Parent PLUS Loan Calculator
What the parent borrows, and on what terms
Your result will appear here
Fill in the fields on the left and this updates as you type.
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- General mathematical model
- Scope and limitations
- Educational estimate only. Confirm the assumptions, current rules, fees, and rounding that apply to your situation before making a decision.
- Source links checked
- Jul 30, 2026
Built and regression-tested by Smart Tools Lab. It has not been individually reviewed by a licensed financial, tax, or legal professional.
How to use
- 01
Enter what a parent plans to borrow for this student each year. The law caps parent PLUS at $20,000 a year per dependent student from 1 July 2026, and the example uses $15,000.
- 02
Enter the number of years the parent expects to borrow for — four in the example, which brings the total to $60,000 against the $65,000 aggregate cap.
- 03
Leave the repayment term at 0 to use the standard plan term the balance sets under 34 CFR 685.208(c)(1): ten years under $25,000, fifteen to under $50,000, twenty to under $100,000 and twenty-five at $100,000 or more. Type a number only if your servicer has given you a different term.
- 04
Enter the parent's gross income so the page can show what the payment takes out of each month, and set the deferment field to 1 if the parent intends to postpone payments while the student is in school.
- 05
Read the monthly payment, then the three figures that matter most: what actually reaches the school after the 4.228% fee, the total interest, and the note that the Repayment Assistance Plan will not take this loan.
Formula
Amount borrowed = the yearly amount x the years of study, capped at the $65,000 aggregate for that dependent student. What reaches the school = amount borrowed x (1 − the origination fee). The fee is 4.228% for first disbursements before 1 October 2027. Interest is charged on the full amount borrowed, not on the smaller sum that arrived. If payments are postponed while the student studies, each year's disbursement accrues interest until study ends, and that accrued interest is added to the principal when the deferment expires (34 CFR 685.202(b)). Balance at repayment = amount borrowed, plus that accrued interest if payments were postponed. The term comes from the balance, under 34 CFR 685.208(c)(1): under $25,000 is ten years, $25,000 to under $50,000 is fifteen, $50,000 to under $100,000 is twenty, and $100,000 or more is twenty-five. Monthly payment = B x i ÷ (1 − (1 + i)^−n), where B is the balance at repayment, i is the annual rate divided by twelve and n is the number of months. The plan sets a $50 monthly minimum. Total repaid = payment x n. Total interest = total repaid − balance at repayment.
Example
A parent borrows $15,000 a year for four years of their child's degree, at the 9.07% fixed rate for loans first disbursed between 1 July 2026 and 30 June 2027. Their gross income is $95,000. They borrow $60,000 in total, which fits inside the $65,000 aggregate cap for that student with $5,000 to spare. The 4.228% origination fee takes $2,537 off the top, so about $57,463 actually reaches the school. Because repayment begins when the loan is fully disbursed, the balance entering repayment is the $60,000 borrowed. That balance falls in the $50,000 to under $100,000 band, so the standard plan gives a twenty-year term. The payment is $543 a month, which is 6.9% of their $7,917 monthly gross income. Across twenty years they pay $130,210, of which $70,210 is interest — $2.27 for every dollar that reached the school. The first year shows how slowly it moves: of $6,510 paid, $5,396 goes to interest and only $1,114 to principal, leaving $58,886 owing at the end of year one. Run again with payments postponed while the student studies and the picture worsens. Interest of $13,605 builds up before the first bill, so repayment starts at $73,605, the payment becomes $666 a month, and the total repaid becomes $159,735 — $29,525 more for the same $60,000 borrowed.
Definitions
- Parent PLUS loan
- A federal loan a parent takes out for a dependent undergraduate. Capped at $20,000 a year and $65,000 in total per student from 1 July 2026, at 9.07% with a 4.228% origination fee for 2026-27.
- Excepted loan
- Public Law 119-21's term for a PLUS loan made on behalf of a dependent student, or a consolidation loan that repaid one. An excepted loan made on or after 1 July 2026 must be repaid under the standard plan and cannot enter the Repayment Assistance Plan.
- Standard plan term
- The repayment period the balance sets for loans made on or after 1 July 2026: ten years under $25,000, fifteen to under $50,000, twenty to under $100,000, and twenty-five at $100,000 or more (34 CFR 685.208(c)(1)).
