Personal Loan Calculator

How to use this personal loan calculator

Enter the amount you want to borrow and the APR from a lender's pre-qualification offer (pre-qualifying uses a soft credit check, so shopping around is free). Set the fee (often called an administration or origination fee) from the offer's fine print, if there is one; many banks and credit unions charge none. Then compare terms in the table: shorter terms always cost less overall if you can carry the payment.

APR vs. interest rate: the fee math lenders hope you skip

The origination fee is deducted up front. Borrow $10,000 with a 5% fee and $9,500 lands in your account — yet your payments are computed on the full $10,000. So the "10% loan" with a 5% fee really costs more than an 11% loan with no fee when you need the full $10,000 in hand. The effective cost formula here:

Total cost = (monthly payment × months) + fee − amount received... equivalently: interest + fee

• Monthly payment — M = P × [r(1+r)ⁿ] ÷ [(1+r)ⁿ − 1]
• Interest — (M × n) − P
• Fee — P × fee percentage

What the results tell you

Watch the cash you actually receive figure: if you need exactly $10,000 for a project and the lender charges a 5% fee, you must borrow about $10,527 to net $10,000 — which raises every other number. The term table shows the classic trade-off in dollars. Consolidating credit card debt with this loan? Check the payoff side with our credit card payoff calculator to confirm the consolidation actually saves money.

What this calculator doesn't include

Late fees, prepayment penalties, and optional add-ons like credit insurance are not modeled. It assumes a fixed rate (nearly all personal loans are fixed) and on-time payments. Lender-specific discounts — like autopay rate reductions of 0.25%–0.5% — are not applied; subtract them from the APR if your lender offers one.