Debt Payoff Calculator

Takes all your debts at once and shows you when you'll be free of them, in what order, and what extra money does to the date.

Inputs

Debts: tap Add a debt for each one and enter its name, balance, rate, and Minimum, the minimum from your statement. You need at least one. The calculator will tell you if you haven't added any.

Strategy: Hybrid, Avalanche, or Snowball. Hybrid is the default.

Pay extra: Every month is the amount above all your minimums that you can put toward debt. It's optional.

One time: tap Add a one-time payment for a lump sum such as a bonus or a tax refund. Enter the Amount, then choose when it lands: a Plan month (Month 1 is this month) or an Exact date. Each lump sum shows both readings, for example Month 3 · Mar 2027.

The three strategies

All three pay the minimum on everything and direct any extra at one target. They differ on which target.

Avalanche attacks the highest interest rate first. This is mathematically optimal. It always costs the least in interest, sometimes by a lot.

Snowball attacks the smallest balance first. It costs more, but it clears individual debts sooner, and each one that disappears is a visible win.

Hybrid attacks the highest rate first, except that a debt that's clearly small next to the others is cleared first as a quick win. It's the same order your budget plans use.

Which to use

The honest answer is that it depends on you, not on the arithmetic.

Avalanche if you're motivated by the numbers and won't lose steam grinding away at a large balance for a year without visible progress.

Snowball if you've abandoned debt payoff attempts before. The research on this is genuinely mixed, but the pattern is consistent: people stick with snowball more often, and a strategy you finish beats an optimal one you quit.

Hybrid if you want most of avalanche's savings with an early win when one is cheap to take. It also matches what the Builder will do with the same debts.

Run more than one. If avalanche saves you four months and $600 over snowball, that's a real but survivable cost for a strategy you'll keep. If it saves you two years and $9,000, that's harder to justify.

What you get

Debt-free in, with the month it happens. Beneath it are Total debt, Per month (all your minimums plus the extra), and how many months sooner the plan gets you there.

Against doing nothing compares your plan with paying each minimum until that debt clears and then stopping. It shows the months each way and the interest each way, so you can see what rolling payments forward buys you without paying more than you already do.

Payoff order lists each debt in the order it disappears, with the month it clears.

Month by month shows the schedule, one month at a time, with what each debt is paid and its balance afterwards. The first few months show, and Show all reveals the rest. A month with a lump sum is marked with its amount.

The rolling effect

Every strategy does the same thing when a debt clears: its payment gets added to the attack on the next one.

That's why payoff accelerates. Your first debt takes a while, but by the last one you're throwing every payment you were previously making at a single balance. The Against doing nothing comparison is this effect, measured.

Test extra payment amounts

The most useful thing you can do here is run it several times at different extra amounts.

The relationship isn't linear. A modest increase often removes a disproportionate amount of time, because it clears an early debt sooner and starts the rolling effect earlier. Finding the point where an extra $40 buys you eight months is worth a few minutes. Try a one-time payment too, since a single tax refund aimed at the right debt can move the date noticeably.

Sharing and exporting

The share button on the answer card sends the result and your inputs as a message.

The share button in the top bar exports the full month-by-month schedule as a PDF. The PDF export requires a subscription.

Add To Budget

Add To Budget adds every debt on the list to your Budget Builder, confirming with Debt(s) added to budget. and a Go To Budget shortcut. Your Every month extra is added to the payment of the highest-rate debt. One-time payments aren't carried across.

Worth doing. The calculator shows what happens with an extra payment you've assumed you can make. The Builder works out what extra payment your actual income and expenses support, and sequences across everything at once. It's the same question answered with more information.

See Debts and Understanding Your Results.

Considering consolidation?

If you're thinking about combining these into one loan, check it first with Debt Consolidation.