VA Loan Calculator
Loans & MortgagesZero-down payment with the VA funding fee.
Purchase, down payment, rate & term
Enter a home price above zero to estimate your VA payment.
Advanced — fee handling, escrow, extra payment & DTI
Enter a home price above zero to estimate your VA payment.
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- General model; U.S.-specific rules are identified on the relevant tool
- Scope and limitations
- Educational estimate only. A lender may use different compounding, day-count, eligibility, tax, insurance, escrow, fee, or rounding rules.
- 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 home price, your down payment (VA allows 0%), the interest rate and the loan term — the headline updates to your full monthly payment, with no PMI.
- 02
Choose your VA funding-fee status — first use, subsequent use, or exempt — then open Advanced to roll the fee into the loan or pay it in cash, add property tax, insurance, HOA and an optional extra payment.
- 03
Read your base loan, financed funding fee, total loan, the mortgage insurance you avoid versus a conventional loan, cash to close, DTI and the year-by-year amortization below.
Formula
Base loan = home price − down payment. The VA funding fee is a percent of the base loan, set by your down-payment tier and by whether this is your first or a subsequent VA loan (exempt borrowers pay nothing): • First use: 2.15% under 5% down, 1.50% at 5–9.99% down, 1.25% at 10%+ down • Subsequent use: 3.30% under 5% down, then the same 1.50% / 1.25% at 5%+ down When financed, the fee is added on top, so total loan = base loan + funding fee (and at 0% down that total exceeds the home's price). The monthly principal & interest amortizes that total loan: P&I = L × [ r(1+r)^n ] ÷ [ (1+r)^n − 1 ] where L is the total loan, r the monthly rate (annual ÷ 12) and n the number of months (years × 12). Your full monthly payment adds property tax, insurance and HOA — but never mortgage insurance, because VA loans charge none. Total interest is every payment summed minus the loan; cash to close is the down payment plus closing costs plus any funding fee you choose to pay in cash.
Example
On a $400,000 home with $0 down you borrow the full $400,000. A first-use funding fee of 2.15% adds $8,600, which financed brings the total loan to $408,600 — about 102% of the price. At 6.25% over 30 years the principal & interest is roughly $2,516 a month; add property tax and insurance and your payment is about $3,032 a month, with no PMI. A conventional borrower putting nothing down would pay around $250 a month in PMI for roughly 13 years — close to $38,000 that the VA loan saves you. Paying an extra $300 a month would clear the loan about seven years early and save well over $100,000 in interest.
Definitions
- VA funding fee
- A one-time fee, charged as a percent of the base loan, that funds the VA loan program in place of monthly mortgage insurance. It varies by down payment and by whether it's your first or a subsequent VA loan.
- First vs subsequent use
- Your first VA-backed purchase loan pays a lower funding fee than later ones — but only when you put less than 5% down. At 5% or more down the rate is identical either way.
- Funding-fee exemption
- Veterans receiving VA disability compensation, certain surviving spouses and some Purple Heart recipients pay no funding fee at all.
- Entitlement
- The portion of a VA loan the government guarantees to the lender. With full entitlement there is no loan limit, which is what makes 0% down possible on most homes.
- 100% financing
- VA loans can finance the entire purchase price, so no down payment is required — a defining benefit unavailable on conventional or FHA loans.
- No PMI
- Unlike conventional loans under 20% down or FHA loans, VA loans never charge monthly mortgage insurance, which lowers the payment for the life of the loan.
- PITI
- Principal, Interest, Taxes and Insurance — the core parts of a monthly housing payment. This tool also adds HOA dues for an all-in figure, with no mortgage-insurance line.
- Residual income
- The cash left each month after the mortgage, debts and basic living costs. The VA weighs residual income heavily and can approve higher DTIs when it is strong.
- Cash to close
- The cash you need on closing day: the down payment plus closing costs, plus the funding fee only if you choose to pay it up front rather than finance it.
