Auto Loan Payoff Calculator
Enter the balance on an auto loan, its rate and the months remaining to see the payoff date, the total interest and every row of the schedule — then add an extra payment and see how much sooner the car is paid off.
Paid off September 1, 2031 after 60 payments
- Monthly payment
- $567.71
- Payments
- 60
- Total interest
- $5,561.98
- Total paid
- $34,061.98
59 payments of $567.71; the last is $567.09.
Full amortization schedule — every payment
| # | Date | Payment | Interest | Principal | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026-10-01 | $567.71 | $172.19 | $395.52 | $28,104.48 |
| 2 | 2026-11-01 | $567.71 | $169.80 | $397.91 | $27,706.57 |
| 3 | 2026-12-01 | $567.71 | $167.39 | $400.32 | $27,306.25 |
| 4 | 2027-01-01 | $567.71 | $164.98 | $402.73 | $26,903.52 |
| 5 | 2027-02-01 | $567.71 | $162.54 | $405.17 | $26,498.35 |
| 6 | 2027-03-01 | $567.71 | $160.09 | $407.62 | $26,090.73 |
| 7 | 2027-04-01 | $567.71 | $157.63 | $410.08 | $25,680.65 |
| 8 | 2027-05-01 | $567.71 | $155.15 | $412.56 | $25,268.09 |
| 9 | 2027-06-01 | $567.71 | $152.66 | $415.05 | $24,853.04 |
| 10 | 2027-07-01 | $567.71 | $150.15 | $417.56 | $24,435.48 |
| 11 | 2027-08-01 | $567.71 | $147.63 | $420.08 | $24,015.40 |
| 12 | 2027-09-01 | $567.71 | $145.09 | $422.62 | $23,592.78 |
| 13 | 2027-10-01 | $567.71 | $142.54 | $425.17 | $23,167.61 |
| 14 | 2027-11-01 | $567.71 | $139.97 | $427.74 | $22,739.87 |
| 15 | 2027-12-01 | $567.71 | $137.39 | $430.32 | $22,309.55 |
| 16 | 2028-01-01 | $567.71 | $134.79 | $432.92 | $21,876.63 |
| 17 | 2028-02-01 | $567.71 | $132.17 | $435.54 | $21,441.09 |
| 18 | 2028-03-01 | $567.71 | $129.54 | $438.17 | $21,002.92 |
| 19 | 2028-04-01 | $567.71 | $126.89 | $440.82 | $20,562.10 |
| 20 | 2028-05-01 | $567.71 | $124.23 | $443.48 | $20,118.62 |
| 21 | 2028-06-01 | $567.71 | $121.55 | $446.16 | $19,672.46 |
| 22 | 2028-07-01 | $567.71 | $118.85 | $448.86 | $19,223.60 |
| 23 | 2028-08-01 | $567.71 | $116.14 | $451.57 | $18,772.03 |
| 24 | 2028-09-01 | $567.71 | $113.41 | $454.30 | $18,317.73 |
| 25 | 2028-10-01 | $567.71 | $110.67 | $457.04 | $17,860.69 |
| 26 | 2028-11-01 | $567.71 | $107.91 | $459.80 | $17,400.89 |
| 27 | 2028-12-01 | $567.71 | $105.13 | $462.58 | $16,938.31 |
| 28 | 2029-01-01 | $567.71 | $102.34 | $465.37 | $16,472.94 |
| 29 | 2029-02-01 | $567.71 | $99.52 | $468.19 | $16,004.75 |
| 30 | 2029-03-01 | $567.71 | $96.70 | $471.01 | $15,533.74 |
| 31 | 2029-04-01 | $567.71 | $93.85 | $473.86 | $15,059.88 |
| 32 | 2029-05-01 | $567.71 | $90.99 | $476.72 | $14,583.16 |
| 33 | 2029-06-01 | $567.71 | $88.11 | $479.60 | $14,103.56 |
| 34 | 2029-07-01 | $567.71 | $85.21 | $482.50 | $13,621.06 |
| 35 | 2029-08-01 | $567.71 | $82.29 | $485.42 | $13,135.64 |
| 36 | 2029-09-01 | $567.71 | $79.36 | $488.35 | $12,647.29 |
| 37 | 2029-10-01 | $567.71 | $76.41 | $491.30 | $12,155.99 |
| 38 | 2029-11-01 | $567.71 | $73.44 | $494.27 | $11,661.72 |
| 39 | 2029-12-01 | $567.71 | $70.46 | $497.25 | $11,164.47 |
| 40 | 2030-01-01 | $567.71 | $67.45 | $500.26 | $10,664.21 |
| 41 | 2030-02-01 | $567.71 | $64.43 | $503.28 | $10,160.93 |
