Money

Personal Loan Calculator

What a personal loan really costs once the origination fee is counted — the number to compare offers on.

Enter the loan amount, rate and any origination fee to see the real cost.

Loan amount

The amount on the loan agreement.

Interest rate

The stated rate.

Loan term

Origination fee

Personal loans commonly charge 1% to 10%. This is where the advertised rate and the real cost part company.

Fee comes out of the money I receive

The usual arrangement. Turn this off if the fee is added to the balance instead.

Exact calculation. Given your inputs, this is the answer — no estimation involved.

How this calculator works

A personal loan differs from a plain instalment loan in one expensive way: the origination fee, typically 1% to 10%, is deducted from the money you receive, but you still repay and pay interest on the full loan amount. A $10,000 loan with a 5% fee puts $9,500 in your account and charges interest on $10,000.

So this calculator reports two rates. The stated rate is what drives your payment. The effective APR is the rate that equates the cash you actually received to the payment stream you actually make — solved numerically, because there is no closed form.

The effective APR is always higher than the advertised rate when a fee is charged, and it is the only fair basis for comparing offers. A lower rate with a large fee frequently costs more than a higher rate with none.

The formula

Exactly what happens to your numbers, step by step.

What you get and what you owe

origination fee = loan amount × fee %
net proceeds    = loan amount − fee
you repay based on the full loan amount

Effective APR
```
net proceeds = Σ payment ÷ (1 + r/12)^k,  for k = 1…n
```
Solved for r. This is the internal rate of return of the cash flows from your side.

Total cost of borrowing

total cost = total of payments − net proceeds

A worked example

A $10,000 loan at 12% over 36 months with a 5% origination fee.

What you enter

Loan amount: $10,000
Stated rate: 12%
Term: 36 months
Origination fee: 5%

The working

Fee: $500
Cash you receive: $9,500
Monthly payment: $332.14
Total of payments: $11,957
Cost of borrowing: $2,457

Effective APR about 15.9%, against a stated 12%

The fee adds nearly four percentage points. If you need exactly $10,000 in hand you would have to borrow about $10,526, which raises the payment further.

Assumptions

Every result here rests on these. Change your inputs and the result changes with them.

A fixed rate for the whole term with equal monthly payments.
The origination fee is charged once, at the start.
No late fees, prepayment penalties or optional insurance.

What this cannot tell you

It does not model a variable rate or a loan whose payment changes.
Some lenders charge fees other than origination — check the loan estimate.

Questions people ask

What is an origination fee?

A one-off charge for setting up the loan, usually 1% to 10% of the amount. It is normally deducted from what you receive rather than billed separately, so a $10,000 loan with a 5% fee deposits $9,500.

Why is the effective APR higher than the rate I was quoted?

Because you pay interest on the full loan amount but only receive the amount net of the fee. The effective APR accounts for that, which is why it is the right basis for comparing offers.

How much should I borrow if I need a specific amount?

Divide what you need by one minus the fee rate. Needing $10,000 with a 5% fee means borrowing $10,526 — and paying interest on all of it.

Sources and review

This calculator uses standard arithmetic with no external rules or published rates, so there is nothing to cite beyond the formulas shown above.

Methodology version 1.0.0 · Last reviewed September 6, 2026