Car Loan Payment Calculator
Calculator Use
Calculate your monthly car payment with car price, down payment and trade-in value factored into the car loan calculation. Enter your loan term and interest rate to find the loan amount you will need with deductions and sales tax included.
This calculator is a car loan payment estimator. There may be dealer incentives included in the sale of a new car that we can't list here. If an incentive is additional cash off the price of the car just add that amount to your down payment when you input your figures in the calculator.
Any dealership incentive that reduces the amount of car loan you need to borrow will also reduce your monthly car payment amount.
How to Lower Your Monthly Car Payment
You can try experimenting with the amounts you input to the car loan payment calculator to see how your monthly payment might go down or up.
A smaller or zero down payment would increase your monthly car payment. But a lower state sales tax or interest rate, or a longer loan payoff period would decrease your monthly loan payment amount.
You can create a car loan payment schedule by clicking "Create an Amortization Schedule" after your loan payment calculation. The amortization schedule is like a car loan payment schedule but without the dates. It is valuable because it shows you the breakdown of your monthly payment.
Some of each monthly payment goes toward paying back your loan which is called "the principal." The rest of your car payment goes toward paying interest. The amortization schedule shows you how each payment is allocated each month.
- Car Price
- Sticker price of the car without any adjustments
- Sales Tax
- State sales tax that will be assessed on the price of the car
If you don't know your state's sales tax rate see Sales tax by state at the Sales Tax Institue. - Down Payment
- The amount of cash you can pay toward the car purchase to reduce the amount of loan you need to borrow
- Trade-In Value
- If you are trading-in an automobile, enter the amount the dealership will give you for your old car
- Car Loan Term
- The length of the loan in years or months; how long it will take you to pay back the auto loan
- Interest Rate
- The annual stated interest rate for your loan; the nominal interest rate
How to Calculate a Monthly Car Loan Payment
This calculator uses the present value equation to calculate a monthly auto loan payment. First the calculator finds the interest rate as an equivalent monthly rate rather than the yearly rate that you input.
Then the calculator solves the present value equation for payment, noted as PMT:
Here, PV is the actual loan amount, i is the interest rate per period and n is the number of periods. i and n must both be in terms of months for this calculation.
It's not completely necessary to understand the car loan payment calculation using this formula. We are providing the details so that you know how the calculator derives your monthly car payment amount.
For a simple ballpark auto loan payment calculation without down payment, trade-in and sales tax, use the CalculatorSoup® Car Loan Calculator.