Which Student Loan Should I Pay Off First?
This calculator ranks your student loans by payoff priority. Enter each loan's balance, rate, and minimum payment, and the tool orders them using both the avalanche method (highest rate first) and the snowball method (smallest balance first). It shows total interest paid under each strategy so you can choose the approach that fits your financial goals and motivation style.
New monthly payment
You pay today, so that is a month back in your pocket.
That is more than the you pay today — the shorter term costs more each month but clears the debt sooner.
- Over the whole termStay putRefinance
- Monthly payment
- Interest you pay
- Debt-free
- Total paid
No switching cost to earn back — you are ahead from the first payment, by over the life of the loan.
You earn the switching cost back after payments — around .
At these numbers the new loan never pays for itself: the monthly payment does not fall.
Careful — the lower payment comes from a longer term. Over the full term this deal costs more than staying put.
Both loans are modelled as fixed-rate, fully amortising, with no missed months. A refinance replaces your loan with a brand-new private loan — see what that costs you below.
Rate drop
Monthly change
Interest saved
Lifetime saving
What you give up when federal loans go private
- Income-driven repayment. A private lender sets one payment; it does not fall when your income does.
- Federal forgiveness programmes, including Public Service Loan Forgiveness and any income-driven forgiveness after the full repayment term.
- Federal discharge on death or total and permanent disability — private lenders decide their own policy.
- Federal deferment and forbearance rights, and the federal rehabilitation route out of default.
- The decision is one-way. Once a federal loan is refinanced privately, it cannot be turned back into a federal loan.
Refinancing private loans into a cheaper private loan gives up none of this — it is federal balances that carry the risk.
Avalanche vs Snowball for Student Loans
The avalanche method directs every extra dollar toward the loan with the highest interest rate while making minimum payments on the rest. This order minimizes total interest paid because it eliminates the most expensive debt first. The snowball method targets the smallest balance instead, giving you a psychological win when that loan reaches zero, then rolling its freed-up payment into the next smallest.
For student loan borrowers, the difference between the two can range from negligible to substantial depending on how spread out your rates are. If all your loans sit within a point of each other, the avalanche saves only marginally more and the motivational benefit of snowball may matter more. If one loan charges several points above the others, avalanche pulls ahead decisively. The calculator shows the dollar gap so you can make the call with real numbers rather than theory. Enter your full set of loans to see the ordering and total cost under each method.
Federal vs Private: A Priority Layer the Math Misses
Rate and balance are not the only factors. Federal student loans carry protections that private loans do not: income-driven repayment, potential forgiveness under PSLF or IDR, forbearance, and disability discharge. Paying off a federal loan early eliminates a safety net you may need later, while paying off a private loan early removes an obligation that offers no flexibility during hardship.
Borrowers on student-loan forums report prioritizing private loans first even when a federal loan has a higher rate, specifically to preserve federal options. The calculator ranks purely on rate and balance math; the federal-vs-private layer is a judgment call that sits on top. If you are considering refinancing a federal loan to a private rate instead of paying it down, remember that the conversion permanently eliminates IDR, PSLF, forbearance, and disability discharge; see the refinance calculator for the full analysis. For a deeper dive into avalanche-vs-snowball ordering across multiple loans, see the dedicated multi-loan tool.
Ordering examples assume minimum payments are maintained on all other loans. Individual circumstances, especially federal loan protections, may alter the optimal priority.
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Sources
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Sources: standard avalanche and snowball payoff math; ed.gov federal loan protections; r/StudentLoans payoff-order discussions (2024-2026).
- Federal Direct Consolidation Loan interest rate — the weighted average of the loans being consolidated, rounded up to the nearest one-eighth of one percent (Federal Student Aid, studentaid.gov, Loan Consolidation).
- Amortisation, daily interest accrual and payoff arithmetic — standard loan mathematics; every figure on this page is computed from the numbers you enter.