RAP vs IBR Calculator
The loan, your income and the family it supports
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 the balance and interest rate on the federal loans you are choosing a plan for. The example uses $45,000 at 6.52%.
- 02
Enter your adjusted gross income and your family size. Family size drives the IBR calculation and means you, your spouse and your dependents. The example uses $52,000 and a family of one.
- 03
Enter the dependents you claim under section 152 separately. RAP takes $50 a month off for each of them, which is a different rule from IBR's family-size exemption, so the two fields are not the same number.
- 04
Open the advanced panel and check the IBR percentage and forgiveness term against your own history. The page defaults to 10% and 240 payments, which applies if you had no Direct or FFEL balance before 1 July 2014. If you were borrowing before that date, change them to 15% and 300.
- 05
Read which plan is cheaper over the whole loan at the top, then compare the two payments, the two totals and the two forgiveness dates in the table, and check the crossover income to see whether the answer would change if you earned more.
Formula
The two plans are compared on the same loan, run to the end. RAP payment = the banded base payment on ALL adjusted gross income, divided by 12, minus $50 per dependent, floored at $10. Unpaid interest is waived, and the matching principal payment guarantees the lesser of $50 and the payment comes off principal each month. Forgiveness at 360 qualifying payments. IBR payment = the LESSER of: (a) the plan percentage times discretionary income, divided by 12, where discretionary income = adjusted gross income minus 150% of the poverty guideline for your family size; and (b) the ten-year standard payment on the balances and rates when you entered the plan. The plan percentage is 10% for a borrower new on or after 1 July 2014 and 15% otherwise. Unpaid interest is NOT waived and accumulates. Forgiveness at 240 payments for a new borrower and 300 otherwise. Poverty guideline = the one-person figure plus an amount for each additional person. HHS 2026 for the 48 contiguous states and DC: $15,960 plus $5,680 per extra person. The crossover income is found by scanning incomes from $0 to $250,000 and reporting the first point at which the cheaper plan changes.
Example
A single borrower owes $45,000 at 6.52%, earns $52,000, claims no dependents and expects 3% income growth. IBR's exemption is 150% of the $15,960 one-person guideline, which is $23,940, so discretionary income is $28,060 and the IBR payment is 10% of that over twelve months: $233.83. RAP's 5% band on the full $52,000 gives $216.67, so RAP is $17.17 a month cheaper today. Over the whole loan RAP costs $80,259 across 18 years and 4 months, while IBR costs $86,532 across 19 years and 4 months, so RAP saves $6,274. Neither plan reaches forgiveness here: both clear the balance first, so nothing is cancelled and nothing is taxed. Scanning incomes from zero to $250,000 finds no point at which IBR becomes the cheaper of the two at this family size and balance. IBR's ten-year standard cap of $511.42 would only bind at a much higher income.
Definitions
- Discretionary income
- For IBR, the amount by which your adjusted gross income exceeds 150% of the federal poverty guideline for your family size. It is the base the IBR percentage is applied to. RAP does not use discretionary income at all.
- New borrower
- For IBR, a borrower with no outstanding balance on a Direct or FFEL loan before 1 July 2014. A new borrower pays 10% of discretionary income and is forgiven after 240 payments; anyone else pays 15% and is forgiven after 300.
- Family size
- You, your spouse and your dependents. It sets the poverty guideline used in the IBR exemption. It is not the same as the dependent count RAP uses, which follows section 152 of the tax code and reduces the payment by a flat $50 each.
- Ten-year standard cap
- The rule that an IBR payment can never exceed what you would have paid on a ten-year standard plan, calculated on the balances and rates in force when you entered IBR.
- Crossover income
- The income at which the cheaper of the two plans changes. Because RAP's bands step up in whole percentage points while IBR rises smoothly, the crossover is a neighbourhood rather than a precise threshold, and on some loans there is none.
