Calculate your monthly student loan payment and total interest cost, accounting for interest that may accrue and capitalize during a grace period before repayment begins.
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Many student loans include a grace period, often 6 months after graduation, before regular repayment begins. On unsubsidized loans, interest keeps accruing during this period, and once repayment starts, that accrued interest is capitalized, meaning it's added to the principal balance, so you then pay interest on a larger amount going forward. Subsidized loans don't accrue interest during the grace period, so the balance is unchanged when repayment begins.
After capitalization, this calculator applies the standard amortized loan payment formula to the resulting balance over your chosen repayment term.
Because capitalized interest becomes part of the principal, it increases the total interest you'll pay over the life of the loan, above and beyond what you'd pay if the loan started accruing interest only once repayment began. This is why unsubsidized loans generally cost more in total interest than subsidized loans of the same size and rate.
Subsidized federal student loans don't accrue interest while you're in school or during the grace period, the government covers it. Unsubsidized loans accrue interest the entire time, including during the grace period, and that interest capitalizes into your balance once repayment begins.
Leave the grace period at 0 months, and this calculator will simply run the standard amortized payment formula on your original loan balance with no capitalized interest added.
No, this calculator assumes a standard fixed monthly payment over your chosen term. Income-driven repayment plans adjust your payment based on income and family size, which follows different math entirely.
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