Personal Loan Calculator
What a personal loan actually costs once the origination fee is counted — the monthly payment, the total interest, and the APR behind the quoted rate.
The address carries whatever you changed, so anyone opening it sees these numbers. Nothing is saved on our side.
Monthly payment
$396.02/mo
$20,000 over 5 years at 7%. Fixed rate, equal payments, nothing owed at the end.
- Principal84%$20,000
- Interest16%$3,761
- Total repaid$23,761
- $3,761
- over the full term
- $23,761
- principal plus interest
- 5 years
- 16%
- of everything you repay
- 8.286%
- true cost with fees
- $19,400
- after fees are deducted
Where the money goes
Early payments are mostly interest. The balance shifts month by month, and the schedule shows exactly when.
Loan year
More of your payment goes to principal than to interest from year 1 onward.
| Year | Principal | Interest | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| $3,462 | $1,290 | $16,538 | |
| $3,712 | $1,040 | $12,826 | |
| $3,981 | $772 | $8,845 | |
| $4,268 | $484 | $4,577 | |
| $4,577 | $175 | $0 |
How this calculator works
The payment comes from the standard amortizing-loan formula. The APR comes from what you actually received.
M = P · r ÷ (1 − (1 + r)−n)
the rate where P − fees = Σ M ÷ (1 + apr⁄12)k
In words: the rate at which the payments you make discount back to the cash you received. There is no closed form for it, so it is solved numerically by narrowing a bracket until the two sides agree to far more precision than anyone displays.
What is assumed
- The fee is deducted from the disbursement, which is how most personal lenders handle it.
- A fixed rate, equal payments, and the loan held to term.
- No late fees, no prepayment penalty, no insurance sold alongside the loan.
A worked example
Twenty thousand dollars at 7% over five years, with a $600 origination fee.
| Loan amount | $20,000 |
|---|---|
| Origination fee | $600 |
| Cash you receive | $19,400 |
| Monthly payment | $396.02 |
| Total interest | $3,761.48 |
| Interest plus fee | $4,361.48 |
| Quoted rate | 7% |
| True APR | 8.29% |
The fee is 3% of the loan but adds nearly 1.3 points to the APR, because it is paid once at the start rather than spread across the term.
Questions people ask
Because it is deducted from the money you receive but not from the money you repay. Borrow $20,000 with a $600 fee and you get $19,400 while repaying as though you had the full amount. On a five-year loan that turns a 7% quoted rate into roughly 8.3% APR.
Most personal lenders deduct it from the disbursement, which is what this calculator assumes. Some add it to the balance instead. If yours does, increase the loan amount by the fee and set the fee to zero — the payment will be right, though the APR shown will be slightly understated.
By APR, not by the quoted rate, and only over the same term. A lender offering a lower rate with a large fee can easily be more expensive than one offering a higher rate with none. The APR calculator puts two offers side by side.
No. The origination fee is charged up front regardless, so paying off early spreads it over less time and makes your effective cost higher than the APR suggested. It does save the remaining interest, which is usually the larger number.
Getting out of debt
APR CalculatorThe true annual cost once fees are includedRelated calculators
An estimate for planning, not a loan offer or a quote. Rates and fees depend on your credit and your lender.