Student loan payoff
Use Snowball for student loans only after the program rules are clear.
Student loans are not all interchangeable. Private loans can often be modeled like ordinary installment debt, while federal loans may have repayment-plan, consolidation, discharge, or forgiveness considerations that should be evaluated before you direct extra payments by balance size.
Federal loans first
Do not use this calculator as a replacement for Federal Student Aid’s repayment tools.
Federal repayment-plan eligibility can depend on loan type and when loans were disbursed. Federal Student Aid’s repayment calculator is designed to show plans you may be eligible for, estimated payments, total paid, interest, and potential discharge outcomes. Make that program decision first. Then use DebtSnowball.org only for the loans you have intentionally placed into an accelerated-payoff plan.
Open the Federal Student Aid repayment calculator ↗Private loans
Usually easier to model as ordinary debt
If a private loan has a known balance, APR, minimum payment, and no special program you are trying to preserve, it can generally be compared alongside other installment debts. Confirm your own loan terms and any prepayment rules before relying on the model.
Federal loans
Program economics may matter more than payoff order
If you are evaluating an income-driven plan, consolidation, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, or another discharge path, extra principal payments can change the economics of the decision. DebtSnowball.org does not calculate those program outcomes.
A safer workflow for student loans
- 1
Identify every loan and its owner.
Separate federal loans from private loans and verify balances, rates, payments, servicers, and current repayment plans.
- 2
Evaluate federal options using official tools.
Compare the plans your federal loans are actually eligible for before assuming accelerated payoff is the right objective.
- 3
Choose which loans belong in an accelerated-payoff plan.
Some borrowers may decide to accelerate private loans while leaving qualifying federal loans on a program-specific path. Others may intentionally accelerate all loans. The correct set depends on the actual terms and goals.
- 4
Then compare Snowball and Avalanche.
For the loans you have chosen to accelerate, Snowball targets the smallest balance first; Avalanche targets the highest APR. Our calculator keeps the monthly debt budget constant so you can see the payoff-order tradeoff.
What DebtSnowball.org does—and does not model
It does model
- Balance-based Snowball ordering
- APR-based Avalanche ordering
- A fixed total monthly debt budget
- Estimated payoff dates and interest
- Month-by-month remaining balances
It does not model
- Federal repayment-plan eligibility
- Income-driven payment formulas
- Forgiveness or discharge qualification
- Consolidation consequences
- Tax treatment or future program changes
Loan servicers and rules can change
Federal loans may be transferred between servicers, and repayment rules can change over time. Use StudentAid.gov and your current servicer for account-specific information rather than an old blog post or a static example. Federal Student Aid specifically directs borrowers to their StudentAid.gov dashboard and current servicer information for balances, rates, payment amounts, and repayment-plan details.
Federal Student Aid: prepare for repayment ↗After you choose the loans
Compare payoff order with your own numbers.
Use DebtSnowball.org to compare Snowball and Avalanche only for the loans you have decided to accelerate. Results are educational estimates, not Federal Student Aid or servicer calculations.
Model my selected loans →