Accurate Amortization Calculator
Create a printable amortization schedule, with dates and subtotals, to see how much principal and interest you'll pay over time. This calculator will calculate an uknown payment amount, loan amount, rate, or term.
What is an amortization schedule?
An amortization schedule is the loan report showing the amount paid each period and the portion allocated to principal and interest. The schedule will frequently also show the date the payment is due or paid and subtotals for each year.
How do I create an amortization schedule?
Create a printable amortization schedule with dates to see how much principal and interest you'll pay over time.
- Export to Excel/.xlsx and Word/.docx files.
- Calculate loan payment amount or other unknowns
- Supports 9 types of amortization.
- User can set loan closing date and first payment date independently.
- Automatically calculates prepaid interest
- Leave all inputs and setting set to their defaults, and:
- Enter the "Loan Amount."
- Enter the expected "Number of Payments."
- Set the anticipated closing date and first payment due date.
- Enter the anticipated "Annual Interest Rate."
- Set "Payment Amount" to "0."
(the unknown) - Click either "Calc" or "Print Preview".
That's it! That's all you need to do to create your schedule quickly.
But what if the terms of your loan do not conform to this calculator's default settings?
Then keep reading. I'll explain all the options below. More
Always enter (and reenter) a 0 for the unknown value.
Note - You must enter a zero if you want a value calculated.
Why?
Because we want this calculator to create a payment schedule using the loan terms you need. The payment amount can be whatever you want it to be. A payment is "correct" as long as both the lender and debtor agree on the amount! (If the calculator always recalculated the last unknown, then this feature would not be possible.)
TIP - Use an amortization schedule to confirm the periodic interest charges. Interest amounts are the calculations that borrowers should be validating.
Four values you will always need to set:
- Loan Amount - the amount borrowed, i.e., the principal amount. It does not include interest.
- Number of Payments (term) - the length of the loan. The "Payment Frequency" setting also impacts the loan's term. For a term of fifteen years, if the payment frequency is biweekly, you need to enter 390 for the number of payments. (390 biweekly payments = 15 years)
- Annual Interest Rate - the nominal interest rate. This the quoted interest rate for the loan.
- Payment Amount - the amount that is due on each payment due date. For "normal amortization," this includes principal and interest.
Set one of the above to 0 if unknown.
- How do I calculate how much I can borrow?
- set the loan amount to zero
- enter the number of payments
- enter the annual interest rate, and
- enter the expected or desired payment
- click "Calc" or "Print Preview"
- How do I calculate how long it will take to pay off a loan?
- enter the loan amount
- set the number of payments to zero
- enter the annual interest rate, and
- enter the expected or desired payment
- click "Calc" or "Print Preview"
- What interest rate allows me to pay $500 a month?
- enter the loan amount
- enter the number of payments
- set the annual interest rate to zero, and
- enter $500 for the payment amount
- click "Calc" or "Print Preview"
If you want an estimated schedule, you may skip over this section.
Which two dates are most critical to an accurate amortization schedule?
To Quickly
Pick a Date
If you want an accurate, to the penny amortization schedule - one that will correctly calculate stub period interest, you should spend a minute or two understanding these options.
- Loan Closing Date - the date the money is available. It is also known as the origination date, loan date, or start date.
- First Payment Due - for leases, it may be the same as the closing date; otherwise, payments will usually start sometime after the borrower has had access to the loan proceeds.
Important - Selecting dates will result in interest charges as well as payment calculations that do not match other calculators.
And that's the point!
However, if you want to match other calculators, then set the "Loan Date" and "First Payment Due" so that the time between them equals one full period as set by "Payment Frequency."
Example: If April 10th is the "Loan Date" and the "Payment Frequency" is "Monthly," then set the "First Payment Due" to May 10th, that is if you want an estimated interest calculation.
Four loan options you most likely don't need to touch.
- Payment Period or Frequency - how often do you want to schedule payments? The calculator supports 11 options, including biweekly, monthly, and semiannual (useful for bond coupon interest schedules). The schedule calculates the payment dates from the first payment due date (not the closing date).
- Compounding Period or Frequency - usually, the compounding frequency should be set to the same setting as the payment frequency. Doing so results in simple, periodic interest. Setting this option to "Exact/Simple" results in simple, exact day interest.
- Points - one point is one percent of the loan amount. Points are generally applicable to U.S. mortgages. More about loan schedules with points, fees, and APR support.
- Amortization Method - leave this setting set to "normal" unless you have a specific reason for setting it otherwise. For a complete explanation of these options, see Nine Loan Amortization Methods.
Five loan options you may want to tweak.