Good to know
Who still has a choice to make
This comparison only matters to a particular group of borrowers, and it is worth establishing whether you are in it before reading any of the numbers. A federal student loan made on or after 1 July 2026 has exactly two repayment options: the standard plan, whose term is set by the balance, and the Repayment Assistance Plan. Income-Based Repayment is not among them, and the statute forbids the Secretary from offering anything else for those loans. If every loan you hold was made on or after that date, there is no choice to model here and the relevant comparison is RAP against the standard plan. The people this page is built for are those with at least one loan made before 1 July 2026. For them IBR remains available, and the arrival of RAP alongside it creates a genuine decision. The largest group in that position are borrowers who were enrolled in the SAVE plan, which Public Law 119-21 eliminated. They are being moved, they must choose a destination, and the two realistic destinations are the two plans compared here. There is a trap for borrowers holding loans from both sides of the date. The older loans can go to IBR while the newer ones cannot, which means a split portfolio can sit in two different plans at once. Consolidating them into a single Direct Consolidation Loan looks like a tidy solution and is usually the wrong move, because a consolidation loan made on or after 1 July 2026 is itself a new loan under the new rules and can only be repaid on the standard plan or RAP. Consolidating therefore destroys IBR eligibility for the older loans permanently. If you are in that position, work out what the older loans are worth to you under IBR before combining anything, and ask your servicer to confirm in writing which plans each loan currently qualifies for.
Two different ways to turn income into a payment
The two plans both charge a share of income, and that superficial similarity hides a structural difference that decides which is cheaper. IBR uses the older and more familiar design: it ignores an exempt slice of your income entirely and charges a percentage of everything above it. The exempt slice is 150% of the federal poverty guideline for your family size. For a single borrower in the 48 contiguous states in 2026, the guideline is $15,960, so the exempt amount is $23,940. A borrower earning $52,000 therefore has $28,060 of discretionary income, and IBR charges 10% of that over twelve months, which is $233.83 a month. RAP has no exemption at all. It charges a banded percentage of every dollar of adjusted gross income, from the first one. At $52,000 the band is 5%, giving $216.67 a month. The practical effect of that difference is systematic. Because IBR's exemption is a fixed dollar amount, it is worth a great deal to someone earning $30,000 and almost nothing to someone earning $200,000. At low incomes IBR is usually the cheaper monthly payment, sometimes dramatically so, because a borrower earning close to the exempt amount owes almost nothing. As income rises the exemption shrinks in relative terms while RAP's bands climb only one point per $10,000, and the two converge and can swap places. That is why the page scans a wide range of incomes looking for the point where the cheaper plan changes. It does not always find one: at the example's family size and balance, RAP is cheaper at every income up to $250,000. One more difference matters at high incomes. IBR is capped at what you would have paid on a ten-year standard plan, which is $511.42 in the example, so a large income cannot push an IBR payment above that ceiling. RAP has no such cap.
Why the monthly payment is the wrong thing to compare
It is natural to pick the plan with the smaller monthly payment, and on a long loan that instinct is often wrong. The example on this page shows why. IBR asks $233.83 a month and RAP asks $216.67, so RAP wins on the monthly figure by $17.17. But the totals tell a fuller story: $80,259 under RAP against $86,532 under IBR, a difference of $6,274 across the life of the loan. The gap comes from what happens to interest your payment does not cover, and from what happens to principal. Under RAP, unpaid interest is waived rather than charged, and the matching principal payment forces at least $50 off the balance every month you pay on time. The balance can only move downward. Under IBR there is no equivalent for most borrowers: a payment smaller than the month's interest leaves the shortfall to accumulate, and the balance can grow for years. A borrower who watches their debt rise while making every payment on time is usually on one of the older plans, and that experience is what the RAP waiver was written to end. The counterweight is the forgiveness horizon, and it can reverse the answer entirely. IBR forgives after 240 payments for a borrower who is new on or after 1 July 2014, while RAP runs to 360. Twenty years against thirty is a very large difference for someone whose income stays low enough that the loan will never be repaid in full. Such a borrower may pay far less in total under IBR despite the interest piling up, simply because they stop paying ten years sooner and a larger balance is written off. The rule of thumb that emerges is this: if your income is high enough that you will clear the balance, RAP's waiver and match usually make it cheaper. If your income is low enough that forgiveness is the realistic ending, the shorter horizon usually wins.