Good to know
What a VA loan is, and the bargain at its heart
A VA loan is a conventional-looking mortgage wrapped in a guaranty from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and that guaranty explains almost everything the loan does differently. The VA does not lend money; it promises the lender that if a qualified veteran defaults, the government will cover a portion of the loss. That backstop is powerful enough to let a lender do two things no ordinary mortgage allows: accept a down payment of nothing at all, and skip mortgage insurance entirely. In exchange the borrower pays a one-time VA funding fee, which capitalizes the program so it can keep guaranteeing loans for the next generation of veterans. This is the central trade of a VA loan — easier, cheaper access to homeownership in return for a single upfront fee rather than years of monthly insurance premiums. The program exists for a specific group: veterans, active-duty service members, National Guard and Reserve members with enough qualifying service, and certain surviving spouses. For them the relevant comparison is rarely whether a VA loan is theoretically the cheapest mortgage in existence; it is that the VA loan is usually the cheapest one they can actually get, because no other program combines zero down with no mortgage insurance. The defaults in this calculator describe exactly that borrower: a $400,000 home bought with nothing down, a base loan of $400,000, and a payment of roughly $3,032 a month that carries no PMI line at all. Reading the rest of the results well means holding the trade in mind throughout — the funding fee is the price of admission, and the absence of mortgage insurance is what you get for it. The tool is built to make both halves visible so you can judge the deal on its real terms rather than on the headline rate alone.
Zero down and 100% financing: the benefit and its catch
The single most famous feature of a VA loan is that it can require no down payment. With full entitlement, the VA guarantees enough of the loan that a lender will finance the entire purchase price, which is why the default case borrows the full $400,000 against a $400,000 home. For a buyer who has the income to carry a mortgage but not years of savings for a 20% down payment, this is transformative — it removes the largest single barrier to buying and lets you start building equity immediately rather than renting while you save. But 100% financing has a catch worth understanding before you lean on it. When you also finance the funding fee, the amount you owe is larger than the home is worth on day one: the default loan of $408,600 is about 102% of the price. That is not a crisis, but it does mean you begin with slightly negative equity and it takes longer to reach the point where you could sell, cover the selling costs, and walk away whole. If home values dip early, a zero-down borrower has no cushion. The practical implication is not to avoid zero down — it is often the right choice — but to treat it as a decision about time horizon. A buyer who expects to stay several years will build equity through both appreciation and principal payments and the early thinness becomes irrelevant. A buyer who might need to move within a year or two should think harder, because selling soon after buying with nothing down can mean bringing cash to the closing table. Putting even 5% down changes this materially, and the calculator's scenarios let you see exactly how much the loan, the fee and the starting equity shift when you do.
The VA funding fee, decoded
The funding fee is the part of a VA loan most borrowers understand least, yet it is the one number that most distinguishes the program's cost from a conventional loan. It is a one-time charge calculated as a percentage of your base loan, and the percentage depends on two things: how much you put down, and whether this is your first VA loan or a later one. For a purchase with first-time use, the fee is 2.15% of the base loan when you put less than 5% down, 1.50% at 5% to just under 10% down, and 1.25% at 10% or more. Subsequent use is more expensive only at the bottom tier — 3.30% under 5% down — but at 5% or more down a subsequent-use borrower pays exactly the same reduced rate as a first-time buyer. This is a subtle but important point that confuses many people: toggling between first and subsequent use changes nothing once your down payment reaches 5%, because both tiers converge there. On the default zero-down, first-use loan the fee is 2.15% of $400,000, or $8,600. You can pay that fee in cash at closing or, as most borrowers do, finance it by adding it to the loan. Financing keeps your cash outlay small but means you pay interest on the fee for the life of the loan and start with a balance above the home's price; paying cash keeps the loan and the monthly payment smaller. The calculator lets you flip between the two and watch the loan, payment and cash-to-close move. The most valuable thing the funding fee buys, though, is what it replaces — and that is the subject of the next section.
