Amortization Calculator
Full year-by-year or month-by-month payoff schedule for any loan
See exactly how your loan pays off
A full amortization schedule turns a monthly payment into a complete financial picture — every dollar of principal and interest, every month.
Complete schedule
Every month laid out: payment, principal, interest, and remaining balance from first to last.
Yearly summary
Switch between monthly detail and a year-by-year rollup to see the big picture at a glance.
Interest insight
See exactly how much of each payment is interest vs principal — and watch the split shift over time.
Downloadable PDF
Export the full schedule as a clean PDF table to keep, share, or take to your lender.
Any loan type
Works for mortgages, personal loans, car loans, student loans — any fixed-rate installment loan.
100% private
All calculations run in your browser. No data leaves your device.
When to use it
Mortgage planning
See exactly how much equity you build each year and when your balance drops below key milestones.
Extra payments
Use the schedule as a baseline to judge how much you'd save by paying ahead.
Refinance timing
Know your current balance at any future date to calculate refinance break-even accurately.
Financial literacy
Understand the interest-heavy early years and why long terms cost so much more.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an amortization schedule?
An amortization schedule is a complete table showing every payment on a loan from the first to the last. For each period it shows how much goes to interest, how much reduces the principal, and what the remaining balance is. It reveals why early payments are mostly interest and later ones mostly principal.
Why do early payments go mostly to interest?
Because interest is calculated as a percentage of the current outstanding balance. At the start, the balance is at its highest, so the interest portion of each payment is largest. As you pay down the principal, the balance shrinks, interest charges fall, and more of each fixed payment goes to reducing the debt.
How can I use the schedule to save money?
Look at the early rows: making an extra payment when your balance is high eliminates the most future interest because it cuts the balance that all subsequent interest is charged on. Even one additional payment per year, applied directly to principal, can cut years off a long loan and save thousands in total interest.
Does the schedule change if I make extra payments?
Yes. Extra principal payments shorten the schedule — the loan is paid off sooner — and reduce total interest because the balance falls faster. This calculator shows the standard schedule; use it as a baseline, then model extra payments to see how much you can save.
Is the schedule different for mortgages vs personal loans?
The amortization math is identical for any fixed-rate installment loan. The schedule for a 30-year mortgage simply has 360 rows; a 5-year personal loan has 60. The principle — early payments are mostly interest, later ones mostly principal — applies the same way regardless of loan type.
Understanding Loan Amortization
Amortization is the process of paying off a debt through scheduled, level payments over time. Each payment in a fully amortizing loan covers the interest accrued since the last payment plus some portion of the principal, calculated so the loan reaches exactly zero on the final payment date. The schedule that maps out this process month by month is one of the most revealing documents in personal finance.
The front-loaded interest problem
On a 30-year mortgage, you might be shocked to discover that after five years of faithful monthly payments, you have paid off less than 10% of the principal. This is the direct result of front-loaded amortization: because interest is charged on the outstanding balance, and the balance starts at its maximum, early payments are overwhelmingly interest. The principal barely moves. This is why extra payments early in a loan's life are so powerful — you are attacking the balance before the amortization curve has a chance to work against you.
Reading the schedule strategically
Look at any row in your schedule: the interest column tells you exactly what that month's interest charge is. Any extra principal payment you make this month eliminates that exact interest charge from every future period where it would have been applied. If the schedule shows $900 in interest for month 60, paying an extra $1,000 of principal today is worth hundreds of dollars saved over the remaining life of the loan.
When the balance finally falls
The pace of principal reduction is not linear — it is slow at first and accelerates toward the end. On a standard 30-year mortgage, the balance barely falls in the first decade. But by year 20, momentum has built and the payoff accelerates noticeably. This is why homeowners who sell or refinance in the first 10 years often find they have far less equity than they expected despite years of payments — most of those payments went to the lender's interest, not their own equity.