Student loan calculator
Put in what you owe, what you earn and your interest rate. You'll get every 2026 repayment plan side by side: what each one costs a month, what it costs in total, and how long you'd be paying. It runs in your browser, so nothing you type is sent anywhere or saved.
- All eight 2026 repayment plans, including RAP
- Monthly payment and lifetime total, side by side
- Runs in your browser, nothing sent or stored
The short version
- Your payment depends far more on which plan you're on than on your interest rate. Same $40,000 balance: $150 a month on RAP, $455 on the standard plan.
- The cheapest month is rarely the cheapest loan. Income-driven plans cut the monthly figure by stretching the term, which adds interest.
- Borrowers on SAVE, PAYE and ICR have until 1 July 2028 to move. Miss the date and you get placed on a plan rather than choosing one.
- Heading for forgiveness? The total column stops mattering, and overpaying actively costs you money.
What $38,000 actually costs you
Worked out on Standard 10-year, the plan that costs you least at $55,000 a year. Change anything above and every figure here follows.
Where your money goes
What the balance does over time
The same debt on every plan
Your figures across all the plans open to you. The cheapest month and the cheapest loan are usually not the same bar.
Every plan for this borrower
The same worked example as a table, because a chart shows the shape and a table shows the figures.
| Plan | First payment | Total paid | Years | Forgiven |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard 10-year Equal payments for 10 years. The cheapest option overall if you can afford it, because you pay the least interest. |
$432 | $51,824 | 10.0 | - |
| Income-Contingent Repayment 20% of discretionary income. Mainly relevant to Parent PLUS borrowers, who reach it by consolidating first. |
$381 | $54,883 | 12.0 | - |
| Graduated Starts low and steps up every two years. Costs more in total than Standard. |
$264 | $55,216 | 10.0 | - |
| Tiered Standard Plan Your balance puts you on a 15-year term. Fixed payments over a term set by how much you owe. Nothing is forgiven and it does not count toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness. |
$331 | $59,659 | 15.0 | - |
| IBR (loans from July 2014 onward) 10% of discretionary income, forgiven after 20 years. Still open to borrowers whose loans predate July 2026. |
$259 | $61,200 | 14.2 | - |
| Repayment Assistance Plan The new income-driven plan. Charges a percentage of your entire income, not just the part above the poverty line, which is why it costs more than SAVE did. |
$229 | $62,060 | 14.4 | - |
| Extended Up to 25 years of fixed payments. Requires at least $30,000 in Direct Loans. |
$257 | $77,116 | 25.0 | - |
Estimates for the example borrower above, not a quote. Income is assumed to grow 3% a year on the income-driven plans.
What this calculator works out
There's no longer one answer to "what's my student loan payment?" The same $40,000 balance costs $150 a month on RAP with a $45,000 income, or $455 on the standard plan. Same debt, same rate. The difference is entirely which plan you're on.
So this doesn't just amortize a loan. It runs your numbers through all eight federal plans as they actually work in 2026: the RAP brackets, the Tiered Standard terms, the IBR and ICR discretionary income formulas. You get the monthly payment, the total cost, the payoff date and anything forgiven at the end, worked out month by month the way your servicer does it.
That last part matters more than it sounds. Plenty of calculators ask for a balance, a rate and a term, then hand you a payment. That's fine if you're on a fixed plan. If you're on an income-driven one, your payment comes from your income, your household size and a poverty guideline that changes every year, and a three-field calculator can't see any of that.
The three numbers, and where people get them wrong
Most wrong answers come from putting a right number in the wrong box. Three fields, three easy mistakes:
What you owe. Use your current principal, not what you originally borrowed. If you've been in forbearance or on a low income-driven payment, unpaid interest may have been added to your balance and the figure is bigger than you remember. Log in to your servicer and use today's number.
Your interest rate. Federal loans are fixed for life at whatever rate applied the year you borrowed, so if you studied across four years you're holding four different loans at four different rates. There's no single "your rate". Use a weighted average, or run your largest loan on its own and treat it as the shape of the whole thing.
Your income. Income-driven plans read the adjusted gross income from your tax return, not your salary. If you're married, the filing status you chose decides whether your spouse's income counts. File jointly and it usually does. File separately and it usually doesn't. That one choice can move your payment by hundreds of dollars a month.
Household size and dependents are optional, but skip them and you'll overstate your payment. Every dependent knocks $50 a month off a RAP payment, and a larger household raises the income the plan protects before it charges you anything.
The cheapest month and the cheapest loan are rarely the same plan
This is the thing most borrowers work out too late, and it's the whole reason to run a comparison rather than take whatever your servicer defaults you to.
An income-driven plan lowers your monthly payment by stretching the term. A longer term means more months of interest. So the plan with the smallest number in the monthly column is very often the largest number in the total column, sometimes by tens of thousands of dollars on the same debt.
Neither number is the right one to optimize on its own. If the standard payment doesn't fit your budget, a lower payment on a worse plan beats missing payments on a better one. What you want to avoid is picking the low monthly figure by default, when you could have afforded more, and paying for that choice for twenty years.
One exception flips all of this. If you're heading for forgiveness, the total column stops mattering. What you'll actually pay is the monthly figure times the number of months until the balance is canceled, and everything after that's written off. The table shows you the forgiven amount so you can tell which situation you're in.
What each 2026 plan actually charges
RAP is the new income-driven plan and the one most people are being moved to. It takes 1% to 10% of your total income, not just the part above a poverty line, stepping up in bands as you earn more, with a $10 floor and $50 off for every dependent. Forgiveness comes at 30 years. Its best feature is quiet: if your payment doesn't cover the month's interest, the rest is waived rather than added to your balance, so your debt can't grow while you're paying.
