Auto Loan Payment and Interest Calculator

Shopping for a new or used car? Use our free car loan calculator to see your monthly payment and the total interest cost over the life of the loan.

How to Use the Auto Loan Payment Calculator: Inputs & Outputs

To use our auto loan payment calculator, you’ll have to enter a few key pieces of information. The calculator will use that info to calculate your expected monthly payment, your total interest paid, and the total cost of the loan.

• Car Price: The price of the vehicle. Consider factoring in any add-ons you plan to purchase, if you’ve got an idea of the price—things like gap insurance are generally folded into your principal balance when purchased through the dealer.
• Down Payment: Any money you’ll put toward the car upfront, or the value of any trade-in vehicle. 
• Loan Term: The length of your loan repayment period. You can typically choose from several loan term options.

You’ll also need one of the following numbers:

• Interest Rate, or APR: The rate you’ll pay your lender for the privilege of borrowing money, expressed as a percentage of the overall amount you’re financing. 
• Your Credit Score: Auto loan rates depend heavily on your credit history. Take note that lenders sometimes use industry-specific auto credit scores that are calculated differently from the consumer-facing credit scores you might have access to.

What You’ll Get

• Monthly Payment: The minimum amount you’ll be charged per month throughout the loan term. This number remains the same unless you refinance. You can generally pay more than the minimum payment if you’d like to pay off your loan earlier (and save on interest).
• Total Interest Paid: The total amount of interest you’ll pay by the time the loan is paid in full if you pay the exact minimum monthly payment every month.
• Loan Amount: The amount of money you’re borrowing, which doesn’t include any interest or your down payment.
• Total Paid: Your loan amount and total interest paid combined, or the total amount you’ll pay the lender by the end of the loan term.

How Is Interest Calculated on a Car Loan?

Auto loans usually use simple interest at a fixed rate. So, you pay a set percentage of your principal balance in interest per year, and you’re not charged interest on any interest that has accumulated.

Over the course of the loan, your minimum payment will remain the same. But the composition of that payment will change: You’ll pay less toward interest and more toward your principal as time passes. That’s a natural result of you chipping away at your principal balance, therefore accumulating less in interest per payment period.

Use the following formula to see how much you’ll pay in simple interest per month over the course of a year for a given loan balance and interest rate.

$\begin{aligned}&\text{Monthly interest}=\left(\frac{\text{interest rate}}{12}\right)\times\text{loan balance}\end{aligned}$​Monthly interest=(12interest rate​)×loan balance​

Here’s an example, based on a $30,000 balance with a 6% interest rate:

$\begin{aligned}&=\left(\frac{0.06}{12}\right)\times\$30,000\\&\ =0.005\times\$30,000\\&\text{Monthly interest}=\$150\end{aligned}$​=(120.06​)×$30,000 =0.005×$30,000Monthly interest=$150​

What Is a Good APR for a Car Loan?

Here’s an approximate picture of current auto loan rates according to an Experian report from fall 2024.