No mortgage insurance: the saving that quietly compounds
The defining financial advantage of a VA loan is what is missing from the monthly payment: there is no mortgage insurance, ever. A conventional borrower who puts down less than 20% pays private mortgage insurance until their equity reaches roughly 20%, and an FHA borrower pays an annual mortgage-insurance premium that, with a low down payment, never cancels at all. A VA borrower pays neither, even at zero down. This single difference is easy to underrate because it does not show up as a discount on the rate or a smaller loan; it shows up as a line item that simply is not there. The calculator makes the saving concrete by estimating what a conventional borrower at the same price and down payment would pay. In the default case that is about $250 a month in PMI, charged for roughly thirteen years until the balance falls to 78% of the original value — close to $38,000 over the period. That is money a VA borrower keeps. Stated as a monthly figure the gap can look modest, but it compounds in two ways: it is paid every month for years, and the money not spent on insurance can go toward principal, savings or simply a lower cost of living. When people say a VA loan is one of the best mortgage products available, the absence of mortgage insurance is the heart of what they mean. It is worth weighing against the funding fee directly: the fee is a one-time cost you pay once, while PMI is a recurring cost you pay for years, which is why even a financed funding fee usually comes out far cheaper than the insurance it replaces.
Reading your monthly payment, line by line
The headline payment of about $3,032 in the default case is not a single charge but a stack of them, and a buyer who knows only the total is flying blind. The largest piece is principal and interest — roughly $2,516 — which both repays the loan and compensates the lender. On top of that sit the escrow items: property tax, estimated here at 1.1% of the home's value spread across twelve months, and homeowners insurance, billed yearly and collected monthly into an escrow account your lender uses to pay those bills on your behalf. Some buyers also pay HOA or condo dues, which go directly to the association rather than into escrow. What is conspicuously absent from a VA payment is any mortgage-insurance line — the slot that holds PMI on a conventional loan or MIP on an FHA loan is simply empty. The payment-breakdown donut and the monthly payment table split these parts out so you can see where your money goes, and the proportions often surprise people: principal and interest dominates, but taxes and insurance together can rival a few hundred dollars a month and tend to drift upward over time even on a fixed-rate loan, as assessments climb and premiums rise. That matters for budgeting in two ways. First, only the principal portion and, indirectly, the equity you build are truly yours; tax and insurance are recurring costs that never come back. Second, the payment you see today is not frozen — the escrow components grow — so it is wise to treat the figure as a living budget with a little room to spare rather than a fixed number you can stretch to the limit.
Entitlement, the Certificate of Eligibility and loan limits
Behind every VA loan sits a concept called entitlement — the amount the VA will guarantee on your behalf — and it is what makes zero down possible. To use a VA loan you first obtain a Certificate of Eligibility, or COE, which confirms your service qualifies and how much entitlement you have. The pivotal distinction is between full and reduced entitlement. A borrower with full entitlement, which most first-time VA buyers have, faces no VA loan limit at all: the guaranty scales with the loan, so a lender will finance the full price of essentially any home the borrower can afford, with nothing down. This calculator assumes that standard, full-entitlement case, which is why it does not impose a loan limit on the zero-down amount. Reduced entitlement is the exception, and it arises mainly when you already have an active VA loan or defaulted on one previously. In that situation the guaranty is capped at a share of the county conforming loan limit, and to buy above that limit you may need a down payment of roughly a quarter of the excess to make up the difference the VA will not guarantee. Because that math depends on exactly how much entitlement you have already used — a figure only your COE can confirm — it is the one area where you should rely on the VA or a VA-approved lender rather than an estimate. The eligibility assumptions card in the calculator states the standard case plainly: full entitlement, a valid COE, a primary residence, and a property that meets the VA's minimum requirements at appraisal. If any of those does not hold, the zero-down figures here may not apply to you, and confirming your entitlement before you shop is the single most important first step.
Qualifying: debt-to-income and the residual-income test
Getting a VA loan approved comes down to whether you can comfortably carry the payment, and the VA judges that with two tools the calculator helps you estimate. The first is the familiar debt-to-income ratio: your total monthly housing payment plus other debts, divided by gross monthly income, measured against a guideline of about 41%. In the default case a roughly $3,032 payment plus $400 of other debts against $8,000 of income is a back-end ratio near 43%, just over the guideline, which the tool flags as a stretch. On its own that would worry a conventional underwriter, but the VA's second tool is what sets the program apart: residual income. Residual income is the cash left in your pocket each month after the mortgage, debts and basic living costs — money available for food, fuel, emergencies and ordinary life. The VA weighs it heavily, and a borrower with strong residual income can be approved at a debt-to-income ratio that other programs would reject, because the residual figure proves the budget actually works regardless of what the ratio says. This calculator shows a simplified residual figure — income minus the housing payment and debts — to give you a feel for the cushion, though a lender's formal calculation also subtracts taxes and a regional living-cost allowance keyed to your family size. The practical takeaway is encouraging: if your DTI sits a little above 41% but you have meaningful money left over each month, a VA loan may still be well within reach. Enter your income and debts under Advanced to see both numbers, and treat a comfortable residual as the more reliable signal of whether the payment fits your life.
