Car Affordability Calculator
The full monthly cost of a car, and whether it fits inside your budget.
A car costs more than its payment. Insurance, fuel, maintenance and depreciation all arrive every month, and together they are usually the second-largest line in a household budget after housing.
Enter your income and the car’s running costs and this calculator shows the total monthly cost, its share of your income and what is left for everything else.
At a glance
- What you enter
- Net monthly income, Loan or lease payment, Insurance per month, Fuel or charging per month, Maintenance and tyres per month
- What you get
- Total monthly cost of the car, Total annual cost, Share of your income, Affordability score
- 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 Affordability Calculator
- 1 Enter Net monthly income
- 2 Enter Loan or lease payment - Enter 0 if the car is already paid for.
- 3 Enter Insurance per month
- 4 Enter Fuel or charging per month
- 5 Enter Maintenance and tyres per month - Annual servicing, tyres, repairs and road tax, averaged over the year.
- 6 Press Calculate. You get Total monthly cost of the car, Total annual cost, Share of your income, Affordability score, and every intermediate step stays visible under “How is this calculated?”
- 7 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 $680 a month car on a $4,200 income
A $320 payment with $130 insurance, $160 fuel and $70 maintenance.
You enter
- Net monthly income
- $4,200.00
- Loan or lease payment
- $320.00
- Insurance per month
- $130.00
- Fuel or charging per month
- $160.00
- Maintenance and tyres per month
- $70.00
You get
- Total monthly cost of the car
- $680.00
- Total annual cost
- $8,160.00
- Share of your income
- 16.2%
- Affordability score
- 94
The car comes to $680 a month, or $8,160 a year, which is about 16% of take-home pay. The budget at 15% is $630, so the car is $50 over it and the affordability score reads 94.
A $990 a month car on a $3,200 income
A $480 payment with $180 insurance, $220 fuel and $110 maintenance.
You enter
- Net monthly income
- $3,200.00
- Loan or lease payment
- $480.00
- Insurance per month
- $180.00
- Fuel or charging per month
- $220.00
- Maintenance and tyres per month
- $110.00
You get
- Total monthly cost of the car
- $990.00
- Total annual cost
- $11,880.00
- Share of your income
- 30.9%
- Affordability score
- 20
The total is $990 a month, or $11,880 a year, which is about 31% of take-home pay against a $480 ceiling at 15%. The car is $510 over the guideline and the score falls to 20, before depreciation is counted at all.
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…
How Much Should I Spend on a Car Based on My Income?
You can work out a realistic car budget in about 20 minutes with a pen, a calculator, and three or four numbers you probably already know. By the end of this guide you will have a monthly car payment…
Frequently asked questions
Why is depreciation left out of the total?
Because this calculator measures the money that leaves your account each month. Depreciation is real, but it is not a bill you pay: it shows up when you sell or trade the car, as a lower price than you paid. Adding it to a monthly cash figure would mix two different things.
It is still worth knowing, because over a few years depreciation is often the single largest cost of owning a car, larger than fuel or insurance. Buying used, keeping the car longer and choosing a model that holds value are the decisions that change it.
What belongs in the maintenance line?
Annual servicing, tyres, repairs, road tax or registration and any inspection fees, all averaged over twelve months. A car out of warranty costs noticeably more than a new one, and tyres arrive in batches rather than smoothly, so a monthly average is smoother than the real pattern.
If you have no history to average, take the cost of the last service and the price of a set of tyres, divide both by the years they cover, and add a small amount for the unexpected. Underestimating this line is the most common way a car budget goes wrong.
Why 15% of income, and how does the score work?
The score starts at 100 while the car costs no more than 15% of your take-home pay, then loses 5 points for every percentage point above that. A car taking 20% of income scores 75, and the score reaches 0 at 35% of income.
The 15% figure is a rule of thumb that assumes housing and the rest of your life are already paid for. It is a starting point, not a lending limit, and someone with low housing costs can carry more while someone supporting a family may want to stay well under it.
What else is not in the total?
Parking, tolls, registration or licence fees, the down payment, and the interest inside the loan payment. Depreciation is excluded on purpose. Anything you pay once, such as a dealer fee or a set of winter tyres, is not in a monthly figure either.
The fuel line is also only as good as the number you put in it. If you are unsure what the car will really use, get the figure from the Fuel Cost Calculator or, for an electric car, from the EV Charging Cost Calculator, and enter the monthly result here.
Terms used here
Short, plain-language definitions of the words this calculator uses.