Loan Payoff Time Calculator
Find out how many months it takes to pay off a loan or credit-card balance at a fixed monthly payment, plus total interest paid.
How to use this tool
- Enter your current balance and its APR.
- Enter the fixed monthly payment you will make.
- Read the payoff time in months and years plus the total interest.
- Try a larger payment to see how much faster and cheaper the payoff becomes.
Enter a balance, its rate, and the amount you pay each month to see exactly how long until it is paid off and how much interest you will pay along the way. Raising the payment shows how much time and interest you save.
Formula
Months to payoff n = −ln(1 − P · r ÷ M) ÷ ln(1 + r), where P is the balance, r = APR ÷ 12, and M is the monthly payment.
If r = 0 the loan clears in P ÷ M months. If the payment is not larger than the first month's interest (M ≤ P · r), the balance never falls and payoff is impossible.
Total paid = M × n | Total interest = total paid − P.
How it works
This tool answers the most common debt question: at my current payment, when will this be gone? It uses the closed-form amortization formula to solve for the number of months needed to drive the balance to zero, then multiplies by the payment to get total cash out the door and subtracts the original balance to isolate total interest.
The math assumes a fixed monthly payment and a fixed rate, with interest compounding monthly. A critical edge case applies to high-rate revolving debt: if your payment is not larger than the first month's interest, the balance never shrinks and the loan can never be paid off — the calculator flags this rather than returning a misleading number. Real credit cards use minimum payments that fall as the balance drops, which extends payoff well beyond a fixed-payment estimate.
Reviewed by the AbraCalc Mortgage Desk. Educational estimate only, not financial advice; your statement's minimum-payment rules and any fees will change the actual timeline.
Worked example
$10,000 at 18% APR, paying $250/month
- Monthly rate r = 18% ÷ 12 = 0.015.
- First month's interest = 10,000 × 0.015 = $150, which is less than the $250 payment, so the balance falls.
- Months = −ln(1 − 10,000 × 0.015 ÷ 250) ÷ ln(1.015) = 61.54 months (5.13 years).
- Total paid = 250 × 61.54 = $15,385.76.
- Total interest = 15,385.76 − 10,000 = $5,385.76.
Payoff in 61.54 months (5.13 years); total paid $15,385.76; interest $5,385.76
Months to clear $10,000 at 18% APR by monthly payment
| Monthly payment | Months | Total paid | Total interest |
|---|---|---|---|
| $200 | 93.1 | $18,622 | $8,622 |
| $250 | 61.5 | $15,386 | $5,386 |
| $300 | 46.6 | $13,967 | $3,967 |
| $400 | 31.6 | $12,627 | $2,627 |
| $500 | 24.0 | $11,978 | $1,978 |
Key terms
- Payoff time
- The number of months of fixed payments required to reduce the balance to zero.
- APR
- Annual percentage rate — the yearly interest rate on the balance, divided by 12 for monthly compounding.
- Total interest
- The sum of all interest paid over the life of the loan: total payments minus the original balance.
- Negative amortization
- When a payment is smaller than the interest due, so the balance grows instead of shrinking.
Frequently asked questions
- Why might my loan never pay off?
- If your fixed payment is not larger than the first month's interest, every payment is consumed by interest and the balance never falls. You must pay more than the monthly interest to make progress.
- Does paying a little more each month help a lot?
- Yes. Because interest is charged on the remaining balance, even a modest increase in payment cuts both the payoff time and the total interest noticeably, especially at high rates.
- Why is this different from my credit card's estimate?
- Credit cards use a minimum payment that shrinks as the balance falls, stretching payoff for years. This calculator assumes a fixed payment, which pays the balance off faster.