| 42 | 2030-03-01 | $567.71 | $61.39 | $506.32 | $9,654.61 |
| 43 | 2030-04-01 | $567.71 | $58.33 | $509.38 | $9,145.23 |
| 44 | 2030-05-01 | $567.71 | $55.25 | $512.46 | $8,632.77 |
| 45 | 2030-06-01 | $567.71 | $52.16 | $515.55 | $8,117.22 |
| 46 | 2030-07-01 | $567.71 | $49.04 | $518.67 | $7,598.55 |
| 47 | 2030-08-01 | $567.71 | $45.91 | $521.80 | $7,076.75 |
| 48 | 2030-09-01 | $567.71 | $42.76 | $524.95 | $6,551.80 |
| 49 | 2030-10-01 | $567.71 | $39.58 | $528.13 | $6,023.67 |
| 50 | 2030-11-01 | $567.71 | $36.39 | $531.32 | $5,492.35 |
| 51 | 2030-12-01 | $567.71 | $33.18 | $534.53 | $4,957.82 |
| 52 | 2031-01-01 | $567.71 | $29.95 | $537.76 | $4,420.06 |
| 53 | 2031-02-01 | $567.71 | $26.70 | $541.01 | $3,879.05 |
| 54 | 2031-03-01 | $567.71 | $23.44 | $544.27 | $3,334.78 |
| 55 | 2031-04-01 | $567.71 | $20.15 | $547.56 | $2,787.22 |
| 56 | 2031-05-01 | $567.71 | $16.84 | $550.87 | $2,236.35 |
| 57 | 2031-06-01 | $567.71 | $13.51 | $554.20 | $1,682.15 |
| 58 | 2031-07-01 | $567.71 | $10.16 | $557.55 | $1,124.60 |
| 59 | 2031-08-01 | $567.71 | $6.79 | $560.92 | $563.68 |
| 60 | 2031-09-01 | $567.09 | $3.41 | $563.68 | $0.00 |
What this page tells you
An auto loan is the plainest case of the amortization schedule: a fixed rate, a fixed payment, a term of three to seven years, and interest charged on whatever principal is still outstanding. Nearly every car loan written in the United States today is a simple-interest loan of that shape, which is the reason paying early works at all — a month's interest is computed from the balance at the start of that month, so principal paid off in month twelve stops accruing interest for the remaining forty-eight.
The figure a lender quotes to close the account is not the balance shown in an online account. A payoff quote is good to a stated date and includes the interest accrued from the last payment to that date, so it sits above the balance by a few dollars or a few tens of dollars depending on how far into the month the quote falls. This page computes the schedule, not the quote: the two agree on payment dates and drift apart between them.
The schedule below is the one a simple-interest lender runs, in whole cents, and every row is on the page. The payoff date is the date of the last row rather than a figure from a formula — on the example worked through further down, the closed form and the schedule disagree by 62 cents, and the schedule is the one that is right. It is the same engine as the loan payoff calculator on the front page, with the defaults a car loan actually carries.
How to read the result
Every dollar above the scheduled payment is treated here as reducing the balance on the day it is paid. That is one of two things a lender can do with it. The other is to count it toward your next scheduled payment, which moves the due date forward and leaves the balance where it was — and the saving below is then not smaller, it is zero. The standard mortgage contract lets the lender choose; on a federal student loan choosing for you is the default. Send it as a principal-only payment, in writing, and check the next statement.
