What does Loan Calculator do?
Free loan calculator for any currency: monthly, fortnightly or weekly payment, total interest, APR with fees, extra payment savings and a full schedule.
- Price
- Free
- Account
- Not required
- Processing
- Entirely in your browser; your data and files are not uploaded
- Works on
- Any modern browser on desktop, tablet or phone
- Category
- Financial Calculators
How to use the loan calculator
- Choose your currency, then enter the loan amount, the annual interest rate and the term in years and months.
- Pick how often you repay: monthly, fortnightly or weekly.
- Optionally open “Extra payments and fees” to add an extra amount paid every period or a one-off setup fee.
- Read the payment, payoff time, total interest, total cost and APR, then check the balance chart and the schedule.
- Switch between the yearly summary and the full schedule, and download the schedule as CSV.
Worked example
$10,000 at 7% over 5 years
Repaid monthly, the payment is $198.01 and total interest is $1,880.75 (the final payment absorbs a few cents of rounding). Repaid fortnightly, the payment is $91.27 and interest is $1,865.17. Adding $50 a month clears the loan in 47 months instead of 60 and saves $446.88 in interest. With a $250 upfront fee and no extra payments, the APR including the fee is about 8.07%.
How it works
The payment uses the standard amortization formula PMT = P × r / (1 − (1 + r)−n), where r is the annual rate divided by the number of payments per year (12, 26 or 52) and n is the number of payments in the term (years and months converted to payments and rounded to the nearest whole payment). Each period, interest is the balance × r rounded to the cent, the rest of the payment reduces the balance, and the last payment absorbs rounding. Extra payments go straight to principal in the same period. The APR solves for the annual rate at which the present value of every payment you make equals the cash you actually receive (the loan amount minus an upfront fee), so it reflects both the fee and how quickly you repay.
Assumptions
- A fixed interest rate for the whole term, with equal scheduled payments.
- The interest rate, fee and any extra payment are values you enter from your own loan offer.
- Interest is charged per payment period at the annual rate divided by payments per year. Some lenders calculate interest daily, which gives slightly different figures.
- The currency setting changes symbols and decimal places only; no exchange rates are applied. Amounts are calculated to 2 decimal places.
Frequently asked questions
Is a fortnightly payment the same as half the monthly payment?
Not in this calculator. The fortnightly payment is calculated for 26 payments a year at the fortnightly rate, so it repays the loan over the same term. Paying half the monthly amount every fortnight instead makes 26 half-payments a year, the same as 13 monthly payments, and pays the loan off early.
Why is the APR higher than my interest rate?
An upfront fee means you receive less cash than the amount you repay interest on. The APR folds the fee into one annual rate. Paying extra shortens the loan, which spreads the fee over less time and raises the APR further, even though you pay less interest in total.
Should I pay extra or keep the cash?
Extra payments save interest at the loan rate, but some lenders charge early repayment fees and money paid into a loan can be hard to get back. Check your loan terms and your emergency savings first.
Does this use current interest rates?
No. No rates are fetched or assumed. Enter the rate from your own quote.
Limitations
- Does not model variable rates, payment holidays, balloon payments, interest-only periods or ongoing account fees.
- The APR is an estimate for comparing offers. Lenders calculate the disclosed APR under local rules that may include other costs.
- Terms are limited to 50 years.