Income-Driven Repayment Calculator
Compare every federal IDR plan side by side — RAP, IBR, ICR, PAYE, and SAVE — with your actual numbers. See monthly payments, forgiveness timelines, and which plans are actually available to you right now.
By Sammy S. · Founder · AuthorUpdated for 2026
1–10% of AGI. $50/dependent reduction. Replaces SAVE/PAYE/REPAYE for new borrowers.
Forgiveness: TBD by ED rulemaking
10% (new borrowers) or 15% (old borrowers) of discretionary income. Capped at standard payment.
Forgiveness: 20 yr (new) / 25 yr (old)
20% of discretionary income (uses 100% FPL). The only IDR option for Parent PLUS consolidation.
Forgiveness: 25 years
10% of discretionary income, capped at standard payment. Closed to new applicants Oct 2023.
Forgiveness: 20 years
Blocked by federal court injunction since Aug 2024. Borrowers in interest-free forbearance.
Forgiveness: N/A
Your line 11 on Form 1040
You + spouse + dependents. Affects poverty-line calculation.
$50/year reduction per child under RAP only.
RAP vs IBR
IBR subtracts 150% of the poverty line before applying its rate, making it lower for most single borrowers. RAP's advantages: $50/dependent reduction, no eligibility test, and it's the default plan for new borrowers after July 2026.
IBR cap matters
IBR is capped at your standard 10-year payment. If your income is high enough, IBR = standard payment, so there's no benefit to enrolling.
ICR is for Parent PLUS
Direct Loan borrowers almost never benefit from ICR — it uses 100% of poverty line and 20% rate, making it the most expensive IDR option in most cases.
SAVE is suspended — here's what that actually means for you
If you're enrolled in SAVE, your loans are in administrative forbearance — meaning no payments are required and interest is not accruing. This sounds fine until you realize that months in forbearance do not count toward income-driven forgiveness or Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).
Borrowers chasing 20- or 25-year IDR forgiveness are effectively frozen in time. Borrowers chasing PSLF have a partial workaround — the Department of Education has indicated forbearance months may count for PSLF purposes, but this is subject to ongoing litigation. Don't assume it.
What to do if you're in SAVE right now:
- If you're not pursuing PSLF, consider switching to IBR or RAP (once available) to restart forgiveness clock
- If you're pursuing PSLF, verify your certifications are up to date and monitor ED guidance closely
- Don't make extra payments during forbearance if pursuing forgiveness — they reduce your balance but don't advance the forgiveness clock, and interest isn't growing so there's no interest-cost benefit either
There's a hidden trap with IBR that catches higher earners
IBR is capped at the standard 10-year payment amount. This sounds like a safety net — and it is — but it also means that if your income grows high enough, you end up paying the same amount as standard repayment while being "enrolled in IDR."
At that point you get all the downsides of IDR (forgiveness interest risk, annual recertification requirement, longer repayment term) with none of the payment reduction benefit. And the forgiveness clock is still running at 20 or 25 years, meaning you'll likely pay the loan in full before forgiveness applies.
Example — when IBR stops helping:
$40,000 loan at 6.53% → standard 10-yr payment ≈ $454/month. If your IBR calculation comes to $500/month (capped at $454), you're paying $454 whether you're on IBR or not. At that income level, just staying on standard repayment is cleaner.
Why RAP's math is fundamentally different from every other IDR plan
Every other IDR plan (IBR, PAYE, ICR) uses the same underlying concept: calculate your discretionary income by subtracting some multiple of the poverty line, then take a percentage of that. RAP throws out this approach entirely.
RAP applies a percentage directly to your total AGI — no poverty-line subtraction first. This makes RAP more expensive than IBR for most single borrowers with no dependents, because IBR subtracts 150% of the poverty line ($23,475 for a single person in 2026) before applying its 10% rate. The numbers make this concrete:
| AGI | RAP /mo | IBR /mo (new) |
|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | ~$75 | ~$54 |
| $50,000 | ~$260 | ~$221 |
| $75,000 | ~$527 | ~$429 |
| $100,000 | ~$833 | ~$638 |
Single person, household of 1, no dependents. IBR uses 2026 poverty line ($15,650). Below ~$23,475 AGI, IBR = $0 (discretionary income is zero).
IBR is consistently lower than RAP for a single borrower with no dependents. So why does RAP exist? Because IBR requires "partial financial hardship" eligibility and has an enrollment process. RAP is the new default — no eligibility test. And for borrowers with dependents, RAP's $50/child reduction can meaningfully close the gap. If you're currently on IBR and eligible to stay, run your numbers before switching to RAP.
IDR plans are administered by the U.S. Department of Education. Calculations are estimates — actual payments are set by your loan servicer.