Student loan payoff calculator
On the standard 10-year federal plan — or any fixed-payment private loan — a student loan amortizes like every other installment loan, and the schedule below shows the whole path: the preset is an example $40,000 balance at a 6% example rate over 120 payments. Set your own balance (from your servicer dashboard), your weighted rate, and the years remaining.
Scope honesty up front: this models fixed-payment plans. Income-driven repayment plans recalculate the payment yearly against your income and don’t amortize on a fixed curve — a schedule like this can’t represent them faithfully, and any calculator that claims to is guessing at your future income.
Preset: example $40,000 balance, 10-year plan — set your own numbers
Payment-by-payment schedule
| # | Date | Payment | Principal | Interest | Extra | Balance |
|---|
Click a year to expand its payments. Exports and print always include every payment.
How it works
- Open this page — the calculator is already set up for "Student loan payoff calculator". Swap in your own amount, rate and term.
- Read off the payment, the payoff date and total interest. The full payment-by-payment table is right below.
- Add extra payments or switch to biweekly to watch the payoff date move and the interest saved appear.
- Download the schedule as Excel, CSV or PDF — generated on your device; your loan details never leave your browser.
Where extra payments punch hardest
Federal student loans can’t carry prepayment penalties (a Higher Education Act protection), and most borrowers hold several loans at different rates — which makes targeting the whole game. An untargeted extra payment is typically spread across loans (or worse, applied as an “advance payment” that just moves your due date). The winning move: instruct your servicer in writing to apply extras to the highest-rate loan, principal-only, and confirm on the next statement. Model the effect above by entering that one loan’s balance and rate rather than the blended total — the payoff acceleration on a single targeted loan is much more visible than on the blend.
Interest on student loans typically accrues daily (simple interest), so like car loans, extra principal starts saving immediately, and the monthly-accrual schedule here will sit within a few dollars of your servicer’s math on an on-time account.
Good to know
- Watch for “paid ahead” status: if the servicer treats your extra as next month’s payment, your balance barely moves. The written principal-only instruction is the fix.
- Refinancing federal loans into a private loan can cut the rate but permanently gives up federal protections (income-driven plans, potential forgiveness, generous deferment). Price that trade before chasing the schedule.
- The interest you see here is pre-deduction: up to $2,500/year of student-loan interest is deductible for many filers (income limits apply) — the after-tax rate is slightly lower than the sticker rate.
Frequently asked questions
Why doesn’t my servicer’s payoff date match this schedule?
Common causes: your plan isn’t the standard fixed plan (income-driven plans don’t amortize this way), past deferments or forbearances extended the clock, or capitalized interest raised the balance along the way. Enter your current balance, current rate and the months your servicer says remain — from those three, the schedule should land within days of theirs.
Should I pay extra on student loans or save for a house first?
Rate against rate, plus the deduction: a 6% loan effectively costs a bit less after the interest deduction if you qualify, while a house fund earns high-yield-savings rates and buys optionality. There’s no universal answer — the schedule quantifies one side (interest saved, payoff moved), and your down-payment timeline prices the other. Beware only of doing neither.
Does this work for income-driven repayment plans?
No, and honestly nothing does: IDR payments reset with your income each year, so there is no fixed schedule to compute. What this page can do for IDR borrowers: model the standard-plan equivalent of your balance to see the interest cost of staying on a lower IDR payment, which is the number worth knowing when choosing between plans.