Personal Loan Calculator

A personal loan is an unsecured installment loan. No collateral backs it, so lenders price it almost entirely on your creditworthiness. That makes the rate range enormous: strong-credit borrowers may see single digits, while others are quoted 20% or more for the same loan. Personal loans are popular for debt consolidation, home projects, and large one-time expenses.

Before you commit, check how this payment affects your debt-to-income ratio.

This calculator computes your fixed monthly payment and total interest, and builds a full amortization schedule so you can see precisely what a given amount, rate, and term will cost.

How does this calculator work?

Enter the amount you want to borrow, the loan term, and the interest rate (APR). The calculator computes your fixed monthly payment using the standard amortization formula, or flip “Solve for” to find the loan amount, term, or rate that a target payment supports. If your lender charges an origination fee, which is commonly 1% to 10%, deducted from your proceeds, model it by grossing up the loan amount: to net $15,000 at a 5% fee, enter $15,789.47 ($15,000 ÷ 0.95) as the amount borrowed.

Each payment covers that month's interest first, with the remainder reducing your principal, so early payments are mostly interest and later payments are mostly principal.

Add an optional extra monthly payment to see how much faster you'd be debt-free; this calculates an Interest Savings From Extra Payment card result showing exactly how much interest the extra payment saves.

Worked example

Suppose you borrow $15,000 at 11% APR over 4 years to consolidate higher-rate debt.

Loan amount

$15,000

Term / APR

4 yrs / 11%

Monthly payment

$387.68

Total interest

$3,609

Total repaid

$18,609

How the numbers work

The $387.68 payment is the amortization result for $15,000 at 11%, which is about 0.917% per month over 48 months.

The first month's interest is $15,000 × 0.917% = $137.50, leaving $250.18 to pay down principal. Because four years is a relatively short term, the balance falls quickly and the interest share of each payment drops fast.

The 48 payments total $18,609, which is the $15,000 borrowed plus $3,609 in interest.

The loan costs $3,609 in interest over four years. If you're using it to consolidate credit card debt charging 22%+, the lower fixed rate and definite payoff date can save far more than that. The key is not to run the credit card balance back up.

A shorter 3-year term raises the payment to $491.08 but trims interest to $2,679, saving $930.

And if a lender quoted this loan with a 5% origination fee, netting the full $15,000 would mean borrowing $15,789.47. Over the same 4 years at 11%, the payment rises to $408.09, which is an effective APR of 13.76% on the money you actually received. That's the origination-fee trap: the advertised rate isn't the true cost when a fee comes out of your proceeds, so divide the cash you need by one minus the fee rate and enter that as the loan amount to see the real payment.

When a personal loan makes sense

The strongest use case is debt consolidation: rolling several high-rate credit card balances into one fixed-rate, fixed-term loan usually lowers the interest rate and replaces open-ended minimum payments with a clear payoff date. Personal loans also suit large, one-time costs, such as a medical bill, a home repair, or a move, where you want predictable payments rather than revolving debt.

They're a poor fit for ongoing spending or anything you could reasonably save for, since you'll pay interest on money you didn't strictly need to borrow. Because the loan is unsecured, watch for origination fees, which some lenders deduct from the amount you receive and which raise your effective cost above the quoted rate.

How lenders set your rate

With no collateral to seize, lenders rely on your credit score, income, and existing debt to price the loan. A higher score and lower debt-to-income ratio move you toward the bottom of the rate range; a thin or troubled credit history pushes you toward the top. Many lenders let you check your rate with a soft credit pull that doesn't affect your score, so it's worth comparing several offers before committing.