Mortgage Amortization Schedule Calculator
Generate a full mortgage amortization schedule — every payment split into principal and interest, year by year or month by month — and see how extra payments cut the payoff time and interest.
See your mortgage broken down payment by payment — how much of each goes to principal versus interest, and how the balance falls over time. Add an extra monthly payment to watch the payoff (and the interest) shrink.
Loan amount
The amount you're borrowing (home price minus your down payment).
Interest rate
Loan term
Extra monthly payment
Optional extra paid toward principal each month. Leave at $0 for the standard schedule, or add an amount to see how much faster you’d pay off the loan.
Monthly Payment (P&I)
$1,896
30-year loan at 6.5%
Why early payments barely move the balance
Look at year 1 in the table: most of each payment is interest, and little touches the balance. That's amortization — interest is charged on a big balance early on, so principal builds slowly and then accelerates. It's also why adding even a small extra payment now (try it above) saves so much: it erases interest you'd otherwise pay for decades.
| Year | Principal | Interest | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,353 | $19,401 | $296,647 |
| 2 | $3,578 | $19,177 | $293,069 |
| 3 | $3,817 | $18,937 | $289,252 |
| 4 | $4,073 | $18,681 | $285,179 |
| 5 | $4,346 | $18,409 | $280,833 |
| 6 | $4,637 | $18,118 | $276,196 |
| 7 | $4,947 | $17,807 | $271,249 |
| 8 | $5,279 | $17,476 | $265,970 |
| 9 | $5,632 | $17,122 | $260,338 |
| 10 | $6,009 | $16,745 | $254,328 |
| 11 | $6,412 | $16,343 | $247,916 |
| 12 | $6,841 | $15,913 | $241,075 |
| 13 | $7,299 | $15,455 | $233,776 |
| 14 | $7,788 | $14,966 | $225,987 |
| 15 | $8,310 | $14,445 | $217,677 |
| 16 | $8,866 | $13,888 | $208,811 |
| 17 | $9,460 | $13,294 | $199,351 |
| 18 | $10,094 | $12,661 | $189,257 |
| 19 | $10,770 | $11,985 | $178,487 |
| 20 | $11,491 | $11,263 | $166,996 |
| 21 | $12,261 | $10,494 | $154,735 |
| 22 | $13,082 | $9,673 | $141,653 |
| 23 | $13,958 | $8,797 | $127,695 |
| 24 | $14,893 | $7,862 | $112,803 |
| 25 | $15,890 | $6,864 | $96,912 |
| 26 | $16,954 | $5,800 | $79,958 |
| 27 | $18,090 | $4,665 | $61,868 |
| 28 | $19,301 | $3,453 | $42,567 |
| 29 | $20,594 | $2,161 | $21,973 |
| 30 | $21,973 | $781 | $0 |
An educational estimate, not financial advice. Figures cover principal and interest only — your real housing payment also includes property taxes, homeowners insurance, and possibly PMI or HOA dues. The schedule assumes a fixed rate and that any extra payment is applied to principal every month. A few dollars may differ from your lender's schedule due to rounding and exact payment dates.
💡About this calculator▼
An amortization schedule is the blueprint of your mortgage: it shows exactly how every payment is divided between interest and principal, and how your balance falls month after month until the loan hits zero. It's also a bit of an eye-opener — in the early years, most of each payment is interest, and the balance barely budges. This calculator generates that full schedule for your loan.
Enter your loan amount, interest rate, and term, and you'll get your monthly payment, the total interest you'll pay, your payoff timeline, and a year-by-year table you can expand to see every month. Add an optional extra monthly payment and the whole schedule re-draws to show how much sooner you'd be debt-free and how much interest you'd save.
That extra-payment view is where an amortization schedule earns its keep. Because interest is charged on your remaining balance, a dollar of extra principal early in the loan erases years of future interest on that dollar — so even a modest extra payment can shave years off a 30-year mortgage. Seeing it laid out in the schedule makes the case far better than a single number can. This is an educational tool, not financial advice.
The calculator builds the schedule one month at a time using standard amortization, then summarizes it.
First it computes your fixed monthly payment (principal and interest) from the loan amount, rate, and term — the amount that exactly pays the loan off over its term. Then it walks the loan month by month: each month, interest is charged on the current balance, the rest of your payment goes to principal, and the balance drops by that principal. Early on the balance is large, so most of the payment is interest and principal builds slowly; as the balance shrinks, the interest portion falls and principal accelerates. That shifting split is the heart of amortization, and it's what the schedule table shows.
Adding up every month's interest gives your total interest over the life of the loan, and the loan amount plus total interest is your total of payments.
If you enter an extra monthly payment, the tool adds it to the principal portion every month and re-runs the schedule. The loan reaches zero sooner, so it counts fewer months (your accelerated payoff time) and adds up less total interest. Comparing that against the standard schedule gives the interest saved and months saved. The schedule table can be viewed as a yearly summary or expanded to the full month-by-month detail. The exact formula and a worked example are below.
📐How it's calculated▼
Each month follows the same three steps; the schedule is just this repeated until the balance hits zero.
Monthly payment (fixed, principal & interest): Payment = L × r × (1 + r)^n ÷ ((1 + r)^n − 1) where L = loan amount, r = monthly rate (annual ÷ 12), n = total months (years × 12).
Each month: Interest = Balance × r Principal = Payment − Interest (+ any extra payment) New balance = Balance − Principal
Total interest = the sum of every month's interest.
