How to use this calculator
- Pick the loan type: a personal loan, a payday loan, a title loan, or pay in 4.
- Enter the amount. Choose “What I borrow” if it’s the loan amount and the fee comes out of it, or “What I receive” if the fee is added to the loan or you need that much in hand.
- Enter the offer’s interest rate, its term in months and its origination fee, as a percentage of the loan or in dollars. If the offer shows only an APR, enter that as the rate and leave the fee at 0.
- To compare, add a second or third offer. They’re ranked by APR.
- Under More options, set a month to pay the loan off early.
- For a payday loan or a title loan against your car, enter what you borrow, the fee, the days until it’s due and how many times you’d renew it. For pay in 4, enter the price, the payments, the weeks between them, when the first is due and any fee at checkout.
The numbers already filled in are an example. Replace them with your own.
How it's calculated
The payment is the level monthly amount that repays the loan with interest over its term, rounded to the cent. Each payment pays that month’s interest first, a twelfth of the rate on the balance, and the rest pays down the loan; the last payment is whatever is left, so the totals match the schedule to the cent. For a loan of L at a yearly rate r for n months, with j = r ÷ 12, the payment is P = L × j × (1 + j)n ÷ ((1 + j)n − 1).
The APR follows Regulation Z’s actuarial method (12 CFR 1026, Appendix J): it’s the yearly rate at which the loan’s payments, discounted month by month, add up to the cash you receive, which Regulation Z calls the amount financed. The interest and fees together are the finance charge. An origination fee taken out of the loan lowers what you receive without lowering what you repay, so it raises the APR. With no fee, the APR is the rate itself. In symbols, the APR is 12 × i, where i solves C = p1 ÷ (1 + i) + p2 ÷ (1 + i)2 + … + pn ÷ (1 + i)n, C is what you receive and pk the payments.
An example
$10,000 at 11.90% for 24 months costs $470.27 a month and $1,286.45 in interest, an APR of 11.90%. With a 5% fee taken out, you’d receive $9,500, repay the same $11,286.45, and pay $1,786.45 in interest and fees: an APR of 17.12%. To receive the full $10,000 instead, you’d borrow $10,526.32 at $495.02 a month.
Paying it off early
Paid off with payment 6, the balance then is paid with that month’s payment. The calculator adds up the interest to then and states what the loan cost as a yearly rate, the APR’s method applied to the payments you actually made. That isn’t an APR, which assumes you make the scheduled payments. For the example with the fee, it’s 23.68%, above the 17.12% APR, because the fee is spread over fewer months.
Payday and title loans
A loan repaid in one payment has the APR Appendix J gives for a single payment: the fee as a share of what you borrow, times 365 divided by the days until it’s due. The CFPB’s example, $45 on $300 for 14 days, is 391.07%. A renewal on the same terms isn’t a new loan under Regulation Z, so the APR stays the same while the fees add up: $90 with one renewal. A title loan is worked out the same way: the CFPB study’s median, $173.50 on $694 for 30 days, is 304.17%.
Pay in 4
The price is split into equal payments, with any odd cent on the last. A payment at checkout is treated as a down payment, so the APR uses what’s left to pay and the weeks between payments. Without a fee there’s no finance charge and the APR is 0%.
Assumptions and limits
- The APR is an estimate from the terms you enter, by Regulation Z’s method, not your lender’s disclosure. A lender’s APR counts every finance charge on its disclosure, and may differ from the exact figure by up to ⅛ of a percentage point.
- Interest is a twelfth of the rate on the balance each month, and the first payment is one month after the loan is made. A loan that charges interest by the day, or a first payment more or less than a month away, costs a little more or less, and a lender’s payoff quote adds the interest of the days since your last payment.
- Payments are on time. Late, returned-payment and default fees aren’t counted, and no APR counts them.
- No prepayment penalty is assumed when you pay a loan off early. Check your offer.
- The origination fee is the only charge besides interest. Credit insurance, a debt-cancellation product or other add-ons aren’t counted; they raise the cost, and count toward the Military APR.
- A renewal repeats the same loan with the same fee for the same term. Some states limit or ban renewals, and some require lenders to offer a repayment plan.
- A payday or title loan’s APR uses the days until it’s due. A lender that counts a 28- to 31-day term as one month states a slightly lower APR.
- Federal rules only. Many states cap interest rates or payday- and title-loan fees, and this calculator doesn’t check state law. The Military Lending Act line states the rule without deciding whether a loan is covered.
- It doesn’t estimate a rate from a credit score, or model a variable rate, an overdraft, rent-to-own, or paying a loan off early against investing the money.
