Learn to calculate your payments, and maximum payment!

This page is a tutorial which will teach you how to user our free IDR payment and “cap” online calculator, which is one of many free calculators available on our site. You can figure out Income Driven Payment amounts for any payment plan, and also easily determine if you have a Partial Financial Hardship (which is necessary to enter into the IBR or PAYE payment plans).

In addition, our calculator will tell you what your MAXIMUM IBR or PAYE payments will and also the income at which you will reach this cap, aka the “salary cap”. You NEED to know all of these numbers in order to figure out which payment plan is best for you when first choosing a payment plan, or alternately, whether you should switch to a new plan.

START with reviewing our slide set. THEN watch our short video which walks you through the inputs and outputs.

Click the icon at the lower right to expand the windows for easier viewing.

The calculator has been tweaked since making the video (we added the ICR plan), but the video walkthrough remains valid.

Here is the powerpoint, and the video walk-though