Loan Calculator

How to use this calculator

1. Enter the amount you borrow, the yearly interest rate and how long you have to repay it, in years or months.
2. Pick your currency. Rupee and taka amounts use lakh grouping, like 10,00,000.
3. To see how fast extra payments clear the loan, add an amount under Extra payment each month.
4. Under Show me how, press Play to watch the payment being worked out step by step.

Copy share link saves your numbers in the link, so you can bookmark a loan or send it to someone. Download CSV gives you the full month-by-month schedule for a spreadsheet.

The loan payment formula

Banks work out a fixed monthly payment with the annuity formula:

• M is the monthly payment. In India and Bangladesh it is called the EMI, short for equated monthly installment.
• P is the amount you borrow (the principal).
• i is the monthly interest rate: the yearly rate divided by 12, written as a decimal. 6.5% a year is 0.065 ÷ 12 ≈ 0.0054167 a month.
• n is the number of monthly payments: 30 years is 360 payments.

If the interest rate is 0%, there is no interest to spread out, and the payment is simply P ÷ n.

Worked example: $200,000 at 6.5% for 30 years

1. Monthly rate: i = 6.5 ÷ 12 ÷ 100 ≈ 0.00541667.
2. Number of payments: n = 30 × 12 = 360.
3. Growth factor: (1 + i)³⁶⁰ ≈ 6.991798. Left alone for 30 years, every dollar of debt would grow to almost $7.
4. Payment: M = 200,000 × 0.00541667 × 6.991798 ÷ (6.991798 − 1) ≈ $1,264.14.
5. Total: the 360 payments add up to $455,085.82, so the interest is $455,085.82 − $200,000 = $255,085.82. That is more than the amount borrowed.

The last payment is $1,259.56 rather than $1,264.14. The payment was rounded to the cent, and lenders adjust the final payment so the balance ends at exactly 0.

How each payment is split: amortization

Each month, interest is charged on the balance you still owe: balance × monthly rate. Whatever is left of your payment pays down the balance.

• Payment 1: $200,000 × 0.00541667 ≈ $1,083.33 is interest. Only $180.81 reduces the loan.
• Halfway, after 15 years: you still owe $145,117.00, almost three quarters of the loan.
• Payment 233 is the first in which more goes to the loan than to interest.
• Payment 360: just $6.79 is interest and $1,252.77 clears the rest of the loan.

This is why the balance falls slowly at first and quickly at the end. The schedule above shows the split for every payment.

How extra payments save interest

An extra payment goes straight to the balance. A smaller balance means less interest next month, so more of every later payment reduces the loan too, and the savings snowball.

On the example loan, paying $100 more each month clears it after 293 payments instead of 360, 5 years and 7 months sooner, and saves $55,944.38 in interest. Check with your lender first: some loans charge a fee for paying early, and you may need to ask for extra money to go to the principal.

How we round, and why your lender may differ

qcalculate works out the payment exactly and rounds it to the cent. Each month's interest is rounded to the cent, as lenders do, and the last payment is adjusted so the balance ends at exactly 0. Every total in the schedule adds up to the cent. How we check our math.

Your lender's figures can still differ, for example if:

• the loan charges interest daily, or compounds it in a different way. Fixed-rate mortgages in Canada compound twice a year.
• the payment includes property tax, insurance or mortgage insurance. This calculator shows principal and interest only.
• the rate is variable, or there are fees.
• the lender quotes a flat rate, which charges interest on the full amount for the whole term. A 10% flat rate over 3 years costs about the same as an 18% rate on the reducing balance used here.

Use the results to understand and compare loans, not as an offer or as financial advice. Your loan documents have the final numbers. See the disclaimer.