Calculation & Conversion / Calculators
Student Loan Repayment Calculator
This calculator prices every federal repayment plan you can still enter, and the private terms that replace them, against the same loan. Enter your balance, your interest rate and whether the loan is federal or private; it simulates each plan month by month in whole cents, charging interest on the balance, applying your payment to interest first and principal second, and then handling whatever interest is left exactly the way that plan's rules say - waived every month under RAP, added to your balance up to 10% of the original loan under IBR and PAYE, added without limit under ICR. It reports the monthly payment, how long the plan runs, what you pay, what gets forgiven and the tax owed on that forgiveness, and it ranks the plans by net cost rather than by monthly payment, because a lower payment is frequently the most expensive option on the table. It also shows the balance over time, so you can see the stretch where an income-driven payment stops covering the interest and your balance grows instead of shrinking.
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Federal loans come with income-driven repayment and forgiveness. Private loans do not — for those, the only real lever is the term.
The loan
The payoff balance today. The average federal borrower carries $39,547.
Undergraduate Direct Loans disbursed for 2026-27 carry 6.52%; graduate loans 8.07% and PLUS loans 9.07%.
Your household
Line 11 of your Form 1040. Income-driven payments are recalculated from this once a year.
Sets the poverty line your payment is measured against, and RAP's $50 monthly credit per dependent.
Alaska and Hawaii use higher federal poverty guidelines, which lowers the income-driven payment.
Programme and assumptions
New IBR (10%, 20-year). All income-driven plans still open to you. This decides which plans you can still enter — SAVE is gone and PAYE and ICR close to new borrowers on July 1, 2026.
Used to re-price income-driven payments each year. Set it to 0 to see the floor.
Applied to any balance forgiven on an income-driven plan. Forgiveness has been taxable again since January 1, 2026.
PSLF clears the balance after 120 qualifying payments and is not taxed. Switching it on changes almost every income-driven answer on this page.
Standard — monthly payment
7 of 7 plans available to you
$449.45
That runs for 10 years and ends Paid off. You pay the loan off in full — nothing is left to forgive.
Of the $53,934 this plan really costs you, $53,934 leaves your bank account and $0 goes to the IRS the year the rest is cancelled.
Time to finish
10 years
Paid off
Total you pay
$53,934
$14,387 of it is interest
Forgiven
Nothing
you repay the whole balance
Net cost
$53,934
what you pay plus the tax bill — compare plans on this, not on the monthly payment
What income-driven repayment would cost
Your household's 2026 poverty line is $15,960. That leaves $41,060 of discretionary income for IBR and PAYE (anything above 150% of the poverty line), and $49,040 for ICR (above 100%).
| Plan | Per month at today's income | Against the 10-year standard |
|---|---|---|
| RAP | $325.00 | $124 less |
| IBR | $342.17 | $107 less |
| PAYE | $342.17 | $107 less |
| ICR | $817.33 | $368 more |
| 10-year standard (the cap) | $449.45 | IBR and PAYE never exceed this |
These are entry payments at the income you entered. The table further down grows your income each year and re-prices them, which is why those numbers are higher.
Every plan, side by side
rank by net cost — payments plus the tax bill
Net cost is what actually leaves your pocket across the whole plan. A low monthly payment can be the most expensive option on the table once forgiveness and tax are counted.
| Plan | Monthly | Ends | Total paid | Interest | Forgiven | Net cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| StandardFixed payment over 10 years. | $449.45 | 10 years Paid off | $53,934 | $14,387 | — | $53,934 |
| Extended (25 yr)Fixed payment stretched to 25 years — lowest federal payment, most interest. | $267.52 | 25 years Paid off | $80,255 | $40,708 | — | $80,255 |
| GraduatedStarts low, steps up every 2 years (top tier is capped at 3x the first).Lowest payment | $258.47 | 10 years Paid off | $57,860 | $18,313 | — | $57,860 |
| IBR10% of discretionary income (AGI - 150% of the poverty line), forgiven after 20 years. | $342.17 | 11 years 7 months Paid off | $57,452 | $17,905 | — | $57,452 |
| PAYE10% of discretionary income, never more than the 10-year standard payment, forgiven after 20 years. | $342.17 | 11 years 7 months Paid off | $57,452 | $17,905 | — | $57,452 |
| ICR20% of discretionary income (AGI - 100% of the poverty line) — an upper bound, forgiven after 25 years.Lowest net costFastest | $817.33 | 4 years 5 months Paid off | $45,717 | $6,170 | — | $45,717 |
| RAP1-10% of total AGI by bracket, $10 minimum, unpaid interest waived monthly, forgiven after 30 years. | $325.00 | 10 years 10 months Paid off | $57,320 | $17,773 | — | $57,320 |
Interest here is what you actually pay out of your own pocket. On income-driven plans your payment can be smaller than the interest accruing — the difference is added to your balance, and that is what makes the forgiven amount larger than what you borrowed.
