Student Loan Calculator

This page holds three student loan calculators. The first finds any missing figure from a balance, term, rate, and payment: $30,000 over 10 years at 6.8% comes to $345.24 a month, with $11,428.92 of interest. The second shows what extra payments do to an existing loan. The third projects what you will owe once you graduate, which is the number most students never see until it is too late to change it.

Borrow federal money first

More than 90% of US student debt is federal, and there are good reasons for that. Federal loans carry fixed rates set by Congress, need no credit check or cosigner for undergraduates, and come with protections no bank offers: income-driven payments, deferment, forbearance, forgiveness programmes, and discharge if the school closes.

Rates reset every 1 July for loans disbursed in the following academic year. For 2025-26 they are 6.39% for undergraduate Direct loans, 7.94% for graduate unsubsidised loans, and 8.94% for PLUS. Origination fees come off the top before the money reaches your school: about 1.057% on Direct subsidised and unsubsidised loans, and about 4.228% on PLUS. Borrow $10,000 of PLUS and roughly $9,577 arrives, while you owe the full $10,000.

Everything starts with the FAFSA. It now calculates a Student Aid Index rather than the old Expected Family Contribution, a change that took effect for the 2024-25 year, so any guide still describing an EFC is out of date.

The four federal loan types

• Direct Subsidised: need-based, undergraduates only. The government pays the interest while you are enrolled at least half-time and through the six-month grace period. This is the cheapest money in the system.
• Direct Unsubsidised: open to undergraduates and graduate students regardless of need. Interest accrues from the day the money is disbursed, including while you study.
• Direct PLUS: for graduate students and for parents of dependent undergraduates. It requires no adverse credit history, carries the highest rate and the 4.228% fee, and can be taken up to the full cost of attendance minus other aid.
• Direct Consolidation: combines several federal loans into one payment at the weighted average rate. It simplifies life and can open access to certain repayment plans, but a longer term means more interest, and consolidating can reset progress toward forgiveness.

Borrowing is capped. A dependent undergraduate can take $5,500 in the first year, $6,500 in the second, and $7,500 a year after that, with a $31,000 lifetime limit. Graduate students can borrow $20,500 a year in unsubsidised loans against a $138,500 aggregate cap that includes undergraduate borrowing.

Money you do not repay comes first

Before any loan, exhaust the aid that never has to be paid back. Grants are usually need-based and scholarships usually merit-based, and between them they can cover a whole degree. Work-study places part-time jobs alongside study for students with financial need. Paying part of the cost from savings or earnings as you go shrinks both the balance and the years of interest on it. The College Cost Calculator is the place to size the bill before you decide how much of it to borrow.

Why the balance grows before you pay a penny

On unsubsidised loans, interest accrues from disbursement, and unpaid interest capitalises at the end of the grace period, meaning it is added to the principal and starts earning interest of its own.

The third calculator on this page shows the effect. Borrow $40,000 across a degree at 6.8% and pay nothing while studying, and the balance reaches $44,263.99 by graduation and $45,790.44 by the time the first payment falls due. You now repay $526.96 a month for ten years on money you never spent. Paying just the interest while enrolled, which the Yes option models, keeps the balance at exactly what you borrowed. On a subsidised loan the government covers that interest for you.

State and private loans

Most states run their own loan or grant programmes through state agencies or non-profits, and no two states offer the same terms. Some carry forgiveness for graduates who stay in the state and work in an understaffed field, with nursing and teaching the most common. State deadlines often fall earlier than the federal one, so apply to whichever comes first.

Private loans come from banks, credit unions, and online lenders, and they are underwritten like any other consumer debt: credit history, income, debt-to-income ratio. Most undergraduates need a cosigner, usually a parent, whose credit then carries the loan. Rates are often variable, interest accrues from day one, and there is no income-driven plan, no forgiveness, and far less flexibility if you lose your job. They make sense mainly after federal options are exhausted, and the application is quicker and not need-based, which is their real advantage.

One warning that matters more than any rate comparison: refinancing federal loans with a private lender converts them permanently into private debt. A lower rate is tempting, but you give up income-driven repayment, forbearance rights, and any path to forgiveness, and you cannot undo it.

Federal repayment plans

Most borrowers end up on the Standard plan, which is also the default if you choose nothing. The wider menu has changed substantially, so check what is open to you rather than relying on older guides:

Legislation passed in July 2025 reshaped this list. New borrowers from 1 July 2026 choose between a standard fixed plan and the Repayment Assistance Plan, while ICR, PAYE, and SAVE are being wound down by mid-2028 and IBR remains for existing borrowers. Grad PLUS is closing to new borrowers and Parent PLUS gains new caps. If you are already repaying, your plan is not disappearing overnight, but the option set for anyone starting now is narrower than it was.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness still discharges the remaining balance tax free after 120 qualifying payments while working full time for a government or non-profit employer. Ten years of payments is a long commitment, and certifying employment annually is what stops people discovering at year nine that half their payments did not count.

Paying it off faster

Every US student loan, federal or private, can be prepaid with no penalty. The second calculator on this page prices what that is worth: on a $30,000 balance at 6.8% paying $350 a month, the loan runs 9 years and 10 months and costs $11,188.54 in interest. Add $150 a month and it clears in 6 years and 2 months, with interest of $6,767.26. That is $4,421.28 saved and three years and eight months of your life back.

Three practical points. Tell your servicer in writing to apply extra payments to principal, because the default behaviour is often to bank it against next month's bill, which saves you nothing. Attack the highest rate first when you hold several loans, since that is where interest accrues fastest. And set up autopay, which knocks 0.25 percentage points off the rate on federal loans. The Debt Payoff Calculator handles the ordering when student loans sit alongside other debt.

Tax, delinquency, and default

Up to $2,500 of student loan interest is deductible each year without itemising, phasing out at higher incomes. Keep the 1098-E your servicer sends.

Missing payments is expensive in ways that compound. A federal loan is delinquent from the first missed payment and in default after 270 days, at which point the balance can be accelerated, wages garnished without a court order, and tax refunds seized. None of that is necessary, because deferment, forbearance, and a switch to an income-driven plan are all available on request, and a payment of $0 under an income-driven plan still counts as a payment. Call the servicer before the ninth missed month, not after.

Using the three calculators

Start with the projection calculator if you are still studying, since it shows the payment waiting for you and what another year of borrowing adds to it. Use the simple calculator once you know the balance, to test what a shorter term or a different rate does to the monthly figure. Use the repayment calculator when you are already paying, to see what an extra $50 or $100 a month is worth before you commit to it. For non-student debt the Loan Calculator and Payment Calculator run the same arithmetic without the school-specific parts.