Amortization Calculator
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Generate a year-by-year amortization schedule for any loan. See how much of each payment goes toward interest vs. principal.
Enter your values below and click Calculate for instant results.
An amortization schedule is a complete table of every payment on a loan, showing how much of each installment goes toward interest and how much reduces the principal balance. For long loans like mortgages, seeing this breakdown over time makes clear why the early years feel like you're barely making a dent — in the beginning, most of each payment is interest, not principal reduction.
💡 On a 30-year $300,000 mortgage at 6.75%, your first payment of about $1,946 breaks down as roughly $1,688 in interest and only $258 in principal. By year 25, that same payment flips to about $1,400 principal and $546 interest. The schedule makes this shift visible.
Amortization front-loads the interest because each month's interest is calculated on the remaining balance. When the balance is high, the interest portion is large and the principal reduction is small. As you pay down the balance over years, the interest portion shrinks and the principal portion grows — but the total payment stays the same throughout.
Making extra payments toward principal directly shortens the amortization schedule. Each extra dollar you pay reduces the balance on which future interest is calculated. On a 30-year mortgage, a consistent extra $200 per month applied to principal can shorten the loan by 5 to 7 years and save tens of thousands in total interest, depending on the rate and balance.
A fully amortizing loan like a standard mortgage or auto loan is designed so that equal payments over the full term pay off the balance to zero. An interest-only loan requires only interest payments during a set period, after which the full principal comes due or the loan converts to amortizing. Amortizing loans are more predictable and build equity steadily from day one.