Personal Loan Calculator
Compare a fixed-rate personal loan with the payment, fees, net cash received, total cost, and an estimated APR shown together.
Estimated fixed payment
APR estimate only: this estimate treats entered fees as deducted from proceeds. Compare the lender's written APR and disclosure before accepting a loan.
Assumption summary
Monthly amortization — up to 120 rows
Calculations keep unrounded balances. Displayed rows round each value to cents, so a row can appear one cent apart; the final unrounded balance is exactly $0.00.
How to compare a personal loan
Enter the amount the lender says you will borrow, the fixed annual interest rate used for payments, the term in whole months, and any fees deducted before the money reaches you. Choose Calculate personal loan to see the regular payment, total interest, fee impact, total borrowing cost, and monthly schedule.
Use the assumption summary when comparing offers. Two loans can show the same payment rate but deliver different net proceeds when one deducts an origination or documentation fee. The CFPB notes that personal installment loans can include fees, so compare the amount you actually receive as well as the advertised payment.
Payment formula and schedule
For a positive annual interest rate, the regular payment is L × r ÷ (1 − (1 + r)−n), where L is the loan amount, r is the monthly interest rate, and n is the number of payments. At exactly 0%, the calculator uses L ÷ n directly.
The schedule assumes one disbursement, a fixed rate, equal end-of-month payments, and the first payment one month after disbursement. It keeps unrounded balances internally. Displayed cells round to cents, while the final row pays the remaining unrounded balance plus that month's interest and ends at exactly zero.
Interest rate, fees, and estimated APR
The CFPB distinguishes an interest rate from APR: the interest rate is the cost of borrowing principal, while APR is a broader annual measure that can include certain fees. This tool treats entered fees as deducted from the loan proceeds, then solves for the monthly rate that makes the scheduled payments equal those net proceeds and multiplies that rate by 12.
The result is an estimated APR for comparing the assumptions entered here. It is not a contractual Truth in Lending disclosure and may differ from a lender's APR because fee classification, payment timing, odd first periods, rounding, insurance, or other terms can differ. Compare the lender's written disclosure rather than using this page as the official APR.
Limits and financial boundary
This browser-only V1 accepts a loan amount from $100 through $1,000,000, a fixed annual interest rate from 0% through 100%, 1–120 whole months, and nonnegative upfront fees lower than the loan amount. It models one fully amortizing installment loan with no extra payments.
It is an educational estimate, not a lender quote, credit decision, approval prediction, affordability recommendation, or financial or legal advice. It does not pull a credit report, calculate debt-to-income ratio, provide live rates, match lenders, apply state rate caps, or model variable rates, payday loans, Military Lending Act limits, biweekly payments, refinancing, prepayment, late fees, insurance, or taxes.
Browser-only privacy
The engine is bundled with this static page. Calculation, schedule expansion, reset, and summary preparation do not fetch a rate or send application data. The calculator does not put entered or derived amounts in query parameters, URL fragments, local storage, session storage, IndexedDB, cookies, structured data, or analytics. Measurement uses only fixed action names and the canonical page address.
Frequently asked questions
How does this personal loan calculator estimate the monthly payment?
It uses the standard fixed-rate amortization formula with equal end-of-month payments. The entered loan amount, annual interest rate, and whole-month term determine the regular payment; the final payment may differ by a few cents because the schedule keeps unrounded balances.
What do net proceeds and upfront fees mean?
Net proceeds are the entered loan amount minus fees that you say are deducted upfront. The payment schedule still repays the full loan amount, while total borrowing cost adds those fees to total interest.
Is the entered interest rate the same as APR?
Not necessarily. Interest rate describes the cost of borrowing principal, while APR can include certain fees. This page estimates APR from the net proceeds and scheduled payments; your lender's written disclosure controls.
Does the calculator support a 0% interest rate?
Yes. At exactly 0%, it divides the loan amount by the number of months. If upfront fees are entered, the estimated APR can still be above 0% because the borrower receives less than the amount repaid.
Does this calculator check approval, credit score, or affordability?
No. It does not predict approval, pull credit, calculate debt-to-income ratio, recommend a lender, provide live rates, or decide whether a payment is affordable.
Are my loan values saved or uploaded?
No. The calculation runs in this browser. Entered and derived financial values are not placed in the URL, browser storage, cookies, application requests, structured data, or analytics parameters.