Balance over time
31 points · month 0 → 120 (10 years)
This plan always pays at least the interest, so the balance only ever goes down.
What changes this answer
IDR forgiveness is federally taxable again
The American Rescue Plan excluded forgiven student debt from income through Dec 31, 2025 and Congress did not extend it. Any balance forgiven on an income-driven plan from 2026 on is taxed as ordinary income at your marginal rate. PSLF forgiveness is different — it is permanently tax-free under IRC §108(f)(1). Five states also tax forgiven amounts: Arkansas, Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Wisconsin.
SAVE is gone — do not plan around it
The SAVE plan was vacated by a federal court order on March 10, 2026 and then repealed by the 2025 reconciliation act. Borrowers who were on it have to pick a new plan. If a calculator still shows SAVE, it is out of date.
This model does not apply the 3-year subsidized interest subsidy
IBR and PAYE normally have the government pay unpaid interest on subsidized loans for the first three years. This tool always capitalizes unpaid interest instead, so for borrowers with subsidized balances the projection here is slightly pessimistic — your real cost may be a little lower.
ICR shown here is an upper bound
ICR is legally the lesser of 20% of discretionary income and a 12-year fixed payment multiplied by an income percentage factor published annually by the Department of Education. This tool only models the 20% branch because the factor table changes each year, so the ICR number shown is the worst case within that plan.
Capitalization rules differ by plan
IBR and PAYE stop adding unpaid interest to your balance once it reaches 10% of what you originally owed; after that interest accrues but is not capitalized. ICR capitalizes every year with no ceiling, which is why its balance can grow faster. RAP never capitalizes at all.
RAP is a cliff, not a marginal bracket
RAP charges a flat percentage of your entire AGI based on which bracket you land in. Crossing a threshold — say $20,000 to $20,001 — roughly doubles the annual amount. There is no $0 payment: the floor is $10 a month, reduced by $50 a month for each dependent.
Payments are recertified annually
Income-driven payments are recalculated once a year from your tax return. This tool grows your AGI at 3.0% a year and re-prices the payment every 12 months. Actual payments depend on which year you recertify, your tax filing status, and whether your servicer has your current income on file.
Interest is modeled monthly at 1/12 of the annual rate
Federal student loans actually accrue simple daily interest on the principal balance. Modeling monthly at one twelfth of the annual rate is within a few dollars over the life of a typical loan, but it will not match a servicer statement to the cent.
How this is calculated
Every plan is simulated month by month in whole cents, in the same order a loan servicer uses: interest is charged on the balance, your payment covers interest first and principal second, and whatever interest is left over is then handled according to the plan's rules.
Fixed-term plans use the standard amortising payment P·i·(1+i)ⁿ / ((1+i)ⁿ − 1), with the final payment adjusted to clear the last few cents — which is what servicers do too.
IBR and PAYE charge a percentage of income above 150% of the federal poverty line, never more than the 10-year standard payment. ICR uses 100% of the poverty line and 20%, with no cap. RAP charges 1-10% of your entire AGI according to a bracket table, minus $50 a month per dependent, with a $10 floor. Unpaid interest is waived every month under RAP, capitalised up to 10% of the original balance under IBR and PAYE, and capitalised without limit under ICR.
Income is grown at 3.0% a year and income-driven payments are re-priced every twelve months, the way annual recertification works in practice.
Two identities hold exactly on every run, which is how the model is tested: total interest charged equals interest paid plus interest waived plus interest capitalised plus interest still outstanding; and the original balance plus all interest charged equals what you paid, what the government covered, what was forgiven and what is left. If either stops balancing, the model is wrong.
