APR calculator

Enter the loan, its interest rate and its fees to see the APR: the yearly cost of the loan with the fees counted in.

By the Calcist team · Checked against known answers · Updated October 27, 2026

Private: calculated on your device. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.

Estimates for planning, not financial, tax or legal advice. Figures use US rules unless the page says otherwise.

Next: Compare offers by APR. To see the payment, enter the note rate (not the APR) in the loan calculator or the mortgage calculator.

APR vs interest rate

The interest rate sets your payment. The APR (annual percentage rate) also counts fees you pay to get the loan, such as origination fees and points, spread over the loan's life. Lenders must show the APR under the federal Truth in Lending Act, so you can compare offers with different fees on equal terms.

How APR is calculated

The calculator finds the monthly rate j at which your payments are worth exactly the money you really got (the amount financed). That's the actuarial method in Regulation Z, Appendix J, for loans with equal monthly payments.

Amount financed = Payment × (1 − (1 + j)⁻ⁿ) ÷ j
APR = 12 × j

There's no direct formula for j, so it's found by repeated halving (bisection) to many decimal places.

Fees paid upfront or taken from the loan ("Upfront"): you owe the full loan amount, but you only received the loan minus the fees.
Fees added to the loan ("Added to loan"): you received the loan amount, but you owe it plus the fees, so the payment is higher.

Worked example

A $10,000 loan at 6% for 5 years has a payment of $193.33. With a $500 fee taken out of the loan, you get $9,500 but still pay $193.33 for 60 months. Solving 9,500 = 193.33 × (1 − (1 + j)⁻⁶⁰) ÷ j gives j = 0.6795%, so the APR is 8.154%. If the $500 is added to the loan instead, the payment is $202.99 and the APR is 8.048%.

The calculator uses the real payment schedule: every payment is rounded to the cent and the last one evens out the difference ($193.21 here). So the finance charge, $1,599.68 of interest plus the $500 fee, matches the total interest the payment calculator and loan calculator show for the same loan.

On a mortgage the effect is smaller, because fees are spread over more years: $200,000 at 6.5% for 30 years with $4,000 in fees has an APR of about 6.695%.

Limitations

Fees of more than half the loan aren't accepted: the APR would be mathematically right but meaningless.
Which fees count is set by law (Regulation Z § 1026.4). Origination fees and points do; appraisal or title fees on a mortgage usually don't. Enter only the finance charges.
It assumes a regular first period and equal monthly payments (apart from the last one, which evens out the cents). Odd first periods and irregular payments change the APR slightly.
APR assumes you keep the loan for its whole term. If you pay off or refinance early, the fees cost you more per year; the "What if" lines show this.
For adjustable-rate loans, the disclosed APR is based on assumptions about future rates.

Sources

How we checked this

Before every update, this calculator is run in a real browser with these known answers, and it must match all of them:

$10,000 at 6% for 5 years, $500 fee upfront: APR 8.154% ✓
Same fee added to the loan: APR 8.048% ✓
$200,000 at 6.5% for 30 years, $4,000 fees: APR 6.695% ✓
No fees: APR equals the rate ✓
Finance charge uses the real schedule: $1,599.68 interest + $500 fee = $2,099.68 ✓
0%, $300 fee, 12 months: total of payments $10,000.00 ✓
Same: APR 5.661% ✓
Fees above half the loan: error ✓
Fees as big as the loan: error ✓

Last checked October 26, 2026. Spotted something wrong? The math is done in your browser with the formula shown on this page, so you can check any result by hand.

Add this calculator to your website (free)

Paste this code into any web page. The calculator works on your page, resizes itself, has no ads and no tracking, and nothing your visitors type is sent anywhere. More about embedding.

<iframe src="https://calcist.com/embed/apr-calculator/" title="APR calculator" width="100%" height="640" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:760px"></iframe>
<p style="font:14px/1.4 sans-serif;margin:4px 0 0"><a href="https://calcist.com/apr-calculator/">APR calculator</a> by Calcist</p>
<script src="https://calcist.com/embed.js" async></script>

Questions people ask

What's the difference between APR and interest rate?

The interest rate is the cost of borrowing the money. The APR adds certain fees, like origination fees and points, and expresses the total as a yearly rate.

Is a lower APR always better?

For loans you'll keep to the end, usually yes. If you'll pay off or refinance early, a loan with lower fees can be cheaper even with a slightly higher rate.

Why is the APR higher than my rate?

Because you're paying fees on top of interest. With no fees, APR and rate are the same.

How accurate does a lender's APR have to be?

For a regular loan, the disclosed APR must be within 1/8 of a percentage point of the true APR under Regulation Z.

Related calculators

Loan calculatorPayment and interest on car, personal and student loans.Payment calculatorMonthly payment for a set term, or how long a set payment takes.Mortgage calculatorMonthly payment with tax, insurance and PMI, plus what-if rates.Interest calculatorSimple or compound interest on a deposit or loan.