Which version of IBR applies to you, and why the date matters
Income-Based Repayment is not one plan but two, and a page that models the wrong one will mislead you by a wide margin. The dividing line is 1 July 2014. A borrower who had no outstanding balance on a Direct or FFEL loan before that date is a new borrower under the regulation, and pays 10% of discretionary income with forgiveness after 240 qualifying payments. A borrower who was already carrying federal student debt before 1 July 2014 falls under the older terms: 15% of discretionary income, with forgiveness after 300 payments. Half as much again each month, and five more years of it. This page models the newer version by default, because it is the one a majority of borrowers now fall under, and both figures sit in the advanced panel as editable fields. If you were borrowing before July 2014, change them before you read a single total, because the comparison flips for many people once IBR costs 15% rather than 10%. The same regulation contains a detail that protects borrowers whose incomes rise sharply. Whichever version applies, the IBR payment is the lesser of the percentage figure and what you would have paid on a ten-year standard plan, calculated on the balances and rates in place when you entered the plan. In the example that ceiling is $511.42, so however much the borrower goes on to earn, IBR will not ask more than that. RAP has no ceiling of this kind: its 10% top band applies to every dollar above $100,000 of income, so a high earner can end up paying considerably more under RAP than under IBR. Two practical points. Family size drives the IBR exemption directly, and it includes you, your spouse and your dependents, so it is not the same figure as the dependent count RAP uses. And Alaska and Hawaii have their own poverty tables with higher figures, which is why both parts of the guideline remain editable. Your servicer can confirm which version of IBR your loans fall under.
Frequently asked questions
Who can still choose between these two plans?
Only borrowers with at least one loan made before 1 July 2026. A loan made on or after that date has exactly two options, the standard plan or RAP, and IBR is not among them. The largest group with a real choice are borrowers being moved off the eliminated SAVE plan.
Why is the IBR payment higher than the RAP payment in the example?
The two are built differently. IBR exempts 150% of the poverty guideline and charges a percentage of everything above it; RAP charges a banded percentage of every dollar from the first. For a single borrower in 2026 the exemption is $23,940, so on $52,000 of income IBR charges 10% of $28,060 over twelve months, which is $233.83. RAP's 5% band on the full $52,000 gives $216.67.
Does the cheaper monthly payment mean the cheaper plan?
Not necessarily, and in the example the two happen to agree. RAP costs $80,259 in total against IBR's $86,532, a difference of $6,274. RAP wins on the total because it waives interest the payment cannot cover and forces at least $50 off principal each month, while IBR lets unpaid interest accumulate. But IBR forgives after 240 payments against RAP's 360, so a borrower whose income stays low can pay less in total under IBR simply by stopping ten years sooner.
Why does the page sometimes say the plans do not cross?
The page scans incomes from zero to $250,000 looking for the point where the cheaper plan changes. At the example's family size and balance, RAP asks less at every income in that range, so there is no crossover to report. Change the family size or the dependent count and the answer can flip, because family size lifts IBR's exempt amount and dependents cut the RAP payment directly.
Which version of IBR does this page model?
By default the newer one: 10% of discretionary income with forgiveness after 240 payments, which applies to a borrower who had no outstanding Direct or FFEL balance before 1 July 2014. Borrowers who were already carrying federal student debt before that date fall under the older terms of 15% and 300 payments, and both figures are editable in the advanced panel.
Is the IBR payment capped?
Yes. Under 34 CFR 685.209 the IBR payment is the lesser of the percentage figure and what you would have paid on a ten-year standard plan, based on the balances and rates when you entered the plan. In the example that ceiling is $511.42. RAP has no equivalent cap, so a high earner can pay more under RAP than under IBR.
Should I consolidate my older and newer loans together?
Usually not, if the older ones qualify for IBR. A Direct Consolidation Loan made on or after 1 July 2026 is a new loan under the new rules and can only be repaid on the standard plan or RAP, so consolidating destroys IBR eligibility for the older loans permanently. Ask your servicer which plans each loan qualifies for before combining anything.