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Calculator Suite

Personal Loan Calculator

Free personal loan calculator. Enter loan amount, APR, and term to see your monthly payment and total interest cost.

Last reviewed: · Reviewed by the Money Scale editorial team · How we source our data

Power mode. Every input exposed, every assumption sourced, charts and shareables.

Personal Loan Calculator
Personal loan monthly payment and total interest cost. Includes origination fee so you can see your actual cash-in-hand and effective APR — not just the headline rate.

$15,000

3.00% (deducted upfront = $450)

11.40% headline APR

Default 11.4%Federal Reserve G.19 — Consumer Creditas of May 2026 release (March 2026 data)

3 years (36 mo)

Monthly payment

$493.93/mo

Cash in hand

$14,550

After 3.00% origination

Total interest

$2,781

Total cost

$3,231

Effective APR

12.40%

Effective APR vs headline: Origination fees inflate the true cost of a personal loan. Two lenders quoting the same APR can have very different effective costs if one has a 5% origination fee and the other has none. Always compare on all-in cost (fees + interest), not just APR.
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Personal Loan
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🏦 $493.93/mo

$15,000 personal loan @ 11.40% × 3 years.

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The Personal Loan Calculator returns the standard amortization payment PLUS a critical secondary number: effective APR including origination fee. Some lenders quote a low APR but charge a 5–8% origination fee upfront, which can make a 'lower APR' loan more expensive than a 'higher APR' loan with no origination fee. Always compare on all-in cost, not the headline rate.

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  • Sourced defaultsStarting rates and assumptions cite real data, not made-up numbers.

How this calculator works

  1. Enter the loan face amount (the headline number the lender quotes).
  2. Enter the origination fee (typically 0–8% of loan; deducted upfront, so cash-in-hand = face − origination).
  3. Set the APR and term.
  4. Compare cash-in-hand, monthly payment, total interest, and effective APR. The effective APR is the all-in comparison number across lenders with different fee structures.

M = face × [r(1+r)ⁿ / ((1+r)ⁿ − 1)] cash_in_hand = face − (face × origination_pct) effective_APR ≈ APR + origination_pct / term_years

Standard amortization on the face amount (you repay the full face value plus interest), but you only receive face minus the origination fee upfront. The effective APR approximation captures this — a 5% origination fee on a 12% APR 3-year loan effectively bumps the all-in rate to ~13.7%.

face
Loan face amount
origination_pct
Origination fee as % of face
APR
Quoted annual percentage rate
r
Monthly rate (APR/12)
n
Number of payments (term in months)

Frequently asked questions

Mostly for debt consolidation when you have high-APR credit card balances. A 12% personal loan beats a 22% credit card. Be careful with the other common use cases (home reno, weddings, vacations) — you're paying interest on something that doesn't generate income.

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Sources
Every default value is sourced. Verify anything.
National Avg Savings APY — 0.38% (as of May 2026)FDIC National Rates and Rate Caps High-Yield Savings (typical) — 4% (as of May 2026)FDIC National Rates + reported HYSA APY (top online banks) S&P 500 — 10% (as of 2026 (1928–2025 dataset))NYU Stern (Damodaran) — S&P 500 Annual Returns 1928–2025 Total US Stock Market — 9.7% (as of 2026)CRSP US Total Market Index (long-run avg) 10-Year Treasuries — 4.5% (as of May 2026)Federal Reserve FRED — 10-Year Treasury (DGS10) US Real Estate — 4.2% (as of 2026)S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller US National Home Price Index (FRED) Gold — 7.8% (as of 2026)World Gold Council historical price data Long-run CPI Inflation — 3% (as of 2026)Bureau of Labor Statistics — CPI-U (long-run avg) 30-Year Fixed Mortgage — 6.36% (as of May 2026)Freddie Mac PMMS — 30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Average Credit Card APR (avg, accounts assessed interest) — 21.52% (as of May 2026 release (March 2026 data))Federal Reserve G.19 — Consumer Credit Auto Loan (60-month new car, avg) — 7.52% (as of May 2026 release (March 2026 data))Federal Reserve G.19 — Consumer Credit Personal Loan (24-month unsecured, avg) — 11.4% (as of May 2026 release (March 2026 data))Federal Reserve G.19 — Consumer Credit Federal Direct Subsidized/Unsubsidized (Undergrad) — 6.52% (as of AY 2026-27)US Dept of Education — Interest Rates and Fees for Federal Student Loans HELOC (typical introductory rate) — 7.26% (as of May 2026)Bankrate — Current HELOC Rates 12-month CD (top online rate, typical) — 4.1% (as of May 2026)FDIC + reported top online CD rates Mortgage Refinance Closing Costs (typical) — 3% (as of 2026)Freddie Mac — Cost of Refinancing College Tuition Inflation (long-run avg) — 4% (as of AY 2025-26 (Nov 2025 publication))College Board — Trends in College Pricing 2025