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How to use
- 1
Enter what you owe and what it costs you
Put in your current payoff balance and your interest rate. If you have several loans with different rates, use the total balance and the balance-weighted average rate - the answer will be within a few dollars of modelling them separately. Undergraduate Direct Loans disbursed for 2026-27 carry 6.52%, graduate loans 8.07% and PLUS loans 9.07%.
- 2
Say whether it is federal, and when you first borrowed
Federal loans unlock income-driven repayment and forgiveness; private loans do not, and the tool switches to a term ladder for those. The date of your first loan decides which plans you can still enter: borrowers who first borrowed on or after July 1, 2026 have RAP as their only income-driven option, and PAYE and ICR are closed to everyone after that date.
- 3
Add your income and household size
Income-driven payments are built from your AGI - line 11 of your Form 1040 - measured against the federal poverty line for your household size and state. Household size also drives RAP's $50 monthly credit per dependent. Set the income growth rate to what you actually expect, because a payment that never moves makes an income-driven plan look far cheaper than it will be.
- 4
Compare the plans on net cost, not on the monthly payment
Net cost is everything you pay plus the tax bill on whatever is forgiven. A plan with the lowest monthly payment often has the highest net cost, because the unpaid interest is added to the balance and then cancelled as taxable income. The badges mark the cheapest, lowest-payment and fastest options, and they frequently point at three different rows.
- 5
Read the trajectory and the notes before you commit
Open the plan you are considering and look at the balance chart. If any stretch rises, your payment is not covering the interest and you are being charged interest on interest. Then read the critical notes: income-driven forgiveness has been taxable since January 1, 2026, and SAVE no longer exists, so any calculator or advice page still quoting it is out of date.
Key facts
- FormulaEach month, in whole cents: interest is charged on the balance, the payment covers interest first and principal second, and any interest left over is then waived under RAP, added to the balance up to 10% of the original principal under IBR and PAYE, or added without limit under ICR. Fixed-term plans use the amortising payment P x i x (1+i)^n / ((1+i)^n - 1) with the final payment adjusted to clear the last few cents. Income-driven payments use a percentage of AGI minus 150% of the federal poverty line (IBR, PAYE) or 100% (ICR), capped at the 10-year standard payment; RAP instead charges 1-10% of total AGI by bracket, less $50 a month per dependent, with a $10 floor. Two identities hold exactly: total interest charged equals interest paid plus waived plus capitalised plus still outstanding, and the original balance plus all interest charged equals what you paid, what the government covered, what was forgiven and what remains.Source:This page's model; plan terms follow 34 CFR 685.208 (IBR), 685.209 (ICR), 685.219 (PAYE) and HEA section 455(q) (RAP) as amended by the 2025 reconciliation act
- Which plans still exist in 2026SAVE was vacated by a federal court order on March 10, 2026 and then repealed by statute; roughly 7.5 million borrowers had to choose a new plan. RAP opened on July 1, 2026 as the income-driven plan for new borrowers, charging 1-10% of total AGI with a $10 minimum and forgiving the balance after 360 qualifying payments. PAYE and ICR stopped taking new borrowers on July 1, 2026 and sunset on July 1, 2028. IBR remains, and its partial financial hardship requirement was removed, so any borrower with pre-2026 loans can enter regardless of income. New borrowers after July 1, 2026 use a tiered standard plan: 10 years under $25,000, 15 years from $25,000 to $50,000, 20 years from $50,000 to $100,000 and 25 years above that.Source:Public Law 119-21 (2025 reconciliation act); Department of Education guidance on the SAVE vacatur, March 2026
- 2026 numbers behind the defaultsThe 2026 HHS poverty guideline is $15,960 for a one-person household in the 48 contiguous states, $18,360 in Hawaii and $19,950 in Alaska, so 150% of it - the IBR and PAYE protected amount - is $23,940 for a single borrower in most of the country. Federal student loan rates for 2026-27 are 6.52% for undergraduate Direct Loans, 8.07% for graduate unsubsidized loans and 9.07% for PLUS loans, set from the May 2026 ten-year Treasury auction plus a statutory add-on. Total US student debt stood at about $1.86 trillion in the first quarter of 2026 across roughly 42.6 million federal borrowers, with an average federal balance of $39,547 and a typical monthly payment between $200 and $299.Source:HHS poverty guidelines, 91 FR 1797 (Jan 13, 2026); Federal Student Aid interest rates for 2026-27; Federal Reserve consumer credit data, Q1 2026; Education Data Initiative, 2026
