Finance Calculator
Calculate loan payments, interest rates, and payoff schedules for personal, auto, and business loans.
Calculation Type
Financial Details
Monthly Payment
monthly payment
Total Payments
Over loan term
Total Interest
Interest cost
Principal vs Interest
Effective Annual Rate
With monthly compounding
How it works
A finance calculator solves the time value of money: the link between present value, future value, payment, interest rate, and number of periods. Given any four, it finds the fifth — the engine behind loans, savings, and investment math.
Time value of money
FV = PV(1 + r)ⁿ + PMT · [(1 + r)ⁿ − 1] / r
- PV / FV
- present and future value
- PMT
- payment per period
- r, n
- rate per period and number of periods
Worked example
- PV = $5,000, PMT = $100/month
- r = 0.5%/month, n = 60
- Grow the $5,000 and the contributions for 60 months
FV ≈ $13,729 after 5 years.
Good to know
- Keep the rate and the period consistent — a monthly rate needs a count of months.
- Sign conventions matter: money in and money out have opposite signs in TVM math.
- The same formula underlies loans (solve for PMT) and savings (solve for FV).
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Frequently Asked Questions
What can this finance calculator solve for?
It handles the core time-value-of-money problems: loan payments, future value of investments, present value of a future sum, and the savings needed to reach a goal. Pick the calculation type, enter the known values, and it solves for the unknown.
What is the time value of money?
A dollar today is worth more than a dollar in the future because it can be invested to earn a return in the meantime. Discounting converts future amounts into today's dollars, while compounding projects today's money forward — both are sides of the same formula.
What's the difference between present value and future value?
Future value is what an amount grows to after earning interest: FV = PV × (1 + r)ⁿ. Present value runs the same math in reverse, telling you what a future sum is worth today at a given discount rate.
How does compounding frequency affect the results?
More frequent compounding earns slightly more, because interest starts earning interest sooner. The gap between annual and daily compounding at the same nominal rate is modest — for example, 5% compounded daily yields about 5.13% annually.
What's the difference between APR and APY?
APR is the nominal annual rate without compounding (plus certain fees on loans), while APY is the effective annual yield including compounding. APY is the better number for comparing savings accounts; APR is standard for quoting loans.