- The default rate is the Federal Reserve’s average APR on 24-month personal loans at commercial banks, 11.90% in August 2026, used as the interest rate with no fee. The amount, the fee examples and the pay-in-4 price are illustrations; the payday example is the CFPB’s, and the title loan is the median in the CFPB’s 2016 study of single-payment title loans.
Input field details
What to enter in each box, where to find the number, and how this calculator treats it. When two calculators give different answers from the same numbers, it's usually because they handle one of these differently.
Loan type
A personal loan repaid in monthly installments, a payday loan or a title loan repaid in one payment with a fee, or a pay-in-4 plan that splits a purchase into a few payments.
How this tool treats itA title loan is borrowed against a car you already own: the lender holds the title, and can repossess the car if you don’t repay or renew. Pay in 4 is a buy now, pay later plan: the price split into equal payments a few weeks apart, the first often at checkout. With no fee and every payment on time it costs nothing extra, an APR of 0%. Whatever the type, an APR above 36% brings a note on the Military Lending Act, which limits the Military APR to 36% for people on active duty or Active Guard and Reserve duty and their dependents, on most consumer credit. The Military APR counts every finance charge plus some charges an APR leaves out, such as credit insurance and add-on products, so it is never lower than the APR. It does not cover mortgages, credit to buy a car or other goods secured by what you buy, or loans above the yearly amount Regulation Z sets for its own coverage. The Military APR is not worked out here.
Not includedOverdrafts and rent-to-own agreements.
Amount
The amount of the loan before any fee, or, if you choose What I receive, the cash you need in hand.
Where to find itThe loan offer’s "loan amount", or what you need to pay for.
Allowed range$100 to $100,000. A loan sized to leave you a set amount after its fee can come to more than $100,000, and is worked out anyway.
The amount is (amount received)
What I borrow if your amount is the loan itself; What I receive if it is the cash you need, or if the fee is added to the loan.
How this tool treats itWhat you receive is the amount financed on a loan’s federal disclosure: the loan amount less any fee paid out of it. Under What I borrow, a fee taken out of the loan leaves you the rest. Under What I receive, the loan is the smallest whose cash after the fee covers your amount. A fee of a percentage of the loan added to it comes to the same loan: for a 5% fee, $10,000 needs a $10,526.32 loan either way. It applies to every offer, so under What I receive every offer pays out the same cash.
Pay it off after (payoff)
The month you would pay the whole loan off, with that month’s payment, or 0 to leave it out.
How this tool treats itPaying off early means paying the balance left after that month’s payment, the payoff amount, together with that payment. It saves the interest of the months after it. With a fee, the yearly cost if you pay it off then is higher than the APR, because the fee is spread over fewer months; with no fee it is the rate. That yearly cost is not an APR, which assumes you make the scheduled payments.
Allowed range0 to 83 months
Not includedA prepayment penalty, and the interest a lender charging by the day adds for the days since your last payment.
Interest rate (and APR)
The offer’s interest rate, to up to three decimals. If the offer shows only an APR, enter it and set the fee to 0.
Where to find itThe loan offer or its disclosure, where it is often labeled the interest rate or note rate, beside the APR.
How this tool treats itThe interest rate sets the interest: each month a twelfth of it on the balance. The APR is the yearly rate Regulation Z defines, which relates the cash you receive and when to the payments you make and when, so it counts the origination fee as well as the interest. With no fee the APR is the interest rate itself. With a fee taken out of the loan you receive less than you borrow, so the APR is higher than the rate. The APR shown is an estimate from the terms you enter; a lender’s disclosure may differ from the exact figure by up to ⅛ of a percentage point.
Allowed range0% to 99%
Term
The number of monthly payments, from the offer.
Where to find itThe loan offer, often quoted in months (24, 36, 60) or years.
How this tool treats itThe first payment is a month after the loan is made. Every payment is the same except the last, which pays what is left to the cent.
Allowed range3 to 84 months
Fee in
Whether the offer states its origination fee as a percentage of the loan or in dollars.
Origination fee (and finance charge)
The fee the lender charges for making the loan, as a percentage of the loan amount, or 0 if there is none.
Where to find itThe loan offer, or the "prepaid finance charge" in the itemization of the amount financed.
How this tool treats itThe fee is part of the finance charge, the cost of the credit in dollars: the interest plus the fee, shown as interest and fees. A percentage fee is rounded to the cent.
Allowed range0% to 25%
Not includedCredit insurance, debt-cancellation products and other add-ons, which raise the cost and count toward the Military APR.
Origination fee in dollars
The origination fee in dollars and cents, if the offer states it that way.
