Personal Loan Calculator

The calculator uses the standard amortization formula for a fixed-rate installment loan: it spreads principal and interest into equal payments, rounds each payment to the cent, and multiplies by the number of payments for the total repaid.

Pick an amount from $500 to $5,000 and a term from 3 to 36 months. The calculator returns the payment, the total of payments and the interest, which is the total minus the amount borrowed. It assumes no origination fee and on-time payments.

The payment schedule menu lets you view the same yearly cost as a payment every two weeks or every week. For example, a $2,000 personal loan over 12 months is $189.12 a month, which works out to about $87.29 every two weeks. A lender's real biweekly schedule can differ by a few cents because interest is calculated on its own calendar.

A 24% APR sits inside the range many lenders quote to fair-credit borrowers and keeps every example on this site consistent, but it is an illustration only; offers for a loan with low credit can be lower or much higher.

Your actual APR depends on your credit score, income, debts, state and the lender. Lenders that cap rates near 36% often quote fair-credit applicants somewhere between the high teens and the mid-thirties. Small-loan specialists can charge well above 36%. Our rates guide shows typical ranges by credit band, and the compare lenders page lists published ranges for 18 lenders.

To see what a higher rate does, use the table in the next section or ask a lender for its exact APR and total of payments before you accept.

On a $2,000 loan over 12 months, moving from an 18% APR to 35.99% raises the payment by about $17.55 a month and adds about $210.60 in interest, so the rate matters even on a small personal loan.

The monthly change looks small, but the interest doubles between the top and bottom rows. On larger amounts and longer terms, the gap widens quickly.

A longer term lowers each payment but raises the total interest; at a 24% APR, stretching a $3,000 loan from 12 to 36 months cuts the payment from $283.68 to $117.70 but raises interest from $404.16 to $1,237.20.

All figures use a 24% APR with no fees. Choose the shortest term whose payment still fits your budget with room to spare. If you can pay extra later, check that the lender has no prepayment penalty.

The estimate leaves out origination fees, late fees, optional add-ons such as credit insurance, and state rules, so the lender's written offer, not this calculator, is the number to rely on before signing.

An origination fee is often taken out of the deposit. With a 5% fee on a $2,000 personal loan, about $1,900 reaches your account while you repay the full $2,000 plus interest. That fee is built into the APR on a proper disclosure, which is why the APR on an offer can be higher than the interest rate.

The calculator also assumes every payment is on time. A late payment can add a fee and extra interest, and it may be reported to credit bureaus.

A common rule of thumb is to keep all debt payments, including a new personal loan, under about 36% of your gross monthly income, and to leave enough room that one surprise bill does not force a missed payment.

Start with your take-home pay, subtract rent, utilities, food, transportation, childcare and existing debt payments, and look at what is left. The new payment should fit inside that number with a cushion, not consume all of it. If the calculator shows $189.12 a month and you have $200 to spare, a shorter term or smaller amount is the safer choice.

Lenders that consider a loan with low credit usually look at the same math. A debt-to-income ratio well above 40% can lead to a smaller offer or a decline, even with a fair score.

Be careful with offers that promise speed in place of numbers. Loans with same day funding can be useful for an urgent bill, but the payment still has to fit next month, and the month after that, until the balance is gone.

Use the result as a baseline: enter the amount and term an offer quotes, note the payment at 24%, then compare it with the lender's disclosed payment and total of payments to see how far above or below the baseline the offer sits.

If a personal loan offer's payment is much higher than the estimate for the same amount and term, the APR or fees are higher than 24%. Ask the lender to show both in writing.

When you apply online, loans from different lenders may come back with different terms. Line them up by total of payments, not by monthly payment alone, since a lower payment over a longer term can cost more overall. Ready to compare real offers? One free request through our application page reaches lenders in our network that consider fair and low credit.