How to Calculate a Loan Amount

How Much Can I Borrow?

To set your preferred currency and date format, click the “$ : MM/DD/YYYY” link in the lower right corner of any calculator.

A Step-by-Step Tutorial
Tutorial 6

This tutorial explains how to calculate the loan amount for a conventional loan or mortgage using the Ultimate Financial Calculator. To perform this calculation, you must enter the regular payment amount, interest rate, and loan term.

In many cases, the borrower already knows the payment amount they can afford. They want to determine how much they can borrow at the current interest rate. For this reason, loan amount calculation is a common use of a financial calculator.

Before completing this tutorial, users should first complete the more detailed initial tutorial. It introduces the Ultimate Financial Calculator’s (UFC) basic settings and concepts.

To calculate an unknown loan amount and generate a payment schedule, follow these steps:

Set Schedule Type to Loan.
- Alternatively, click to clear any existing entries.
Click , then select Rounding Options. Set “Rounding” to Adjust last interest.
In the header section, apply the following settings:
1. Select Normal for Calculation Method.
2. Set Initial Compounding to Monthly.
3. Enter 5.0 for Initial Interest Rate.
Create a Loan series in row 1 of the cash‑flow input area.
1. Set the Date to June 25, 2025.
2. Set the Amount to Unknown by typing U. Fig. 1.
3. Set # Periods to 1.
  - Note: Because the number of periods is 1, the Frequency field cannot be set.

Click the second row of the cash‑flow input area. Select Payment for Series.
1. If not already set, enter the date as July 25, 2025.
2. Set the Amount to 450.00.
  - This creates a monthly payment amount of $450.00.
3. Press Tab to move to # Periods, then set it to 48.
4. Set the Frequency to Monthly.
  - The End Date will be automatically calculated as June 25, 2029. (48 monthly periods equals 4 years.)

Your calculator should now look like this:

Calculate loan amount — Fig. 1 Unknown loan amount

Click . The amount you can borrow is $19,540.33. Fig. 2.

Mortgage amount calculated — Fig. 2 Calculated loan or mortgage amount

To view a detailed amortization schedule showing the monthly breakdown between principal and interest, click above the input area.
- Note: The loan amount is the present value of this cash flow.

We offer several financial calculators that can calculate loan amounts. The Ultimate Financial Calculator can handle complex payment schedules, including those with variable interest rates and changing payments.

Back to the Ultimate Financial Calculator.

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