Where to find itThe loan papers, the "prepaid finance charge" in the itemization of the amount financed.
How this tool treats itA fee as large as the amount you borrow leaves you nothing to receive, so there is no payment or APR to work out.
Allowed range$0 to $25,000
Compare offer 2 and offer 3
Add a second or third offer to rank the offers by APR.
How this tool treats itThe offers are ranked by APR, the lowest first; a tie goes to the one that costs less in interest and fees. When an offer that pays out the same cash costs at least $1 less in interest and fees than the lowest-APR offer, that is shown too, with the reason when it is paid off sooner.
Amount you borrow
The cash the lender gives you.
Where to find itThe loan agreement’s "amount financed".
Allowed range$50 to $10,000
Fee
The fee you pay with the loan on the due date. A fee of $15 per $100 on $300 is $45.
Where to find itThe loan agreement’s "finance charge".
How this tool treats itThe APR of one payment after a number of days is the fee as a share of the amount, times 365 divided by the days.
Allowed range$0 to $5,000
Days until it’s due
The number of days from when you get the money to the due date.
Where to find itThe loan agreement’s due date.
How this tool treats itFor a term of 28 to 31 days, a lender may count it as one month, which states a slightly lower APR; both are shown.
Allowed range1 to 365 days
Times you renew it (renewal)
How many times you would pay the fee to push the due date back instead of repaying the loan, or 0.
How this tool treats itA renewal, or rollover, pays the fee again and moves the due date by the same number of days, and you still owe the whole amount. The APR stays the same, because a renewal on the same terms is not a new loan under Regulation Z; what grows is the fees you pay.
Allowed range0 to 20
Not includedState limits on renewals and repayment plans a state may require.
Amount you borrow against the car
The cash the lender gives you for the car’s title.
Where to find itThe loan agreement’s "amount financed".
How this tool treats itLenders set it from what the car is worth; the CFPB’s study of these loans found a median loan of $694, the starting value here.
Allowed range$50 to $25,000
Title loan fee
The fee you pay with the loan on the due date. A fee of 25% of $694 for a month is $173.50.
Where to find itThe loan agreement’s "finance charge".
How this tool treats itWorked out the same way as a payday loan: the fee as a share of the amount, times 365 divided by the days. The starting fee, 25% for one month, is the APR of around 300% the CFPB’s study reports.
Allowed range$0 to $12,500
Days until the title loan is due
The number of days from when you get the money to the due date, often 30.
Where to find itThe loan agreement’s due date.
How this tool treats itFor a term of 28 to 31 days, a lender may count it as one month, which states a slightly lower APR; both are shown.
Allowed range1 to 365 days
Times you renew the title loan
How many times you would pay the fee to push the due date back instead of repaying the loan, or 0.
How this tool treats itA renewal pays the fee again and you still owe the whole amount, as with a payday loan. The APR stays the same; the fees you pay grow.
Allowed range0 to 20
Not includedTitle loans repaid in installments, which some states require; enter one as a personal loan with its fee.
Purchase price (pay in 4)
The price of what you are buying, the amount the plan splits into payments.
Where to find itThe checkout page or the plan’s payment schedule.
How this tool treats itEach payment is the price divided by the number of payments, rounded to the cent; the last one is adjusted so they add up to the price.
Allowed range$10 to $10,000
Number of payments
How many payments the plan splits the price into, often 4.
Allowed range2 to 12
Weeks between payments
The weeks from one payment to the next, often 2.
Allowed range1 to 4 weeks
First payment
At checkout if the first payment is taken when you buy; One period later if it is due after the first interval.
How this tool treats itA payment at checkout is a down payment, so with a fee the APR is worked out on what you still owe after it.
Fee at checkout
Any fee the plan charges when you buy, or 0 if there is none.
How this tool treats itA fee is a finance charge, so it gives the plan an APR. A late fee is not a finance charge and no APR counts it.
Allowed range$0 to $1,000
Not includedLate fees for a missed payment.
Questions
How much money will I get after the fee?
What is the difference between an interest rate and an APR?
How does an origination fee change my APR?
Is it better to have the fee taken out or added to the loan?
Why does paying off a loan early raise its yearly cost?
Why is a payday loan’s APR so high, and what does renewing cost?
What does a title loan cost, and what happens if I can’t repay it?
Does pay in 4 cost anything?
How should I compare personal loan offers?
Version history
- October 31, 2026 (version 1.0.0): First version. A personal loan’s payment, cost and APR with its fee, up to three offers ranked by APR, the yearly cost of paying off early, and payday, title and pay-in-4 loans.