Student Loan Payoff Calculator

The federal Standard plan is 10 years (120 fixed monthly payments), and that's what most borrowers default to. But the real answer depends on your balance, rate and payment. On a $30,000 loan at 6.5%, the standard payment is about $340 a month for 10 years; pay only the minimum on an income-driven plan and it can stretch to 20–25 years with far more interest. The fastest path is paying more than the standard amount — even a small extra payment each month can cut years off. The calculator above shows your exact timeline.

On a $70,000 balance at a typical 6.5% rate over the standard 10-year term, your monthly payment is roughly $795. At a higher graduate-loan rate near 8%, it's closer to $850 a month. Stretching to a 20- or 25-year term lowers the monthly payment to around $520 or $470 — but you'd pay tens of thousands more in total interest. Enter $70,000 above with your rate to see your exact payment and how much interest each term costs you.

Pay more than the minimum and target it well. Three moves do the heavy lifting: (1) pay extra every month — every additional dollar goes straight to principal and stops accruing interest; (2) if you have several loans, use the avalanche method and attack the highest interest rate first to save the most (or the snowball method — smallest balance first — if you need motivation); and (3) consider refinancing private loans to a lower rate, though never refinance federal loans you might need income-driven plans or forgiveness for. The extra-payment slider above shows exactly what accelerating costs and saves.

A lot. Because interest is charged on your remaining balance, every extra payment permanently removes the interest that balance would have generated for the rest of the loan. On a $30,000 loan at 6.8%, paying an extra $150 a month can clear it in about 6 years instead of nearly 10, saving roughly $4,400 in interest. Make sure your servicer applies extra payments to principal (not to 'paying ahead' on future bills) so the balance — and the interest — actually drop. Use the slider above to see your saving.

Compare your loan rate to your expected investment return. Paying off a loan is a guaranteed, risk-free 'return' equal to its interest rate. If your federal loan is at 5–6% and you can reasonably expect more than that from long-term investing — and you're capturing any employer 401(k) match first — splitting between the two often makes sense. But a high-rate private loan (8%+) is usually worth clearing aggressively, since few investments reliably beat that after tax. Also weigh federal protections (income-driven plans, forgiveness) you'd give up by rushing to pay federal loans early.

Two things. First, rates rose for new loans: for 2026-27, fixed federal rates are 6.52% for undergraduates, 8.07% for graduate Direct loans and 9.07% for PLUS loans. Second, the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act is overhauling repayment — the SAVE plan and several legacy income-driven plans are being phased out and replaced by a new Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP), Grad PLUS loans are eliminated, and new borrowing caps apply. If you're choosing a repayment plan, check the latest rules at studentaid.gov, because this calculator models fixed-payment repayment, not income-driven plans.