- Capitalization
- Adding unpaid accrued interest to the principal balance, after which it earns interest of its own. For a loan with no interest subsidy this happens when a deferment expires (34 CFR 685.202(b)).
- Direct Consolidation Loan
- A single new federal loan that pays off several others. From 1 July 2026 a consolidation loan may be repaid only under the standard plan or the Repayment Assistance Plan, and one that repaid a parent PLUS loan is itself an excepted loan.
Good to know
The most expensive federal loan a family can take
Parent PLUS is federal, which leads families to assume it carries the same terms as a student's own federal loans. It does not, and the gap is wide on both of the numbers that decide what a loan costs. The rate for loans first disbursed between 1 July 2026 and 30 June 2027 is 9.07%, against 6.52% for an undergraduate Direct loan, and the origination fee is 4.228% against 1.057%. That fee is not a rounding error. On the $60,000 the worked example borrows across four years, it takes $2,537 off the top, so about $57,463 actually reaches the school while interest is charged on the full $60,000 from the day each payment is made. The term then compounds the rate. Under 34 CFR 685.208(c)(1) the standard plan sets the repayment period from the balance, and a $60,000 balance falls in the band that gives twenty years. The payment is $543 a month, which sounds manageable against the $95,000 income in the example — 6.9% of gross monthly pay — until you follow it to the end. Over twenty years the parent repays $130,210, of which $70,210 is interest. For every dollar that actually reached the school, $2.27 goes back out. The first year of the schedule shows why: of $6,510 paid, $5,396 is interest and only $1,114 touches the principal. A high rate on a long term is simply an expensive combination, and the borrower here is a parent who may be fifteen years from retirement rather than a graduate at the start of a career. None of this makes parent PLUS wrong. It makes it the last federal money to take rather than the first, and it makes the amount worth minimizing rather than accepting at whatever figure the award letter shows.
Why the Repayment Assistance Plan will not take this loan
The single most important thing about a parent PLUS loan taken today is which repayment plans it can never use. Public Law 119-21 defines an excepted loan as a Federal Direct PLUS Loan made on behalf of a dependent student, or a consolidation loan whose proceeds repaid one. It then requires a borrower who has an excepted loan made on or after 1 July 2026 to repay each such loan under the standard repayment plan. The Repayment Assistance Plan — the income-driven plan the same law created, under which a payment is a percentage of adjusted gross income, unpaid interest is waived and the balance is cancelled after 360 qualifying payments — is closed to it. So is income-based repayment under section 493C, which excludes excepted PLUS and excepted consolidation loans by name. That means the $543 monthly payment in the worked example is not a starting point that can be reduced if the parent's income falls. It is the payment, for twenty years, and the only statutory flexibility is the right the law does grant: to pay the loan off early without any penalty. This matters most in the situations families do not plan for. A parent who retires, is laid off, or becomes ill during those twenty years cannot move a parent PLUS loan onto an income-driven plan the way a graduate can with their own loans. Deferment and forbearance still exist and can pause payments temporarily, but interest continues to accrue throughout, so a pause makes the eventual balance larger rather than smaller. The practical conclusion is to size a parent PLUS loan against the income the parent expects to have for the whole of the repayment period, not the income they have in the year the child starts college. If that arithmetic does not work, it is far better to discover it before signing than in year eight. The servicer assigned to the loan is the place to confirm any of this for a specific account.
What consolidation does now, and what it no longer does
For years there was a well-known route around the restriction described above. A parent PLUS loan could not go on an income-driven plan directly, but consolidating it into a Direct Consolidation Loan made the new loan eligible for Income-Contingent Repayment, which at least tied the payment to income. Families and financial advisers used it widely, and it is still described in a great deal of material written before 2026. Public Law 119-21 closed it, and the detail matters because the closure is not quite total. Reading the statute directly on 16 September 2026: a Direct Consolidation Loan made on or after 1 July 2026 may be repaid only under the standard plan or the Repayment Assistance Plan, and a consolidation loan whose proceeds repaid a parent PLUS loan is itself an excepted loan, which means the standard plan. Income-Contingent Repayment is repealed outright with effect from 1 July 2028. The one surviving path is a grandfather clause: a consolidation loan that was already being repaid under ICR or another income-driven plan at some point before 30 June 2028 is not treated as an excepted consolidation loan, and keeps its access. So a family already partway through that strategy may still have it, and a family starting today does not. This is precisely the kind of provision where general guidance is dangerous, because the answer depends on dates specific to one account. Consolidation still does useful, duller things worth knowing about: it combines several loans into a single payment, and it can lengthen the term, which lowers the monthly payment while raising the total interest paid. It can also bring a defaulted loan back into good standing. None of those require an income-driven plan to be worthwhile. Before consolidating anything, ask your servicer in writing which plans the resulting loan would be eligible for, and keep the answer.
