the lender: principal plus every dollar of interest. It's the number to compare against what you're financing. If you're borrowing $25,000 to consolidate $25,000 in credit card debt, check that the total of payments is meaningfully less than what you'd pay staying on your cards' minimum payment schedule.

Amortization schedule

The schedule shows how each payment breaks down, year by year or period by period. In year one of a $25,000 loan at 8.5%, about $1,880 of your $6,152 in payments goes to interest. By year five, interest is less than $200 for the full year. The schedule is useful for understanding the cost of refinancing or paying off early — the earlier you pay, the more interest you save.