These options are available by clicking on "Settings."
- 360 / 365 / 366 - days-per-year option. This setting, also known as the day count convention, impacts interest calculations when you set compounding frequency to a day based frequency (daily, exact/simple or continuous) or when there are odd days caused by an initial irregular length period. The 366 days in year option applies to leap years, otherwise the interest calculation uses 365 days.
- Payment & Initial Period Interest Options - settings for how interest is shown on the schedule when the initial payment period (the time between the closing date and first payment date) is longer or shorter than the selected payment frequency. Click for more details and examples.
- Last Period Rounding Options - due to payment and interest rounding each pay period (for example, payment or interest might calculate to 345.0457, but a schedule will round the value to 345.05), almost all loan schedules need a final rounding adjustment to bring the balance to "0." A footnote on the payment schedule informs you of the rounding amount.
- Points, Charges, & APR Options - see loan schedules with points, fees, and APR support.
- Year-End Month - this setting establishes after what month the calculator shows year-end and running totals. This option is to accommodate businesses with fiscal year ends that do not coincide with the calendar year-end.
Printing the Payment Schedule
Printing will work from any type of device. It's pretty cool to print a well-formatted schedule from a smartphone that is connected wirelessly to a modern printer. (I've personally tested this using various iPhones printing to an HP LaserJet Pro printer.)
DO NOT USE THE PRINT SELECTION FROM YOUR BROWSER'S MENU.
Make sure you are printing from the "Print Preview..." window where there is a print button along with .docx and .xlsx buttons.
If you are using a modern browser, you can print to a PDF as well. For example, if you are using Chrome, click on the menu (the three verticle dots) and select "Print..." Click on the "Change..." button and select "Save as PDF." Other browsers will work similarly.
If you have any problems, please let me know what browser and version you are using. I can test various browsers, but unfortunately, I can't check too many printers (unless you plan to donate one to the cause!).
(Chrome, Edge and Firefox all have a "Save to PDF" option accessible from their print menus.)
How do I create Excel/xlsx or Word/docx amortization schedules?
From the "Print Preview" screen (after the title page) along with the print option, you'll be given the option to save the full amortization schedule to either an Excel/xlsx file or a Word/docx file. When exporting to Excel, the schedule is exported as data (no formatting). The dates and numbers are are represented in Excel as true dates and numbers and not text. The user can apply their own formatting as desired.
If you save to a Word/docx file, the amortization schedule is nicely formatted. You are free to add your own notes or to change the formatting, fonts and style as needed. Also, in my opinion, the Word amortization schedule is a bit prettier than the one you can print using the print button.
Beyond Basic Amortization Schedules
Hopefully, you'll find this to be a full-featured amortization calculator. If there's something you need, and it's not clear how to accomplish it, you may leave your question in the comments below
Bill Phipps says:
By the way, I had never looked at the comments before, but this is a great tool and I happened upon it through pure luck and have used it ever since. Love the personalization that you can add to it and the features have really been extremely beneficial to me, a person who is not a whiz at computers. I genuinely appreciate the ability to use such a fine instrument and wanted to thank you for providing it.
Karl says:
You’re welcome. Now if only more folks would find it via either “pure luck” or users passing the word!
Aziz says:
karl,
This calculator works awesome! Small feedback.
When I change the data and click Calc button again it doesn’t calculate again based on changed data.
So I have to click clear and enter the data all over again to do the calculation again. So painful to keep reentering if i want to try different permutations and combinations for my loan.
Can you just not clear the amortization calcution table and retain the data in input fields?
Karl says:
Hi Aziz, what are you changing? For example, you can set up the first calculation to calculate the payment amount. If the calculator calculates 815.22 and creates a schedule, you should be able to change the payment to say 825.00 and click calc and a new schedule will be created using 825.00 as the payment.
Is this not happening for you?
Please give me a step-by-step example so I can try it and fix any issues.
Karl says:
But also, please realize this:
>>> When I change the data and click Calc button again it doesn’t calculate again based on changed data.
Taking my first example, if you change the interest rate and expect the calculator to recalculate the payment amount, that’s not how it’s supposed to work.
If you are changing any other loan attribute and you want to see the new payment, you must tell the calculator to calculate the payment by entering a 0 for payment.
This design feature is intentional so that users can use their payback details (like using a payment amount that is not the calculated payment result).
This is explained in a bit more detail on the page. Please see: “Always enter (and reenter) a 0 for the unknown value.” (or what you want calculated based on changed data.)