- Tax treatment of forgivenessThe American Rescue Plan excluded discharged student debt from gross income for tax years 2021 through 2025. It expired on December 31, 2025 and was not extended, so amounts forgiven on an income-driven plan from 2026 on are ordinary income in the year of discharge and are reported on Form 1099-C. Borrowers who are insolvent at the time can exclude part or all of it under IRC section 108(a)(1)(B) using Form 982. Five states may also tax forgiven amounts: Arkansas, Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Wisconsin. Public Service Loan Forgiveness is separate and permanently tax free under IRC section 108(f)(1).Source:IRC sections 108(a)(1)(B), 108(f)(1) and 6050P; American Rescue Plan Act section 9675 sunset, Dec 31, 2025
- Cost of the keywordEducation and student finance sit in the mid-range of personal finance verticals, with education-related pages typically earning $8 to $25 per thousand pageviews, below the $15 to $50 range that banking and investing terms command but with far less regulatory and reputational exposure.Source:Published education-vertical RPM ranges, 2025
How this calculator works
Each available repayment plan is simulated month by month in whole cents. Interest is charged on the balance; your payment covers interest first and principal second; whatever interest is left over is then handled according to that plan's rule — waived where the plan waives it, capitalised where the plan adds it back to the balance. Eligibility and payment amounts follow the plan formulas, including each plan's protected income allowance and the percentage of discretionary income it applies.
The result depends on things that are not arithmetic: your income trajectory, household size and filing status, whether you recertify on time, and whether forgiveness is ultimately granted and taxable in the year it arrives. Interest rates are treated as fixed for the life of the loan, which is accurate for federal loans and not for private variable-rate products. Plans and rules change by legislation, so treat the plan list as a snapshot of the rules in force at the review date shown below.
Sources and standards
Disclaimer
This is an educational calculator, not financial advice. The result is an arithmetic projection of the figures you enter: it does not know your full circumstances, the terms of a specific offer, or the tax and regulatory rules that apply where you live. Confirm any figure against the terms of the product itself, or with a licensed professional, before acting on it.
Last reviewed:
Frequently asked questions
Is income-driven repayment actually cheaper than the standard plan?
Almost never in total, and that is the point most comparisons get wrong. An income-driven plan caps your payment at a share of your income, and when that cap sits below the interest accruing, the unpaid interest does not disappear - under IBR and PAYE it is added to your balance until it reaches 10% of what you originally owed, and under ICR it is added every year with no ceiling at all. The balance can therefore grow while you are making every payment on time. Whatever is still outstanding at the end is forgiven, and since January 1, 2026 that forgiven amount is taxed as ordinary income. At a 22% marginal rate, $60,000 forgiven is a $13,200 bill in the same tax year. So the only number worth comparing across plans is net cost: what leaves your bank account plus what you owe the IRS. Three situations reverse the usual answer. If you are working toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness, an income-driven plan is not just cheaper, it is the only thing that makes sense, because PSLF clears the balance after 120 qualifying payments and is permanently tax free. If you owe roughly a year's salary or less and have no path to forgiveness, the standard plan usually wins outright - you repay before the interest can compound against you. And RAP changes the arithmetic in a way the older plans do not: it waives unpaid interest every month, so the balance never grows, and the government adds up to $50 a month of principal when your payment falls short of that. If your balance is large relative to your income and PSLF is not in play, an income-driven plan will still lower your payment substantially - just budget for the tax bill in the year it ends rather than being surprised by it.
How is my income-driven payment calculated in 2026?