The payoff date is the date of the last payment in the schedule, not the end of the original term. On a five-year loan run to term those are the same day. Add anything extra and they separate, and the distance between them is what the page exists to measure.
The last payment is smaller than the others. The scheduled payment is rounded up to the next cent so the schedule can never run past its term, which leaves the final payment to clear whatever is left. On the $28,500 example below, fifty-nine payments of $567.71 are followed by one of $567.09.
Total interest is the sum of the interest column, not payment times term. Multiplying $567.71 by 60 and subtracting the balance gives $5,562.60. The schedule gives $5,561.98. The 62-cent gap is entirely the smaller final payment, and the schedule is the figure to trust.
Interest saved is measured against the same loan with no extra payments — same balance, same rate, same scheduled payment, paid monthly to the end of the term. Entering $150 a month extra changes the months-saved and interest-saved figures in the panel and nothing else underneath them.
Interest here accrues once per period, on the balance at the start of it. A simple-interest lender accrues daily, so a payment posted a few days early reduces the interest slightly more than this schedule shows, and a payment posted late slightly less. Inside the schedule that difference is cents a month; on a payoff quote, which charges the days since the last payment, it is dollars.
The formula
- M
- the scheduled payment, rounded up to the next cent
- P
- the balance at the start, in cents
- r
- the periodic rate — the APR divided by 100 and by 12
- n
- the term, in months
- bₖ₋₁
- the balance before payment k
- iₖ
- the interest charged in period k, rounded half-up to the cent
The payment is rounded up so the schedule cannot run past the term. Rounding to the nearest cent instead leaves a stray final payment of a few dollars on a long loan.
The payoff date comes from running the schedule, not from the formula. The two agree on ordinary loans and can differ by several months when the payment barely exceeds the interest.
The rounding rule, the final-payment adjustment and the published test vectors are all on the methodology page.
A worked example
A worked example: a $28,500 car loan at 7.25% over five years
Take $28,500 at 7.250% APR over 60 months. The monthly rate is 7.25 ÷ 100 ÷ 12 = 0.0060416667. Raising 1.0060416667 to the power of −60 gives 0.6966937564, so the denominator of the payment formula is 1 − 0.6966937564 = 0.3033062436. The numerator is 28,500 × 0.0060416667 = 172.1875. Dividing gives $567.701799, which rounds up to a scheduled payment of $567.71.
The first month accrues 28,500.00 × 0.0060416667 = $172.1875, rounded half-up to $172.19, so $395.52 of that payment reduces the balance and leaves $28,104.48. The second month accrues $169.80 and the balance falls to $27,706.57. Fifty-seven rows later the balance is $563.68, the final month accrues $3.41, and the last payment is $567.09. Total interest across the sixty rows is $5,561.98 and the loan clears on 1 September 2031.
Now add $150 a month. Every payment becomes $717.71, the first month still accrues $172.19 but $545.52 goes to principal, and the balance after one payment is $27,954.48 rather than $28,104.48. The loan clears on the forty-sixth payment — 1 July 2030, fourteen months early — having paid $4,186.49 in interest instead of $5,561.98. The $1,375.49 saved is the difference between two schedules, both run to the cent.
- Scheduled payment
- $567.71
- Payments
- 60
- Final payment
- $567.09
- Total interest
- $5,561.98
- Payoff date (from 1 October 2026)
- 1 September 2031
- With $150 extra each month
- 46 payments, $4,186.49 interest, paid off 1 July 2030
- Saved
- 14 months and $1,375.49
Every figure here is derived from the formula above and checked to the cent against vector A1 / A2 — derived from §1–§4 in the published test vectors — not read back off this page.
What this does not model
- A surplus paid on a loan that is behind does not reduce the balance — it cures the arrears first, and only what is left after that reaches principal. Every schedule here assumes the loan is current and that each payment arrives on its scheduled date.
- Interest comes out of every payment before principal does, and a fee can come out before either. Where a late charge or an unpaid fee is outstanding, the lender takes that first and less reaches the balance than this page shows.