Chris Wheatley says:
When entering a short first period with Short Period setting of “Reduce all payments”, I’m seeing that the interest charged in the first period is reduced but the payments are not. The principal paid in the first period is increased in order to make the same payment, resulting in a lower payment and principal paid in the final installment.
Is there another setting I have to set to “Reduce all payments” for Short Periods?
I’m also seeing the same for Long Periods. Long Period setting is set to “Amortized” and I would expect all payments to be adjusted, I’m seeing that the interest is increased but the Principal is reduced to maintain the same payment as the standard period, resulting in a higher payment and principal paid in the final installment.
Am I misinterpreting what these settings are to accomplish?
Thank you for your time. Your calculator is great!
Karl says:
Please provide all the loan details so that I can take a look to see the actual results you are getting. Thanks.
Karl says:
Chris, I can’t duplicate what you are seeing.
If I use all the inputs from when the webpage is first loaded and only change the loan date to Dec 15, 2022 and the 1st payment date to Jan. 1, 2023, the first period’s payment is $687.89 and the interest is $66.76.
Then I change the short-period interest setting to reduce all and I recalculate. The payment changes to $737.76 (matching all other payments except for the last payment where the rounding takes place) and the interest charge remains the same, i.e. $66.76.
This does not happen for you?
Chris Wheatley says:
No, this is not happening for me.
When set to “Reduce First”, my first payment is $687.89 and the rest of my payments are $738.92 with the final being $738.93.
After changing the setting to “Reduce All” and recalculating, my first payment changes to $738.92, all of the other payments stay the same at $738.92, except the last which changes to $678.44.
Karl says:
Sorry, I should have told you to enter 0 for the payment amount after you changed the short period setting to reduce all.
The calculator uses the amounts entered, and you need to tell it to recalculate the payment. Please scroll to “Always enter (and reenter) a 0 for the unknown value” for details.
Using the example, the new, reduced payment will be $737.76.
Chris Wheatley says:
Zeroing out the Payment Amount before recalculating fixed it. Thank you so much for your help!
Karl says:
You’re welcome. I know it’s annoying to have to reset a value to 0 to have it recalculate after making a setting change. I wish I could think of a way to design the calculator not to need that step. The problem is, if I had the calculator automatically recalculate the last unknown, then the user would not be able to structure a customized loan. Continuing to use the same example, if the debtor said, “I will pay $750 a month,” the calculator would handle it making an adjustment to the final payment as needed.
COLIN says:
Great tool.
I AM TRYING TO CHECK A LOAN BALANCE GRANTED 10 YEARS AGO AT VARAIBLE INTEREST RATES (PRIME RELATED). REPAYMENTS ARE FIXED AMOUNTS MONTHLY.
IS THERE ANY WAY I CAN USE THIS CALCULATOR ?
Karl says:
Thank you. No, not using the amortization schedule.
However, you can with the loan payoff calculator. It is capable of calculating an exact date loan balance. The user can change interest rates and payment amounts on any date.
Scroll down the page below the calculator for instructions.
Jason says:
Hi Karl,
Firstly this is a very flexible and sophisticated calculator so thank you.
I am trying to understand how the repayments are being calculated for daily compounded interested, and included in that, how it factors in when the first payment date is more than a period from the loan date.
Any advice would be appreciated
Karl says:
You’re welcome, Jason. I can answer two types of questions. How a calculation is set up or what calculator should be used for a particular calculation. I never get involved with details about the calculations, however. Answering those questions tends to be time-consuming and takes me away from the task of creating this site.
Chris Wheatley says:
Hi Karl,
I have a question about this scenario using the Amortization Calculator.
Loan Amt $1,000,000
# Pmts 300
Annual Interest Rate 6%
Loan Date 1/31/2023
First Payment Date 2/27/2023
Compounding Monthly
Amortization Method Normal
Days Count 360
Long/Short Amortized/Reduce All
First period interest is being calculated as $4500 which appears to be based on 27 days of interest. When I change the first payment date to 2/28/2023 (one day later), the interest changes to $5000, which is based on 30 days (3 days more) of interest. I’m assuming this means when there are no odd days, the calculations are based on a 30/360 days count. When odd days are a factor, it seems like for the First period at least, this changes to ACTUAL/360. The rest of the periods seem to calculate on 30/360 days count. Is this accurate?
Thank you.
Karl says:
Hi Chris, odd-day interest is always calculated using actual days (not a fraction of a period). Whether it’s actual over 360 or 365 depends on the day count method selected. Full periods use the periodic interest rate, not a daily rate. The monthly periodic rate happens to produce the same results as a daily 30/360 rate when it’s applied for a “month.”
Chris Wheatley says:
Thanks Karl for the info.
