Loan Payment Calculator (PMT)
Calculate your monthly loan payment instantly and understand the Excel PMT function behind it. Works for mortgages, car loans, and personal loans.
Introduction
Whether you're comparing mortgage offers or just want to know what a loan really costs each month, the PMT function does the math for you. This calculator uses the exact PMT formula so the number you see matches what you'd get in Excel or Google Sheets.
Prerequisites
- The loan amount (principal)
- The annual interest rate
- The total number of payments (loan term in months)
1How the PMT Formula Works
PMT calculates the constant periodic payment for a loan with a fixed interest rate. It splits each payment between interest and principal so the balance reaches zero at the end of the term.
Convert the rate
Excel expects a per-period rate, so the annual rate is divided by 12 (months).
=PMT(rate/12, nper, pv)Sign convention
Loan amounts are entered as negative numbers (money you receive) and payments come back positive, or vice versa depending on your setup.
Use a negative pv if you want the payment returned as a positive number.
For yearly payments, divide the rate by 1 and use the term in years.
2Worked Example
A $100,000 loan at 5% over 30 years (360 months).
Example
=PMT(5%/12, 360, -100000)The monthly payment is about $536.82. Over 360 payments you repay roughly $193,255 in total, the difference being interest.
Try the interactive calculator above and confirm it returns the same figure.
Interactive Calculator
Enter your loan details to see the monthly payment.
Functions Used
Summary
The PMT function turns three numbers — loan amount, interest rate, and term — into a monthly payment you can trust. Use the calculator above to model any loan, then explore IPMT and PPMT to see how each payment is split between interest and principal.
Next Steps
- See how much of each payment is interest with the IPMT function
- Break out the principal portion with PPMT
- Build a full amortization schedule with PMT, IPMT, and PPMT