Personal Loan Calculator
Monthly repayment and total cost of an unsecured personal loan.
Your figures
Result
How to use this tool
- Enter your own figures over the defaults — Loan amount, Annual interest rate, Term.
- The answer updates as you type. There is no button, and nothing is sent anywhere.
- Change Annual interest rate on its own to see how much it moves the result — the worked example below shows exactly that.
Personal loans are unsecured, so rates are far higher than mortgages. The advertised "representative APR" is only offered to a portion of successful applicants — your rate may be higher.
How it works
This takes 3 inputs — loan amount, annual interest rate, term — and returns monthly payment, total repaid, total interest, interest as share of loan and number of payments. The whole calculation happens in this page as you type: there is no submit button, no request, and nothing stored.
Because it recalculates on every keystroke you can use it as a sensitivity test rather than a one-shot answer. Moving annual interest rate alone from 12 to 13 changes monthly payment from 395.01 to 402.41 — the worked example below sets that out in full.
A worked example
Worked through with the figures the page already has in it: loan amount of 15,000 and annual interest rate of 12 %, and the rest as shown, giving monthly payment of 395.01. These numbers come from running the calculator’s own code, not from being typed in here, so they cannot drift away from what you see on screen.
Starting from:
- Loan amount: 15,000
- Annual interest rate: 12 %
- Term: 4 years
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Monthly payment | 395.01 |
| Total repaid | 18,960.36 |
| Total interest | 3,960.36 |
| Interest as share of loan | 26.4% |
| Number of payments | 48 |
What happens when one input moves
Holding everything else steady and changing Annual interest rate from 12 % to 13 % — one percentage point — moves the answer like this:
| Figure | 12 % | 13 % |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly payment | 395.01 | 402.41 |
| Total repaid | 18,960.36 | 19,315.80 |
| Total interest | 3,960.36 | 4,315.80 |
| Interest as share of loan | 26.4% | 28.8% |
| Number of payments | 48 | 48 |
That is usually the number worth arguing over: it is easier to move than the headline amount, and the difference compounds across the whole term.
Personal Loan Calculator — frequently asked questions
Why is the rate so much higher than a mortgage?
A personal loan is unsecured — there is no property the lender can recover — so the rate carries that risk.
What does representative APR mean?
Lenders only need to offer the advertised rate to a proportion of accepted applicants. Your actual rate depends on your credit profile.
Is a personal loan better than credit card debt?
Usually yes if it lowers your rate and you stop using the card. Consolidating and then rebuilding the card balance is the common failure.
Is this calculator free?
Yes, with no account, no limits and no data collection. It runs entirely in your browser.
Should I rely on this for a financial or medical decision?
No. It is a planning estimate built on standard formulas and stated assumptions. For decisions that matter, speak to a qualified professional who can account for your full circumstances.
How accurate is the Personal Loan figure?
The arithmetic is exact. With the defaults on this page — loan amount 15000, annual interest rate 12 %, term 4 years — it returns monthly payment of 395.01. What limits accuracy is the assumptions, not the maths: change annual interest rate to 13 % and the same formula gives 402.41. Treat it as a well-founded estimate, not a quotation.
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Background reading: Loan, Mortgage and Investment Calculators Explained
Nothing is sent anywhere. The figures you type stay in this page and are never transmitted or stored — how that works.
Disclaimer. The formula is exact; the answer is only as good as the figures and assumptions above. Not financial, tax, medical or legal advice. Full disclaimer.