- Interest is charged once a month here. Most auto loans are simple-interest and accrue daily, so paying a few days early or late shifts the interest a little; across a whole loan the difference is a few dollars, not a few hundred. Precomputed-interest contracts, where the interest is fixed at signing and paying early saves far less, are not modelled — the contract will say which one you have.
- Interest is simple interest on the outstanding balance, charged once per period. There is no daily accrual and no compounding within a period, so a schedule row and a lender's mid-month figure will differ by the days between them.
- A small number of older contracts precompute the interest for the whole term and rebate the unearned part under the Rule of 78s, which front-loads interest more steeply than an amortization schedule. That rule is not modelled here; on such a contract, paying early saves less than this page shows.
- Negative equity is not modelled. The schedule is the same whether the car is worth more or less than the balance, because this page has no input for what the car is worth.
- Sales tax, title and registration fees, dealer add-ons, late charges and prepayment charges are not modelled, and the rate is fixed for the life of the loan.
- Nothing you type is transmitted. The calculation runs in your browser, and the only thing that leaves it is the link you choose to copy.
When to use a different page
One loan or several, fixed payment or revolving — that is the real question behind this family of calculators, and it decides which page answers yours.
Loan payoff
The same schedule with no loan type attached. Use it for a loan that is not a car — anything with a fixed rate, a fixed payment and a term behaves identically.
Extra payment
If the extra payment is the whole question — a one-off from a bonus, a lump sum at a date, or a round-up on every payment — that page leads with the extra rather than with the loan, and puts the three kinds side by side.
Early loan payoff
Same arithmetic, different headline: months saved and interest saved come first, and the scheduled payment is secondary. Worth it when the decision is whether to clear the loan early at all.
Personal loan payoff
An unsecured loan at a higher rate over a shorter term, with no collateral in the picture. The schedule is the same, so the difference is entirely in the rate, the term and what happens if the loan is not paid.
Questions people ask
How do I calculate the payoff amount on my car loan?
On a payment date the payoff amount is the balance in that row of the schedule. Between payment dates a simple-interest lender adds interest for the days since the last payment, which is why a quote never matches the balance shown online. After the twelfth payment on the example below the balance is $23,592.78, and at 7.25% that balance accrues about $4.69 a day — so a quote dated fifteen days after the payment runs roughly $70 above it.
How much do extra payments save on an auto loan?
On the worked example, $150 a month on top of a $567.71 payment clears the loan in 46 payments instead of 60 and costs $4,186.49 in interest instead of $5,561.98 — fourteen months and $1,375.49. The saving is not proportional to the extra: a dollar of principal paid in month one stops accruing interest for fifty-nine months, and a dollar paid in month fifty stops for ten, so early extras are worth more than late ones.
Is a car loan payoff calculator the same as an auto loan payoff calculator?
Yes — they are two names for one thing, and this page answers both. The arithmetic does not depend on the word: a fixed rate, a fixed payment and a balance produce the same schedule whether the contract calls it an auto loan, a car loan or a vehicle loan. Motorcycles, boats and RVs written as simple-interest instalment loans work the same way.
Does paying bi-weekly pay off a car loan faster?
It does, by a modest amount. Half of $567.71 is $283.86 every fourteen days, which clears the example loan in 118 bi-weekly payments — 27 March 2031 against 1 September 2031 — for $4,982.87 of interest instead of $5,561.98, a saving of $579.11. Most of that comes from paying $7,380.36 a year rather than $6,812.52. Some lenders hold each half-payment and post it monthly, in which case the gain is only the extra payment each year.
Is there a penalty for paying off a car loan early?
On a simple-interest auto loan there is usually nothing extra to pay: interest stops accruing on principal that is no longer outstanding, and the payoff quote is the balance plus interest to the quote date. Some contracts carry an explicit prepayment charge, and a precomputed contract rebates unearned interest under a formula instead of simply stopping the clock. This page models neither, so the interest saved shown here is before any such charge.
What happens if I owe more than the car is worth?
Nothing, as far as the schedule is concerned — a balance accrues interest at the same rate regardless of what the car would sell for. The gap matters at the point the car is sold or traded in, because the loan does not end when the car leaves. This page has no input for the car's value and does not model that gap.