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Personal loan true-cost calculator.The APR is not the APR.
Every personal loan calculator shows the monthly payment. This one shows the effective APR after the origination fee is deducted from the principal. A $10,000 loan with a 7% origination fee disburses $9,300, but you owe back $10,000. The disclosed APR is the floor. Free. No signup.
Your loan offer
What did the lender approve?
The disclosed APR already includes the origination fee per TILA's formula. The effective APR below is higher because you only got the net-disbursed amount but pay back the full principal plus interest.
Effective APR
17.12%
You receive $9,300 in cash but pay back $11,957 over the term. The disclosed APR is 12.00%. The gap of 5.12% is the origination fee.
Cash you receive
$9,300
$700 origination fee taken from principal
Monthly payment
$332.14
Calculated on $10,000 at 12.00%, not on the cash you receive
Total of payments
$11,957
Over 36 months
Total cost of capital
$2,657
Total paid minus cash received. The full price of borrowing
Where every dollar goes
Cash to you
$9,300
Origination fee
$700
Interest
$1,957
$9,300 lands in your account. $700 goes to the lender as the origination fee. $1,957 accrues as interest over the term.
Defaults and assumptions last reviewed May 2026. APR solver uses Newton-Raphson on the inverse-annuity formula.
Why this one
Every other calculator shows the wrong number.This one shows the real one.
Effective APR, not disclosed APR
The disclosed APR per TILA includes the origination fee in its formula but assumes you receive the full principal. You don't. The effective APR maps the cash you actually got to the payments you owe. The gap is the origination fee, made honest.
Net disbursement, not requested amount
A $10,000 approved loan with a 7% origination fee puts $9,300 in your bank account. We compute the cash you receive and the cost-of-capital math from that number, not from the headline loan amount you applied for.
Total cost of capital
The full price of borrowing: total payments minus cash received. Bigger than total interest because it includes the origination fee. This is the apples-to-apples number when comparing two offers with different fee structures.
How it works
The math behind the effective APR.
The origination fee comes out of the principal disbursement. A $10,000 approved loan with a 7% origination fee disburses $10,000 − ($10,000 × 0.07) = $9,300 to your bank account, but you owe back $10,000 plus interest over the term.
The monthly payment uses the standard amortizing loan formula on the full principal: M = P × (r/12) × (1 + r/12)^n / ((1 + r/12)^n − 1). The payment is calculated on $10,000, not on the $9,300 you received. That's why the effective APR is higher than the disclosed APR.
The effective APR is the rate that, when applied to the cash you actually received, produces the same monthly payment stream over the same term. We solve for it numerically via Newton-Raphson on the inverse annuity formula. The output is the true cost of capital, in APR terms, that you can compare apples-to-apples across offers with different origination-fee structures.
TILA's disclosed APR per 12 CFR §1026.22 includes the origination fee in the calculation, so the disclosed number is not zero-fee. But TILA's formula treats the fee as part of the finance charge over the term, which understates the cost compared to a true cost-of-capital calculation that treats the fee as upfront principal lost. The gap grows with fee size.
Total cost of capital = total of payments − net cash disbursed. This is the price you pay for the money. It includes both interest and the origination fee. When comparing two loan offers, this is the right number to use, not the disclosed APR.
What this calculator can't see is inside the loan agreement itself: the autopay-discount asymmetry (lose it on one failed ACH), the default-and-acceleration cascade, the federal-garnishment exposure under 15 USC §1673, and the late-fee structure. Once the math works on paper, scan the agreement for what the calculator misses.
Related reading
The math is the easy part.
Questions
Personal loan true-cost calculator FAQ.
What is an origination fee on a personal loan?+
A one-time fee the lender charges to process the loan, typically 1-15 percent of the loan amount. The fee is almost always deducted from the principal disbursement, which means a $10,000 approved loan with a 7 percent origination fee disburses $9,300 in cash, but the borrower still owes back $10,000. The Truth in Lending Act requires the lender to disclose the origination fee and to include it in the APR calculation, but the disclosed APR can still understate the effective cost when the fee is large, because TILA's formula assumes the borrower receives the full principal.
Why does this calculator show a higher APR than the lender did?+
Because the lender's disclosed APR is calculated per TILA's formula, which makes assumptions that may not match your situation. The calculator solves for the effective APR that maps the net cash you actually receive to the monthly payment stream over the full term. When the origination fee is large (Upstart's runs up to 15 percent), the effective APR can be 3-5 percentage points above the disclosed rate. The disclosed APR is the floor of what you'll pay. The effective APR is what you're actually paying for the cash you received.
Which lenders charge the highest origination fees?+
Among major personal loan lenders as of 2025: Upstart charges 0-15%, the highest in the major-lender field. Avant runs 1.5-9.99%. Prosper runs 1-9.99%. LendingClub runs 1-8%. SoFi runs 0-7% but advertises no fee for many borrowers. Marcus historically charged zero origination fee. Credit unions typically run 0-3%. The fee depends on your credit profile, with lower-tier borrowers paying both higher base APRs and higher origination fees. The Truth in Lending federal disclosure box at the top of the loan agreement lists the actual fee.
Do personal loans have prepayment penalties?+
Most major personal loan lenders do not, but read the agreement. SoFi, Upstart, LendingClub, Avant, and Prosper all advertise no prepayment penalties. Some smaller lenders and credit unions still impose them, especially on loans with promotional teaser rates. The Truth in Lending Act requires prepayment penalties to be disclosed in the federal disclosure box, so check that section before signing. If there is no mention of a prepayment penalty in the federal box, there usually is none.
How is the monthly payment calculated?+
Using the standard amortizing loan formula: M = P × (r/12) × (1 + r/12)^n / ((1 + r/12)^n - 1), where P is the full principal, r is the disclosed APR as a decimal, and n is the term in months. The monthly payment is calculated on the FULL principal, not on the net cash you receive. This is why the origination fee shifts the effective APR up: you pay back interest on $10,000 even though only $9,300 hit your account.
Should I take a longer term to lower the monthly payment?+
It lowers the monthly payment but raises the total interest paid. A $10,000 loan at 12% over 36 months has a monthly payment of about $332 and total interest of $1,956. The same loan over 60 months drops the monthly payment to about $222 but raises total interest to $3,347. The disclosed APR is the same, but you pay it for two more years. Most personal loan agreements have no prepayment penalty, so you can take the longer term for cash-flow flexibility and pay it down faster if your situation improves.