Car Loan Calculator
What a car loan costs each month, in total, and how much of it is interest.
Car finance is usually sold on the monthly payment, and the monthly payment is the number that hides the most. A longer term lowers the payment and raises the total cost, often by thousands.
Enter the amount financed, the rate and the term, and this calculator shows the payment, the total repaid and the interest as a share of what you hand over. The deposit and any trade-in are subtracted from the price first.
At a glance
- What you enter
- Car price, Deposit, Trade-in value, Annual interest rate, Term, Net monthly income (optional)
- What you get
- Monthly payment, Total interest, Total repaid
- Formula shown
- Yes - every step, right below your results.
- Cost and privacy
- Free, no account needed, and nothing you type is stored.
See worked examples ↓ Read the FAQ ↓ Share this calculator ↓
Results are estimates for general information only - always verify with a professional or official source before acting on them.
How to use the Car Loan Calculator
- 1 Enter Car price
- 2 Enter Deposit
- 3 Enter Trade-in value - What the dealer gives you for your current car.
- 4 Enter Annual interest rate
- 5 Enter Term (years)
- 6 Enter Net monthly income (optional) - Enter 0 to skip the income comparison.
- 7 Press Calculate. You get Monthly payment, Total interest, Total repaid, and every intermediate step stays visible under “How is this calculated?”
- 8 Change one number at a time to see what moves the result - that is usually the most useful thing a calculator can tell you.
Worked examples
Real numbers run through this calculator. Open any example to load it into the form above and change it.
A $32,000 car with $6,000 down and a $4,000 trade-in
Five years at 7.5% on a $4,200 monthly income.
You enter
- Car price
- $32,000.00
- Deposit
- $6,000.00
- Trade-in value
- $4,000.00
- Annual interest rate
- 7.50%
- Term
- 5 years
- Net monthly income (optional)
- $4,200.00
You get
- Monthly payment
- $440.83
- Total interest
- $4,450.09
- Total repaid
- $26,450.09
You borrow $22,000. The payment is $440.83 a month for 60 months, so you repay $26,450.09 in total and $4,450.09 of that is interest. Interest is 16.8% of everything you repay, or $202.28 for every $1,000 financed, and the payment takes 10.5% of your net monthly income. With the deposit added, the car takes $54,450.09 out of your pocket including the finance.
An $18,000 car with $2,000 down over three years
A shorter term at 5.9% with no trade-in and no income comparison.
You enter
- Car price
- $18,000.00
- Deposit
- $2,000.00
- Trade-in value
- $0.00
- Annual interest rate
- 5.90%
- Term
- 3 years
- Net monthly income (optional)
- $0.00
You get
- Monthly payment
- $486.03
- Total interest
- $1,496.95
- Total repaid
- $17,496.95
You borrow $16,000 over 36 months at 5.9%, which is $486.03 a month. The total repaid is $17,496.95, so interest is $1,496.95: 8.6% of what you repay and $93.56 per $1,000 financed, against 16.8% and $202.28 over five years. You pay $45.20 a month more than the five-year example and $2,953.14 less interest in total. The income comparison is switched off because the income field is zero.
Guides that go with it
What Happens If You Pay $100 Extra on Your Loan Every Month?
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What Will $100,000 Be Worth in 10 Years?
I was sitting in my car in a grocery store parking lot last spring, engine off, phone in hand, when I typed "100000" into a compound interest calculator and stared at the result. My grandmother had le…
Frequently asked questions
Is the deposit a percentage of the price or an amount?
It is an amount, not a percentage. A fifth down on a $32,000 car is 6400 in the field, not 20. The calculator subtracts the deposit and the trade-in value from the price to get the amount financed, so those two fields are the ones that decide how much you borrow, not the rate.
If you think in percentages, turn the share into money first: a tenth of the price is the price divided by ten, and a fifth is the price divided by five. Entering 20 where an amount belongs reduces the loan to almost the whole price and makes the monthly payment look far better than the deal is.
Does the monthly payment include insurance, tax and servicing?
No. The payment is the loan alone: principal and interest, nothing else. Insurance, road tax, servicing, tyres and fuel are separate costs that arrive every year whether the car is financed or paid for in cash, and the Total Cost of Ownership Calculator is the page that adds them together with depreciation.
Arrangement fees, payment protection insurance, gap insurance and any balloon payment at the end of the term are outside the figure as well. A balloon arrangement leaves a large final payment, which is exactly the structure that makes a monthly figure look smaller than the deal.
Why does a longer term cost more when the payment is lower?
Because the interest is charged on the balance for every month it is outstanding. Stretching $22,000 over five years at 7.5% gives a payment of $440.83 and $4,450.09 of interest, while borrowing the whole $32,000 over the same five years gives $641.21 a month and $6,472.86 of interest. The payment falls as the term grows, and the interest line grows with it.
The share line is the fastest way to read this: 16.8% of everything you hand over is interest in the first case. Compare that percentage between two terms before deciding, and check the payment against your own income rather than against the dealer monthly figure.
What does the trade-in value actually change?
It comes off the amount financed in exactly the same way as cash, so a $4,000 trade-in reduces the loan by $4,000 and removes both the repayment and the interest on that $4,000. It does not appear in the total outlay line, because a car you already owned is not money you spend on this purchase.
Dealers often move value between the trade-in offer and the price, so a generous trade-in figure paired with a smaller discount can leave you in the same place. Ask for both numbers in writing and compare the amount financed, which is the figure that decides what you pay.