Example: A $300,000 loan at 6.5% for 30 years
→ Monthly payment: about $1,896
→ Month 1: interest = $300,000 × (6.5% ÷ 12) ≈ $1,625, so only ~$271 goes to principal
→ Total interest over 30 years: about $382,633 — meaning you repay $682,633 on a $300,000 loan
Now add $200 a month to principal:
→ The loan pays off in about 23 years instead of 30 — roughly 7 years sooner
→ Total interest drops to about $279,185 — a saving of about $103,449
That's the power the schedule reveals: $200 a month, applied consistently, saves over a hundred thousand dollars in interest on this loan.
📎Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) — Understanding Your Mortgage
🔍Finding your inputs▼
Loan amount: The amount you're financing — your home's purchase price minus your down payment, or your current balance if you're scheduling an existing loan. This is the principal the schedule pays down.
Interest rate: The loan's annual interest rate — the note rate on your loan, not the APR (which also bundles in fees). Even small rate differences change the schedule a lot over 15–30 years, so use your actual or quoted rate.
Loan term: The length of the loan in years — 30 and 15 are the most common, with 20 in between. A shorter term means a higher monthly payment but dramatically less total interest, because you're borrowing the money for fewer years. Try switching terms to see the trade-off in the totals.
Extra monthly payment: Optional. Leave it at $0 to see the standard schedule. Enter an amount to add that much to principal every month — the schedule re-draws to show the earlier payoff and the interest saved. Even $50–$200 a month can make a striking difference over the life of a loan. (Make sure your lender applies extra payments to principal, and that there's no prepayment penalty, before relying on this.)
⚠️Special situations▼
Why is almost all my early payment going to interest?
Because interest is charged on your remaining balance, which is largest at the start. On a $300,000 loan at 6.5%, the first month's interest alone is about $1,625 of a roughly $1,896 payment — so only around $271 reduces the balance. As the balance falls, the interest portion shrinks and more of each payment attacks principal, which is why the principal column in the schedule grows over time. It feels slow early on; that's normal amortization, not a mistake.
How much does one extra payment a year really help?
More than you'd guess. A common trick is making one extra monthly payment per year (or paying biweekly, which sneaks in one extra payment annually). On a 30-year loan that typically knocks several years off the term and saves tens of thousands in interest, because each extra payment is pure principal that avoids decades of future interest. Enter the equivalent extra per month (your payment ÷ 12) above to see the effect on your specific loan.
Should I choose a 15-year or 30-year term?
Run both and compare the totals. A 15-year loan has a higher monthly payment but a much lower rate-times-time exposure, so total interest is dramatically smaller — often less than half of a 30-year's. A 30-year keeps the payment low and flexible. A middle path many people use: take the 30-year for the lower required payment, then add extra principal voluntarily, which gives you 15-year-like savings without being locked into the higher mandatory payment. The extra-payment field lets you model exactly that.
My lender's schedule doesn't match this exactly
Small differences are expected. Lenders round the monthly payment to the cent and apply a slightly different final payment to zero the balance precisely, and exact interest can vary with the day count and your closing date. This calculator uses standard amortization with monthly compounding, so totals should be within a few dollars of your statement. For the authoritative numbers, always go by your closing disclosure and monthly statements — use this to understand and plan, not to audit your lender to the penny.
Does paying extra make sense if I might move soon?
It depends on your goals. Extra principal payments build equity and cut lifetime interest, but the money is tied up in the house until you sell or refinance — it's not as liquid as savings. If you may move in a few years, weigh paying down the mortgage against keeping cash available or investing it, since the interest you save is effectively a guaranteed return equal to your mortgage rate. The schedule shows the interest savings; whether that beats your alternatives is a personal finance decision worth thinking through (or discussing with an advisor).
❓Common questions▼
What is a mortgage amortization schedule?
It's a table showing every payment over the life of your loan, split into how much goes to interest and how much to principal, along with the remaining balance after each payment. Because interest is charged on the balance, early payments are mostly interest and later ones are mostly principal, even though the total payment stays the same. The schedule makes that shift visible and shows exactly when your loan will be paid off.
How much total interest will I pay on my mortgage?
It depends on the amount, rate, and term, and it's often shockingly large: a $300,000 loan at 6.5% over 30 years costs about $382,633 in interest — more than the amount borrowed. A shorter term or a lower rate cuts it sharply, and extra principal payments cut it further. Enter your loan above to see your total interest and how it changes when you adjust the term or add extra payments.
How do extra payments affect my amortization schedule?
Every extra dollar goes straight to principal, which lowers the balance that all future interest is charged on — so the loan pays off sooner and total interest drops by far more than the extra you paid. For example, adding $200 a month to a $300,000, 6.5%, 30-year loan pays it off about 7 years early and saves roughly $103,000 in interest. The calculator re-draws the whole schedule when you enter an extra amount so you can see the new payoff date and savings.
Why is so much of my early mortgage payment interest?
Because interest each month is calculated on your current balance, which is highest at the beginning. Your payment is fixed, so when the interest charge is large, only what's left over reduces the principal — and early on, that's a small slice. As the balance shrinks, the monthly interest falls and more of your fixed payment goes to principal, accelerating the payoff. It's the defining feature of an amortizing loan, and it's exactly why extra early payments are so powerful.
Is a 15-year or 30-year mortgage better?
Neither is universally better — it's a trade-off. A 15-year loan has higher monthly payments but far less total interest and builds equity faster; a 30-year loan has lower, more flexible payments but costs much more interest over time. Many borrowers take a 30-year for the lower required payment and then make extra principal payments to capture much of the 15-year savings while keeping flexibility. Use the term selector and extra-payment field here to compare the totals for your own numbers.