There are now two separate families of formula, and which one applies to you depends on the plan. IBR, PAYE and ICR all start from discretionary income, which is your AGI minus a multiple of the federal poverty line for your household size and state - 150% for IBR and PAYE, 100% for ICR. For 2026 the poverty line for a one-person household in the 48 contiguous states is $15,960, so 150% is $23,940. New IBR takes 10% of the excess and divides by twelve, or 15% if you took out your first loan before July 1, 2014; PAYE takes 10%; ICR takes 20% of the larger ICR discretionary amount. IBR and PAYE are capped at what the 10-year standard payment would be, so a rising income simply moves you onto the standard schedule. RAP, which opened on July 1, 2026, works completely differently: it charges a percentage of your entire AGI according to a bracket table, starting at a flat $10 a month at or below $10,000 and rising through 1% on $10,001 to $20,000, 2% on the next $10,000, and so on to 10% above $100,000, then subtracting $50 a month for each dependent with a floor of $10. Two things matter about that table. It is a cliff, not a marginal bracket, so crossing a threshold applies the higher percentage to all of your income - going from $20,000 to $20,001 roughly doubles the annual amount. And it is a percentage of total income, not of income above a protected amount, which is why RAP can cost more than IBR at low incomes and less at high ones. Worth knowing before you compare: SAVE is gone, vacated by a court order in March 2026 and repealed by statute, and PAYE and ICR stopped taking new borrowers on July 1, 2026 and sunset entirely on July 1, 2028.
Can I consolidate or refinance my student loans?
They are opposite moves, and confusing them is expensive. Federal Direct Consolidation rolls several federal loans into one at the weighted average of their interest rates rounded up to the nearest eighth of a percent, so it essentially never lowers your rate - it buys you a single payment and, in a few cases, access to a plan. It is the only route by which a Parent PLUS borrower can reach an income-driven plan at all, because consolidated Parent PLUS loans are the only ones ICR will accept. The catch is that consolidation creates a new loan, so any progress toward income-driven forgiveness restarts, although payments made before consolidation may still be credited under the one-time IDR account adjustment. Refinancing with a private lender is the opposite trade. If your credit and income are strong it can cut your rate by several points and save real money over ten years, but it converts federal loans into private ones and permanently gives up income-driven repayment, every forgiveness programme and PSLF. The usual test: refinance only if your income is stable, you have an emergency fund, and you have no realistic path to forgiveness - because refinancing is the only student loan decision that cannot be undone.
What are the ways to get federal student loans forgiven?
Four routes cover nearly everyone. Income-driven forgiveness cancels whatever is left after 240 qualifying payments on new IBR or PAYE, 300 on old IBR or ICR, or 360 on RAP; it is taxable federally for discharges from 2026 onward. Public Service Loan Forgiveness cancels the entire remaining balance after 120 qualifying payments made while you work full time for a federal, state, local or tribal government employer or a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and it is permanently excluded from income under IRC section 108(f)(1), which makes it by far the most valuable of the four. Teacher Loan Forgiveness is available to teachers who serve five consecutive complete academic years in a qualifying low-income school. And several discharges cancel the debt outright rather than after a term: closed school discharge if your school shut down while you were enrolled or shortly after you withdrew, total and permanent disability discharge, and borrower defense to repayment if your school misled you. Two mechanics decide whether any of them actually happen. You must be on a qualifying repayment plan - the standard 10-year plan counts for PSLF, but only income-driven plans accrue income-driven forgiveness credit - and the months must be qualifying months, which generally excludes time spent in forbearance or deferment, including the administrative forbearance that followed the SAVE litigation. File the employment certification form annually so the count is on the record rather than reconstructed a decade later.
Is forgiven student debt taxed?
For income-driven forgiveness, yes, and this changed recently enough that a lot of advice online is out of date. The American Rescue Plan excluded student loan discharges from gross income for the years 2021 through 2025. That provision expired on December 31, 2025 and was not extended, so any amount forgiven on an income-driven plan from 2026 on is ordinary income in the year of discharge, and the servicer issues a Form 1099-C. Budget for it as a liability that falls due in a single tax year, not as a rounding error - this page applies your marginal rate to the projected forgiven amount so the comparison between plans includes it. There are partial escape hatches: if your liabilities exceed your assets at the time of the discharge, section 108(a)(1)(B) lets you exclude the forgiven amount up to the extent you are insolvent, claimed on Form 982. Five states may also tax forgiven amounts: Arkansas, Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Wisconsin. Public Service Loan Forgiveness is a completely separate provision. It is permanently excluded from gross income under section 108(f)(1), has never depended on the American Rescue Plan, and produces no federal tax bill at all - which is a large part of why PSLF is worth more than any income-driven plan even when the monthly payments are identical.
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