Whose debt this is, and what it means for both generations
A parent PLUS loan is the parent's debt in every sense that matters, and families regularly misunderstand this because the money went to the child's education. The parent signs the promissory note. The balance appears on the parent's credit report and counts in the parent's debt-to-income ratio, which is the figure a mortgage lender or a car lender will judge them by. If the loan goes unpaid, the parent is the one a servicer pursues, and federal collection powers are considerable: administrative wage garnishment, offset of tax refunds, and offset of Social Security benefits are all available without a court judgment. There is no federal mechanism to transfer the loan to the student it paid for, however willing both parties are. The only way to move it into the child's name is a private refinance, and that is not a transfer but a brand new private loan, which extinguishes every federal protection the original had: the death and disability discharge, access to federal deferments, and any future federal relief. Families should think carefully before treating that as a solution. Two practical points follow. First, a parent should price this loan against their own retirement, not against the child's future salary, because the repayment period in the worked example runs twenty years and payments that reach into retirement reduce the income available then. Second, a family that intends the child to repay the loan informally should write that understanding down and revisit it honestly, because the legal obligation will not move and the parent carries the consequences of any gap. The federal death discharge is one genuine protection here worth knowing: if the parent borrower dies, or the student on whose behalf the loan was taken dies, the loan is discharged, and since 2026 such a discharge is permanently tax-free. That is a protection a private refinance would give up.
Frequently asked questions
What will a parent PLUS loan actually cost?
On this page's example — $15,000 a year for four years at 9.07% — the parent borrows $60,000, of which about $57,463 reaches the school after the 4.228% origination fee. The standard plan gives a twenty-year term for that balance, so the payment is $543 a month, the total interest is $70,210, and the parent repays $130,210 in all. That is $2.27 for every dollar that actually reached the school.
How much can a parent borrow?
From 1 July 2026, all of a dependent student's parents together may borrow $20,000 a year for that student and $65,000 in total, under Public Law 119-21. The aggregate is counted 'without regard to any amounts repaid, forgiven, canceled, or otherwise discharged', so paying the loan down does not restore the room. In the example, four years at $15,000 uses $60,000 of the $65,000 and leaves $5,000.
Can a parent PLUS loan go on an income-driven plan?
No. Public Law 119-21 defines a PLUS loan made on behalf of a dependent student as an 'excepted loan' and requires a borrower with an excepted loan made on or after 1 July 2026 to repay it under the standard plan. The Repayment Assistance Plan, which ties a student's payment to income and cancels the balance after 360 payments, does not accept it. The statute does give one relief: the right to pay the loan off early without any penalty.
Does consolidating open up income-contingent repayment?
Not for a new loan, and this was verified in the statute on 16 September 2026. A Direct Consolidation Loan made on or after 1 July 2026 may be repaid only under the standard plan or the Repayment Assistance Plan, and a consolidation whose proceeds repaid a parent PLUS loan is itself an excepted loan, so it goes on the standard plan. The old route — consolidate, then enter Income-Contingent Repayment — survives only where a consolidation loan was already being repaid under ICR or another income-driven plan at some point before 30 June 2028. ICR is repealed outright from 1 July 2028. Ask your servicer to confirm your own loans in writing.
When does interest start, and what if we postpone payments?
Interest accrues from the day of each disbursement, whatever else happens. Repayment normally begins as soon as the loan is fully paid out, which is what the page assumes by default. A parent may ask to postpone payments while the student is enrolled, but interest keeps building: in the example, deferring through four years of study adds about $13,605, so repayment starts at $73,605 instead of $60,000, the payment rises from $543 to $666 a month, and the total repaid rises from $130,210 to $159,735.
Can my child take over the loan later?
No. A parent PLUS loan is the parent's own debt. The parent signs the promissory note, the parent's credit report carries the balance, and the parent is the one a servicer pursues. There is no federal mechanism to transfer it to the student it paid for. A private refinance in the student's name is not a transfer either — it is a brand new private loan that ends every federal protection the original had, including the death and disability discharge.