Tiered Standard sets a fixed payment over a term that depends on what you owe: ten years under $25,000, rising to twenty-five above $100,000. Nothing is forgiven and it doesn't count toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Watch the tier boundaries, because owing one dollar more can add five years to your term.
Standard 10-year is equal payments for a decade. It costs the least in total of any plan, it counts for PSLF, and it's the right answer for more people than choose it.
IBR charges 10% of discretionary income with forgiveness at 20 years, or 15% and 25 years if you first borrowed before July 2014. Still open to anyone whose loans predate July 2026.
ICR takes 20% of discretionary income over 25 years. It matters mainly to Parent PLUS borrowers, who reach it by consolidating first. It also closes on 1 July 2028, which makes it the most urgent deadline on this page.
Graduated starts low and steps up every two years. Extended stretches fixed payments over up to 25 years and needs at least $30,000 in Direct Loans. Both cost more than Standard and neither counts toward PSLF, which is a detail people discover after years of payments that earned them nothing.
Five things no calculator will tell you unless you ask
Your rate isn't one rate. Every year you borrowed came with its own fixed rate, so a four-year degree is four loans. When you send extra money, aim it at the highest-rate loan rather than letting your servicer spread it evenly. Same payment, less interest.
Recertification is the deadline that catches people. Income-driven plans need your income confirmed once a year. Miss it and your payment can jump to a figure based on your whole balance, with unpaid interest added on top. Put it in a calendar the day you enroll.
Forgiveness at the end of an income-driven term is usually taxed. Public Service Loan Forgiveness isn't, but the 20-to-30-year kind generally counts as income in the year it lands. On a large balance that's a serious bill, and it's predictable enough to save for.
Forbearance is more expensive than it looks. Payments stop and interest doesn't. On $50,000 that's roughly $270 a month piling up, and it can be added to your principal at the end. Recertifying with a lower income usually gets you the same relief for far less, and an income-driven payment can legitimately be $10.
Refinancing federal loans is permanent. A private lender may well beat your rate, but you give up income-driven repayment, PSLF, federal forbearance and the death and disability discharge, and there's no way back. If public service is even possible for you in the next ten years, that door is worth more than the rate.
Student loan calculator questions
How much will my student loan payment be?
It depends on your balance, your rate and, on an income-driven plan, your income and household size. As a rough anchor, $30,000 at 6.52% on the standard 10-year plan runs about $341 a month. The same balance on RAP with a $45,000 income is closer to $150. Put your own numbers in above to see all eight plans at once.
Is this student loan calculator accurate?
It runs a month-by-month simulation using the 2026 statutory formulas: the RAP bracket table, the Tiered Standard terms, and the IBR and ICR discretionary income rules with the current poverty guidelines. It's an estimate, not a quote. Your servicer's figure is the one that binds, and it can differ if your loan mix, capitalized interest or filing status aren't what you entered.
What's the difference between RAP and IBR?
RAP charges 1% to 10% of your total income depending on what you earn, cuts $50 a month per dependent, forgives after 30 years, and waives interest your payment doesn't cover instead of adding it to your balance. IBR charges 10% of discretionary income (the part above a poverty threshold) and forgives after 20 years, or 25 for loans taken before July 2014. IBR usually wins if you're close to forgiveness. RAP usually wins if you've got a long way to go and a balance that would otherwise grow.
Which repayment plan is cheapest?
For most people who can afford it, the standard 10-year plan costs the least in total, because you pay the fewest months of interest. Income-driven plans cost less each month and more overall, unless your balance is large relative to your income. In that case forgiveness can make one of them cheaper in every sense. The comparison above shows both columns so you can see which case you're in.
Which plans can I actually choose in 2026?
If your first loan was disbursed on or after 1 July 2026, your choice is the new Tiered Standard plan or RAP. If you borrowed before that, you keep access to IBR and the older plans for now, but ICR closes on 1 July 2028 and borrowers on SAVE and PAYE have to move to RAP or IBR by the same date.
Does using this calculator affect my loans or my credit?
No. Nothing is submitted, nothing is stored, and no credit check happens. The arithmetic runs in your browser. You can disconnect from the internet after the page loads and it still works.
Should I pay extra to clear the loan faster?
If you're repaying in full, yes, and early payments are worth the most because every dollar of principal you remove stops earning interest for the rest of the term. Tell your servicer to apply it to principal and not to advance your due date, or it just pays next month early. If you're heading for forgiveness, extra payments reduce a balance that was going to be canceled, so the money does nothing.
Where these numbers come from
Statutory values live in one file, each cited to its source and dated. Last checked against the published rules on .
- Interest rates (6.52% undergraduate, 8.07% graduate, 9.07% PLUS for 2026–27): Federal Student Aid, June 2026
- RAP structure (1–10% income bands, $10 floor, $50 per dependent, 30-year forgiveness, interest waiver): Congressional Research Service on P.L. 119–21
- Plan eligibility and transition dates: studentaid.gov repayment plans
- Poverty guidelines used for discretionary income on IBR and ICR: HHS 2026 federal poverty guidelines
The arithmetic runs twice, once on the server and once in your browser, and 80 test cases check the two agree before anything ships.
Your balance, answered specifically
Each one takes up the question that actually lands at that size, from whether a small balance is worth planning around to which forgiveness route a large one is really aiming at.