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Student Loan Payoff Calculator
The month your student loan is gone at what you pay now, what the interest costs along the way, and how far an extra payment moves both. On $35,000 at 6.5%, the standard $397 payment takes about ten years and about $12,690 in interest; $100 more a month ends it in 7 years 5 months and saves about $3,504.
How this works
A student loan charges interest on the balance you still owe, one month at a time. Each payment covers that month's interest first, and whatever is left over comes off the balance — on $35,000 at 6.5%, the first month's interest is about $190, so a $397 payment moves the balance by about $208. Next month the balance is a little smaller, the interest on it a little less, and a little more of the same payment reaches the balance. That slow shift is the whole story of a payoff, and it is why the early years feel like nothing is happening.
An extra payment skips the interest step entirely: the month's interest is already paid, so every extra dollar lands on the balance. A smaller balance charges less interest next month, which leaves more of the regular payment for the balance too — the extra works twice. That is why the months it removes are worth more than the dollars you put in, and why the saving this page shows is interest you never get billed for rather than money back.
The monthly payment here is yours to enter, because a student loan's payment is set by its repayment plan, not by the balance alone. The standard federal plan is ten years of equal payments; a graduated plan starts lower and steps up; an income-driven plan sets the payment from what you earn and can sit below the month's interest. Change plans and the payment changes, and so does everything on the receipt — which is also what makes that choice a different question from this one (see below).
A worked example
Take the defaults: $35,000 at 6.5%, paying the standard ten-year figure of about $397 a month. The loan is gone in about ten years, and the interest over that time is about $12,690 — so the $35,000 borrowed costs about $47,690 to repay. Add $100 a month and the same loan ends in 7 years 5 months with about $9,186 in interest: the extra removed 2 years 7 months and saved about $3,504. The extra payments themselves added up to about $8,900 over those 89 months, which is the trade in full: $8,900 paid sooner, $3,504 never billed, and 31 months without the payment at all.
Common questions
I have several loans — which one does this look at? One at a time. To line them all up and see which order clears them cheapest or soonest, the debt payoff calculator compares highest-rate-first against smallest-balance-first in your own dollars and months.
What about income-driven plans, RAP, or forgiveness? Out of scope here: this page assumes a fixed payment on a fixed rate until the balance reaches zero, and those plans set the payment from income or end the loan on a date instead. Comparing plans is its own decision, and the Loan Simulator at studentaid.gov is the tool built for it. What this page can tell you is where any given payment lands.
Is there a penalty for paying a student loan off early? Federal student loans have none: extra payments reduce the balance and the loan simply ends sooner. Private loans usually don't either, but the terms are the lender's, so check the promissory note. One mechanical catch worth knowing: many servicers apply an extra payment to next month's bill rather than to the balance unless told otherwise, and the saving shown here assumes it reaches the balance.
This is an estimate assuming a fixed rate, on-time payments, and no fees. Your servicer's figures may differ by a few dollars from rounding and the day interest is charged, and by more if your rate is variable or your payment changes.