Student Loan Payoff Calculator

How the student loan payoff calculator works

The calculator runs your loan month by month. Each month it charges interest on what you still owe (the rate divided by 12), then takes your payment off. It counts the months until the balance reaches zero and adds up every dollar of interest. Then it runs the same loan again with your extra monthly payment and any one-time payment you type, and shows the difference.

Leave the payment box blank and the calculator uses the payment that clears the loan in exactly 10 years. The table under the result shows the fixed payment for 10, 15, 20 and 25 years on your balance, with the interest each one costs. A longer term lowers the payment and raises the interest. On $30,000 at 6.5%, 25 years drops the payment to $202.56 but costs $30,769 in interest, almost three times the 10-year total.

If you have several federal loans at different rates, you can run them one at a time, or use your total balance with a rate between your loans' rates, weighted toward the bigger balances. If your loans have very different rates, the debt avalanche calculator shows which one to pay down first.

How federal student loan interest works

Federal Direct Loans charge simple interest on the principal you owe. Interest that goes unpaid can be added to the principal later; the Department of Education's rule calls this capitalization, and it happens at set points such as the end of a deferment on an unsubsidized loan (34 CFR 685.202(b), read October 28, 2026). Once you are in repayment and each payment covers the month's interest, nothing is left over to capitalize. That is why this calculator's month-by-month math comes close to a simple interest loan while your payment covers the interest: on the example loan, our own day-by-day check came out about $8 lower over 10 years.

The order matters too. Under the federal rule, a payment goes first to any fees and collection costs, then to interest, then to principal (34 CFR 685.211(a)(1); the Repayment Assistance Plan and Income-Based Repayment use a slightly different order). So the first dollars of every payment pay the month's interest. Every dollar above that cuts the principal, and a smaller principal means less interest next month. That is the whole reason extra payments save so much.

If your payment is smaller than the month's interest, the balance does not go down at all. The calculator tells you when that happens. On a plan where your payment is set by your income, the rules for unpaid interest are different; check your plan on studentaid.gov.

Paying extra on student loans: what the rules say

• No prepayment penalty on federal loans. The rule is plain: "A borrower may prepay all or part of a loan at any time without penalty" (34 CFR 685.211(a)(2), read October 28, 2026).
• No prepayment penalty on private student loans either. Federal law makes it unlawful for a private education lender to charge a fee or penalty for paying early (15 U.S.C. 1650(e)).
• Tell your servicer what the extra is for. When you pay at least a full monthly payment extra, the rule says the Department advances the due date of your next payment "unless the borrower requests otherwise" (34 CFR 685.211(a)(3)). If you want to keep paying every month and have the extra go to principal, ask your servicer to apply it that way and not to push your next due date.
• A one-time payment works too. A tax refund or a bonus put on the loan cuts the principal at once. Type it in the one-time box: on the example loan, $2,000 now finishes 10 months sooner and saves $1,723.

Repayment plans in 2026, as we read them

Federal student loan repayment changed on July 1, 2026. The Department of Education's final rule of May 1, 2026 (91 FR 23768) puts the changes of the Working Families Tax Cuts Act of July 4, 2025 into the regulations. To the best of our knowledge, as of October 28, 2026:

• The Tiered Standard plan is for borrowers with at least one Direct Loan made on or after July 1, 2026. It has fixed monthly payments of at least $50, over a term set by your total Direct Loan balance when you enter repayment: under $25,000, 10 years; $25,000 to under $50,000, 15 years; $50,000 to under $100,000, 20 years; $100,000 or more, 25 years. The term table in the calculator shows those four terms on your balance.
• The Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP). Beginning July 1, 2026, federal repayment-plan eligibility changed substantially. Borrowers receiving new loans on or after that date generally face different plan options, including RAP, while borrowers with eligible older loans may retain access to certain existing income-driven repayment plans during the applicable transition period. Federal Student Aid's income-driven repayment form puts it this way: if you have any loan disbursed on or after July 1, 2026, RAP is the only income-driven plan you can select, and all your Direct Loans must be repaid under RAP or the Tiered Standard plan. Under RAP the yearly base payment is $120 when your adjusted gross income is $10,000 or less; above that it is a share of your whole income, 1% from just over $10,000 to $20,000, one point more for each further $10,000, and 10% above $100,000. The monthly payment is that amount divided by 12, lowered by $50 for each dependent and never under $10, and any balance left is discharged after 360 qualifying monthly payments over at least 30 years. A discharged amount may count as taxable income.
• Older plans are being phased out. If all your loans were disbursed before July 1, 2026, the same form lists RAP, Income-Based Repayment, Pay As You Earn and Income-Contingent Repayment as plans you may select, though not every loan is eligible for every plan. Everyone repaying under Pay As You Earn or Income-Contingent Repayment must switch to (or be placed in) a different plan before July 1, 2028. Which plan you can move to depends on your loans.

These rules have changed several times since 2023 and may change again. Before you choose a plan or decide how much extra to pay, check your own loans and plans on studentaid.gov and with your servicer. Nothing on this page tells you which plan to pick.

When paying extra may not be the best move

• You are working toward forgiveness. Public Service Loan Forgiveness forgives the balance after the equivalent of 120 qualifying monthly payments while you work full time for a qualifying employer (34 CFR 685.219). If you expect to reach that, every extra dollar you pay may be a dollar that would have been forgiven. The same question applies to forgiveness on an income-driven plan.
• You carry credit card debt. Most card balances charge far more than a student loan. Paying the card first usually saves more. The credit card payoff calculator shows what your card costs, and the debt avalanche calculator orders all your debts by rate.
• You have no cash cushion. Extra payments are hard to get back. Keep enough money aside for a surprise bill before you send extra to a loan with a moderate rate.

More on paying off student loans

• How to pay off student loans faster: the real math
• Video: eliminate student loan debt fast
• Debt reduction calculator: what one extra payment does to any single debt
• Snowball vs avalanche calculator: your student loans next to your other debts, both orders side by side