🎓 Student Loan Payoff Calculator

Enter your loan balance, APR, and monthly payment into the calculator above. It returns your exact payoff date and total interest, and lets you add an extra monthly payment to see how many months you cut off.

Not in one pass. This calculator models one balance at one rate. Most borrowers graduate with several loans, one per year of school, each at a different fixed rate, so run them one at a time and add the results. If you want a single combined estimate, use your total balance with a weighted average rate: multiply each balance by its rate, add those products, and divide by the total balance. On $20,000 at 6.52% and $15,000 at 8.07%, the weighted rate is 7.18%. For a quick planning number that is close enough, but the loan-by-loan run is what tells you which balance deserves your extra payment.

On $35,000 in federal undergraduate loans at the 2026-27 rate of 6.52%, the standard 10-year plan means a monthly payment of $397.77 and $12,732.90 in total interest, so you repay $47,732.90 on a $35,000 loan. Raising the payment by $150 to $547.77 compresses the payoff from 120 months to 79 and cuts total interest to $8,108.24, a saving of $4,624.66. The interest is front-loaded: in year one, $2,206.19 of your payments go to interest and only $2,567.10 reduces the balance. That is exactly why extra money in years one through three does disproportionately more work than the same money in year eight.

On a $35,000 balance at 6.52% APR under the standard 10-year plan, adding $150 a month drops the timeline from 120 months to 79, which is 3 years and 5 months sooner. Total interest falls from $12,732.90 to $8,108.24, a saving of $4,624.66. Even $75 extra a month on this loan saves $2,837.69 and pays it off 25 months early. The savings are large relative to the extra payment because each early principal reduction removes that balance from the interest base for every month that follows, so the effect stacks rather than adding up in a straight line.

For loans first disbursed between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2027, the fixed rates are 6.52% on Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans for undergraduates, 8.07% on Direct Unsubsidized Loans for graduate and professional students, and 9.07% on Direct PLUS Loans for parents and graduate borrowers. Each is the high yield of the May 12, 2026 ten-year Treasury note auction, 4.468%, plus a statutory add-on of 2.05, 3.60 or 4.60 points. The rate resets every July 1 for new loans, but the rate on a loan you already hold is fixed for its life, so an older loan keeps its original rate. Source: Federal Student Aid, announcement GENERAL-26-33.

On the older income-driven plans the required payment was a percentage of discretionary income, not an amount sized to cover interest. When that payment fell short of the interest accruing, the difference was added back to principal and the balance grew despite on-time payments. That is negative amortization, and it was a structural feature, not a servicer error. On a $50,000 balance at 6.52% APR, interest accrues at $271.67 a month, so a $180 payment leaves a $91.67 shortfall that grows the balance every month. The Repayment Assistance Plan that took effect July 1, 2026 addresses this directly: it waives the remaining unpaid monthly interest when you pay on time, and adds a matching principal payment of up to $50 a month if your payment did not reduce principal by at least that much.

Refinancing federal loans into a private loan makes sense when you can get a rate meaningfully below your federal rate and you have no intention of using an income-based plan, a forgiveness program, or federal forbearance. Run the numbers before you decide. On a $40,000 balance over 10 years, an 8.07% graduate Direct Unsubsidized loan costs $486.79 a month and $18,414.94 in interest. Refinanced to 5.5% it costs $434.11 a month and $12,092.61, a saving of $6,322.33. That is real money. The trade is permanent and one-directional: you give up the Repayment Assistance Plan, Public Service Loan Forgiveness eligibility, and the ability to pause payments during hardship, and you cannot convert back. For a borrower with stable private-sector income and no forgiveness path, the math usually favors refinancing. For anyone whose income might drop, it usually does not.

Aggressive payoff wins when your balance is manageable next to your income and no forgiveness is realistically coming, because the interest savings are real and they compound. The Repayment Assistance Plan wins when your balance is large relative to your income, when you work in public service and qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness after 120 qualifying payments, or when your income is low enough right now that a standard payment would not be sustainable. A rough breakpoint is a balance-to-income ratio above 1.5. If you borrowed $60,000 and earn $40,000, the income-based route is likely the better structure. If you borrowed $25,000 and earn $65,000, aggressive payoff clears the debt faster than any discharge timeline, since RAP discharge only arrives after 360 on-time payments.

The Repayment Assistance Plan, or RAP, took effect July 1, 2026 and replaced the older income-driven plans for new borrowers. Three things make it different. The payment is 1% to 10% of your income, reduced by $50 a month for each dependent. Unpaid monthly interest is waived when you pay on time, so the balance cannot grow the way it did under the old plans. And if your on-time payment does not reduce principal by at least $50, the Department adds a matching principal payment of up to $50. Any remaining balance is discharged after 360 on-time payments. If your loans were made before July 1, 2026 and you sit in a plan that is being phased out, you have until July 1, 2028 to choose between RAP, the Tiered Standard plan, and Income-Based Repayment. Source: U.S. Department of Education, June 9, 2026.