Use NerdWallet’s student loan payment calculator to estimate your cost for one or more student loans. You can include federal and private loans for both undergrad and grad school.
How to use NerdWallet’s student loan payment calculator
The calculator has two input screens. The first asks about your program of study. The second one asks about the student loans you have or may have in the future. The calculator can also be used as a planning tool, so you can try different scenarios for how you'll pay for school.
Enter your loans separately for each year of school — even if you have multiple loans in one year. Select "Add another loan" for each additional one. You can enter up to 24 loans, including a mix of federal and private loans. (Hopefully, you won't need that many.)
1. Your program
Select whether your student loans will be for undergraduate or graduate school — or both — then enter your program's length in years. Your program length affects which federal loans you qualify for and when you will start repaying interest.
2. Loan type
For each loan, choose federal subsidized, federal unsubsidized or private. Not sure which? These articles can help:
3. School year
For each loan, select whether it will apply to year one, year two and so on.
4. Amount borrowed
If you’re planning to borrow: Enter the amount you plan to borrow for each loan. For federal loans, use the amount on your financial aid offer. This should be the full loan amount, before any fees are taken out. For private loans, use the amount on your loan offer or the amount you plan to ask for.
If you already have the loan and haven’t made payments: Enter the total amount you borrowed. Don’t add any interest that’s built up, because the calculator adds it for you. Your studentaid.gov account lists this amount as “principal” for each federal loan. For private loans, check your lender’s statement.
If you’ve made payments on the loan: Enter how much you still owe, not counting interest. That’s the principal, not the total balance, in your studentaid.gov account or on your lender’s statement. Your results will show what you’ll pay from now on, not what you’ve already paid.
5. Interest rate
Enter the interest rate for each loan, as precisely as you can. Your student loan interest rates depend on whether the loan is through the federal government or a private lender. Federal rates are set each year and vary by loan type. Private loan rates are determined by your lender and its credit criteria. If you aren’t sure of your federal interest rate, find it by logging in to your dashboard at studentaid.gov or talk to your federal student loan servicer. For private loans, talk to your lender or find it on your statement.
For more accurate results with private loans, use the interest rate and not the annual percentage rate (APR). APR includes fees, so any fees you pay are already reflected when you enter the amount you borrow. Using the APR will count any fees twice.
Also, if a private loan has a variable rate, enter the rate you have now. Your actual payments will change if the rate does.
Understanding your student loan calculator results
Your estimated monthly payment
This is an estimate of your total monthly payment when all loans you entered are in repayment. If your loans have different repayment terms, your overall monthly payment will go down as each loan is paid off. The amount shown is what you’d pay at first.
Total you borrow
Here you can see the sum of all the loan amounts you entered.
Total you'll pay including interest
This estimates everything you’ll repay:
The amount you borrowed.
Interest that builds while you’re in school and during your grace period.
Interest you’ll pay during repayment.
Time to pay off all your loans
This is how long it will take to pay off your last loan if you make the minimum payment each month.
Full breakdown
Choose "See the full breakdown" for more details. You'll see how much interest builds before repayment starts and how much you'll owe at your first payment. That figure isn't the final total, because interest keeps building while you're repaying the loan. If you have both federal and private loans, this breakdown shows them separately.
Your federal repayment term
New federal student loans are repaid on the Tiered Standard Plan, which sets your repayment term based on how much you owe in federal Direct Loan when repayment starts, not counting interest. Here are the breakdowns:
Total Direct Loan outstanding principal balance | Tiered Standard Plan maximum repayment terms |
|---|---|
Less than $25,000 | 10 years (120 monthly payments) |
$25,000-$49,999 | 15 years (180 monthly payments) |
$50,000-$99,999 | 20 years (240 monthly payments) |
$100,000 or more | 25 years (300 monthly payments) |
All of your Direct Loans count toward that total, and a longer term means you’ll pay more interest overall. Private lenders set their own terms, which is why the calculator asks for the repayment term of each private loan.
The calculator assumes you are estimating payments for loans you are taking out now. If you take out a federal student loan on or after July 1, 2026, all of your federal loans are repaid on the Tiered Standard Plan or Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP), so the calculator doesn’t use the older 10-year Standard Plan.
Next steps: how to lower your student loan costs
When you plan ahead for how you intend to pay for college, that can help you to reduce costs as you advance through school. Here are some tactics to consider.
Pay your interest during school
If you have unsubsidized or private student loans, you can lower the amount you’ll repay by making monthly interest payments while still in school. Or, you may opt for a lump sum payment of the total interest that accrued before repayment begins. Either choice will help reduce what you pay.
Pay more than the monthly minimum
You can pay more than your minimum each month to pay off your student loans faster. Remember that if you make higher payments, that you’ll need to apply the overpayment as a principal payment. The quicker you finish paying off your debt, the more you’ll save in interest.
Use income-driven repayment
If your federal loan payments are hard to manage, consider switching to RAP, which is the only income-driven repayment plan for those who borrowed on or after July 1, 2026. RAP bases your payment on your income instead of how much you owe, so it may be lower than your tiered standard plan payment. Any balance left after 30 years of qualifying payments is forgiven, though the forgiven amount may be taxed as income.
Refinance with a private lender
Refinancing with a private lender may be another way to lower your monthly student loan costs. You can refinance both federal and private student loans, which replaces your current loans with a new one — ideally at a lower interest rate. Lenders set their own credit standards, but generally you need a credit score in the high 600s and steady income to get the lowest rates. Having a co-signer with good credit can also help.
More NerdWallet student loan calculators
Student loan payoff calculator. See how extra payments can speed up repayment and save you money.
Student loan refinance calculator. Compare your current loan payment or multiple payments with a refinanced student loan.
Student loan consolidation calculator. See how consolidating your federal student loans will change your payment, interest rate and repayment term.
Income-driven repayment calculator. Use this calculator to figure the monthly payment amount for a federal student loan, using either the new Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) or older income-driven repayment plans.
Parent PLUS loan calculator. Estimate your monthly payment and total cost over multiple years of borrowing with a parent PLUS loan.
