Debt snowball & avalanche calculator

Enter your debts, add what you can pay each month beyond the minimums, and compare snowball and avalanche with paying only the minimums. Free, private, no sign-up.

How it works

Every month the calculator adds interest (balance × APR ÷ 12), pays every minimum, and sends everything left over to the target debt: the smallest balance for snowball, the highest rate for avalanche. When a debt is cleared its minimum joins the pile. The “minimums only” line pays each debt its own minimum and nothing more. Read snowball vs avalanche: which pays off faster? for a worked example.

Common questions

What is the debt snowball method?

You pay the minimum on every debt, then put all extra money on the debt with the smallest balance. When it is gone, its payment moves to the next smallest balance, so the payment on your target debt grows like a rolling snowball.

What is the debt avalanche method?

The same idea, but the extra money goes to the debt with the highest interest rate first. It costs the least interest in total because the most expensive debt shrinks first.

Which one is better, snowball or avalanche?

Avalanche never costs more interest than snowball. Snowball clears individual debts sooner, which some people find easier to stick with. On many real sets of debts the difference is small, so the best method is the one you will keep doing.

How does this calculator treat interest?

Each month it adds one twelfth of the annual rate to each balance, then applies your payments. Payments cover every minimum first and the rest goes to the target debt. When a debt is cleared, its minimum rolls into the budget. Real lenders may differ slightly in how they calculate daily interest or round.

Does anything I type leave my device?

No. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing is sent or stored.