Amortization Schedule Calculator

Enter the loan details and the month of the first payment. The schedule lists every payment with its principal and interest parts and the balance left, grouped by year or shown month by month. Download it as a CSV to keep with your loan documents.

How to use the amortization schedule calculator

1. Enter the loan amount, which is what you borrowed, not the purchase price.
2. Enter the annual interest rate from your note or Closing Disclosure.
3. Enter the term in years.
4. Pick the month of your first payment. For a mortgage this is usually the first day of the second month after closing, so a loan that closes in mid-March normally has its first payment due on May 1.
5. Choose the yearly view for a summary or the monthly view for every payment.

Above the table you get the monthly payment, the date of the last payment, the total interest, the total you will repay and the interest you pay in the first year. The CSV button saves the full table, so you can open it in Excel or Google Sheets, add columns for extra payments or file it with your loan papers.

What each column means

• Payment: the fixed principal and interest amount due each month.
• Interest: the balance at the start of the month times the monthly rate (annual rate ÷ 12).
• Principal: the payment minus the interest. This is the part that lowers what you owe.
• Balance: what you still owe after the payment is applied.

In the yearly view, interest and principal are the totals for the twelve payments in that year, and the balance is what is left at the end of the year.

A worked example

Take the default loan: $250,000 at 6.5% for 20 years. The payment is $1,863.93.

• Month 1: interest is $1,354.17 and principal is $509.77. The balance falls to $249,490.23.
• Year 1: you pay $22,367 in total. About $16,064 of it is interest and about $6,303 is principal.
• End of year 5: the balance is about $222,141.
• End of year 10: the balance is about $164,154.
• End of year 15: the balance is about $95,263.

After 10 years, half the term, you have repaid only about a third of the loan. The second half of the term clears the remaining two thirds, because by then most of each payment goes to principal. In this example, the principal part of the payment is larger than the interest part from month 113, which is in year 10.

Why the split changes over time

Interest each month is charged only on the balance you still owe. At the start that is the whole loan, so interest takes most of the payment. Each payment trims the balance a little, which trims next month’s interest, which leaves a little more of the fixed payment for principal. The effect compounds in your favor, slowly at first and then faster.

The longer the term, the more extreme this is. On a 30-year loan of $250,000 at 6.5%, the first payment of $1,580.17 has only $226 of principal in it, and after five years you still owe about $234,027. On a 15-year loan at the same rate, the first payment puts $823.60 toward principal and the balance after five years is about $191,793.

Using the schedule to plan extra payments

The schedule is the best way to see what an extra payment is worth. Money you pay on top of the regular payment goes straight to principal, as long as you tell the servicer to apply it that way. Every dollar of principal you pay early removes the interest that dollar would have collected for the rest of the term.

That makes early extra payments the most valuable. An extra $10,000 in year 2 of a 20-year mortgage avoids interest for about 18 years. The same $10,000 in year 18 avoids it for about 2. Use the extra payment calculator to compare paying down the term with lowering the payment.

The yearly balance column also helps with:

• Refinancing. The balance at the date you expect to close is the amount you would refinance. Enter it in the refinance calculator with the new rate.
• Removing PMI. On a conventional loan, PMI can be cancelled when the balance reaches 80% of the original home value, and it ends automatically at 78% under the Homeowners Protection Act. Find the year your balance crosses that line.
• Selling. The balance at the sale date, plus a few weeks of interest, is roughly what the payoff will be.
• Taxes. If you itemize, the yearly interest column estimates the mortgage interest your servicer reports on Form 1098.

Checking your servicer’s statement

Your monthly mortgage statement shows how your last payment was split. To compare it with this schedule, find the row with the same payment number. The two should match within a few cents if:

• you used the original loan amount, rate and term from your note,
• the first payment month is right, and
• you have not made extra payments.

If you have paid extra, the servicer’s balance will be lower than the schedule’s and the interest part of each later payment smaller. That is expected. If the numbers differ and you have not paid extra, check the rate on your note, whether fees were financed, and whether the loan is adjustable. How to read a mortgage statement goes through each line.

What the schedule leaves out

The table covers principal and interest only. Escrow for property tax and homeowners insurance, and any mortgage insurance, are added to the payment you send but do not change the loan balance. The schedule also assumes a fixed rate. For an adjustable-rate mortgage, it is accurate only for the fixed period. After a reset, run it again with the remaining balance, the new rate and the remaining term.

Some loans charge interest on a daily basis, as many auto loans do. With those, paying a few days early or late moves a few dollars between interest and principal, so the real schedule drifts slightly from this one.

Comparing two schedules

Building two schedules side by side is a quick way to judge a decision. Run one for a 30-year loan and one for a 15-year loan on the same amount, then look at the balance column at year 5 and year 10. On $250,000 at 6.5%, the 15-year loan has about $42,000 less owed after five years and about $100,000 less after ten. That is the equity you would build by accepting the higher payment. You can do the same with two rates to see how much a lower rate speeds up repayment, or with two loan amounts to see what a bigger down payment is worth over time.

Other loans

Any loan with a fixed rate and equal monthly payments follows the same pattern: car loans, personal loans, student loans on a standard plan and fixed-rate home equity loans. If you were quoted an add-on rate, convert it first with the add-on rate to APR calculator, because an add-on loan does not amortize the same way. For the payment alone, the loan payment calculator is quicker.

The schedule is calculated in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere.

Learn more

Amortization schedule explained walks through why the split works this way. How to read a mortgage statement shows how to match your servicer’s statement against this table.

Frequently asked questions

What is an amortization schedule?

It is a table of every payment on a loan, showing how much of each one pays interest, how much pays down principal and what balance remains. Lenders build it from the loan amount, the rate and the term. Mortgage servicers do not always send one, but you can build an identical one here from the numbers on your note.

Why does my balance go down so slowly at first?

Interest is charged on the full balance, and at the start the balance is the whole loan. On a 30-year mortgage at 6.5%, about 86% of the first payment is interest. The principal share grows every month, so the balance falls faster in the second half of the loan than in the first.

Can I add extra payments to the schedule?

This schedule shows the regular payments only. Download the CSV and add a column for extra principal if you want to track them by hand, or use the extra payment calculator, which shows the interest saved and the months cut for a lump sum. Make sure your servicer applies extra money to principal, not to the next payment.

How do I find out how much interest I will pay this year?

Switch to the yearly view and read the interest column for the year you want. For year 1, the figure also appears above the table. If your loan started partway through a calendar year, the first row covers twelve payments from your first payment date, so it will not line up exactly with a tax year.

Does the schedule work for an adjustable-rate mortgage?

Only for the fixed period. When the rate resets, the lender recalculates the payment on the remaining balance and remaining term. To see what happens after a reset, take the balance from this schedule at the reset date and run a new schedule with that balance, the new rate and the years that remain.

Why does my lender’s schedule differ by a few cents?

Rounding. Servicers round interest to the cent each month, and some round the payment itself up. Over hundreds of payments those cents can add up to a few dollars, usually settled in the last payment. A difference of more than a few dollars a month usually means a different rate, amount or first payment date.