Free calculators / Debt payoff
Debt payoff calculator: snowball vs avalanche
List your debts and what you can pay each month in total. See your debt-free date, how much interest you'll pay, and which order clears your debts fastest. Everything stays in your browser.
Your debts
| Name | Balance | APR | Minimum / month | Remove |
|---|
Minimums plus any extra. The extra goes to one debt at a time. Dates assume your first payment is next month.
Want to track it month by month?
The Debt Payoff Planner does this for up to 20 debts, plus 0% promo deadline alerts, a "debt-free by" goal seek, plan vs actual and a printable coloring tracker. Google Sheets and Excel.
How the calculator works
Each month it adds interest to every balance (APR ÷ 12), pays each debt's minimum, and puts whatever is left of your budget toward one debt. When that debt is paid off, its payment rolls on to the next. That's why the method is called a snowball: the payment gets bigger as each debt disappears.
- Snowball pays the smallest balance first. You clear whole debts sooner, which many people find keeps them going.
- Avalanche pays the highest APR first. It usually costs the least interest overall.
- Minimums only is what happens if you pay just the minimums, with no extra and no rollover.
Snowball or avalanche?
If avalanche saves you a lot, it's usually worth it. If the difference is small, pick the order you'll actually stick with. A plan you follow beats a slightly cheaper plan you abandon. The results above show the dollar difference for your own debts, so you can decide with real numbers.
Things this calculator doesn't model
- 0% intro or balance-transfer rates that end on a date (the planner handles these).
- Deferred-interest store cards that back-charge interest if the balance isn't cleared in time.
- Minimum payments that shrink as the balance falls. Here each minimum stays the same until the debt is paid.
- Daily interest. Lenders often calculate daily, so your real numbers may differ a little.
An educational tool. All results are estimates. Not financial advice.