So this is my understanding:
1) For a Short first period, it would calculate interest based on exact days
2) For a Long first period, it would calculate interest for the standard period based on monthly rate, and add additional days based on daily rate. Or would it calculate the interest based on the total days from the Loan Date the First Payment Date?
Thank you.
Karl says:
Whenever there is a whole period, the monthly rate (in your case, because you’ve selected monthly compounding) would be used.
Juan Diaz says:
Hi, my name is Juan Diaz. I am trying to print an amortization schedule, but is not letting me do it, because it saids that I need to be registered. How can I register?
Karl says:
Hi Juan, I’m not sure where you are seeing that message about registration, but at present, you do not need to be registered to print an amortization schedule. Are you clicking on the “Print” button that is located in the top left of the print preview window or at the bottom center of the same window? If you are, are you getting an error message? (When you see the window about the title page, you CANNOT click the “X” in the upper right corner, You MUST click either the “Skip” or “Continue” buttons at the bottom of the title page window.
Please let me know.
James Hann says:
i can’t print amortization schedule and I don’t know how to register.
Karl says:
No registration is required (yet).
Why can’t you print? Do you see any error messages?
Do you see the window asking you for details about the title page? If you do, if you click on either the "Skip" or "Continue" buttons (NOT the "X" in the upper right) do you then seen the schedule? If you do, there are 2 print buttons. One in the upper left corner and one at the end of the schedule in the center.
Please let me know where the problem is.
James Hann says:
I found my problem. There was a pop up ad that obstructed the buttons on the bottom of the page. Thanks for your help.
Karl says:
Thank you for letting me know. I’m working on a site update that will not allow that to happen (hopefully).
John Smythe says:
How do I create an amortization schedule – Canadian semi-annually with a monthly payment that only pays the interest and not any principle off? Thanks
Karl says:
You’ll notice that when you set the amortization method to "Canadian" what it is doing is setting the compounding to "semiannual". That’s all the "Canadian" option does.
Thus, for your case, set the "payment frequency" to "monthly" and the "compounding" to "semiannual" and for the "amortization method" set it to "interest-only".
Brett M. says:
Having issues calculating a new amortization schedule. I have a printed copy of one I did before that worked but as the clients purchase price and first payment date had changed I literally enter the same numbers, interest rate and payment frequency and the amount is like 200K + over and I can’t figure out why?
1st version (that made sense and checked out)
Loan Amount: $400,000
Annual Interest Rate: %7
Loan Date: Feb 15, 2023
Payment Frequency: Monthly
Number of Payments: 240 (20 years)
First Payment: April 6, 2023
Last Payment: March 6, 2043
Total All Payments: $529,444.07
2nd version (that does not add up)
Loan Amount: $407,295.04
Annual Interest Rate: %7
Loan Date: Feb 15, 2023
Payment Frequency: Monthly
Number of Payments: 240 (20 years)
First Payment: April 6, 2023
Last Payment: March 6, 2043
Total All Payments: $$746,800.61
The only thing that changed was the purchase price increased by 7,295.04. Any insight is appreciated.
Thank you.
Karl says:
The second one seems to be right. I can’t duplicate the first result. What payment amount is the first calculation using? ANd does your schedule for the first one mention a rounding adjustment? And is the balance after the 240th payment really 0?
Karl says:
The first one does not make sense when I think about it. At a 7% interest rate, the first year of interest should be nearly $28,000. For the total payments to equal $529,444, that means that in the next 19 years, there will only be a total of $100,000 in interest due. Of course, the amount of interest paid each year will decline as the balance declines. Still, even if the interest declined to $12,000 a year on average, that means in only 12 years, the loan will have required $144,000 in interest payments to amortize the amount fully. The first example calls for only $129,444.07 in interest in 20 years. Some setting was off. Perhaps you had it set to open balance rounding? Please send me the schedule if you can.
Karl says:
Thank you for sending a copy of the first schedule.
The first schedule shows the payment amount to be $3,812.22, which is a lot higher than what is required to pay the loan off in 20 years.
As mentioned in the documentation on this page (see: "Always enter (and reenter) a 0 for the unknown value"), this calculator will allow users to structure a loan. That means it will create a schedule using any numbers the user enters.
With the larger payment amount (in your case) the loan was paid off in less than 20 years and when it was paid off, the loan balance went negative (that is, the debtor has a positive balance [the account was overpaid]) and the balance started to EARN interest bring down the total paid in 20 years.
If the loan is being structured to call for a monthly payment of $3,812.22, probably what you want to do is leave the number of payments set to 0 so that the term is calculated and this will prevent the loan balance from going negative.