Down-payment strategy, refinancing and paying ahead
Because a VA loan asks for nothing down, the most useful question is not whether you can avoid a down payment but whether you should, and the scenarios in this calculator are built to answer it. Putting money down does two things at once: it lowers the funding fee — from 2.15% under 5% down to 1.50% at 5% and 1.25% at 10% — and it shrinks the loan, which lowers both the payment and the lifetime interest, while also giving you a cushion of equity from day one. Against those benefits stands the simple value of keeping your cash: many veterans rationally choose zero down precisely because preserving savings for an emergency fund or moving costs matters more than trimming the fee. There is no universally correct answer, which is why the tool shows a zero-down, a 5%, a 10% and an exempt scenario side by side so you can see the fee and payment move and decide what fits your situation. Two further levers deserve mention. First, the funding fee is a one-time cost, so if you are exempt — because you receive VA disability compensation, for example — the program becomes extraordinarily cheap, with neither a fee nor mortgage insurance, and the exempt scenario shows exactly what that is worth. Second, VA loans carry no prepayment penalty, so any extra you pay each month goes straight to principal; the extra-payment feature shows how a few hundred dollars a month can clear years off the loan and save six figures in interest. And if rates fall after you buy, the VA's streamline refinance (the IRRRL) lets you lower your rate with minimal paperwork and a much smaller funding fee, while a cash-out VA refinance can tap equity later. Modeled together, these choices turn a VA loan from a single payment into a plan you can shape over time.
Frequently asked questions
Do VA loans really require no down payment?
Yes. With full entitlement the VA guarantees enough of the loan that lenders finance 100% of the price, so a qualified borrower can buy with $0 down. Putting some money down is optional and lowers both the funding fee and the loan amount.
What is the VA funding fee and how much is it?
It's a one-time fee that replaces monthly mortgage insurance. On a purchase it's 2.15% of the base loan for first-time use with under 5% down, dropping to 1.50% at 5% down and 1.25% at 10%+ down. Subsequent use is 3.30% under 5% down but the same 1.50% / 1.25% once you put 5% or more down. Exempt borrowers pay nothing.
Can I roll the funding fee into the loan?
Yes, and most borrowers do. Financing the fee means no extra cash at closing, but you pay interest on it for the life of the loan and your balance can exceed the home's price. Paying it in cash keeps the loan and the monthly payment smaller — the calculator shows both.
Do VA loans have PMI?
No. VA loans never charge private mortgage insurance or any monthly mortgage insurance, even at 0% down. That absence — often a few hundred dollars a month versus a comparable conventional loan — is the program's signature saving, and this calculator estimates exactly how much you keep.
Who is exempt from the VA funding fee?
Veterans receiving VA disability compensation, surviving spouses of veterans who died in service or from a service-connected disability, and certain Purple Heart recipients. Select 'Exempt' and the fee drops to zero across the whole calculation.
Is there a VA loan limit?
For borrowers with full entitlement there is no VA loan limit — the basis for 0% down on most homes. Limits only apply with reduced entitlement (for example, when you already have an active VA loan), where a down payment may be required above the county conforming limit. This calculator assumes full entitlement.
How does the VA decide if I qualify?
Lenders weigh your debt-to-income ratio against a 41% guideline and, crucially, your residual income — the cash left after the mortgage and debts. Strong residual income lets the VA approve higher DTIs than most programs. Add your income under Advanced to see where you land.
Can I pay a VA loan off early?
Yes — VA loans carry no prepayment penalty. Any amount you pay above the scheduled payment goes straight to principal, shrinking the balance and all the future interest on it. Enter an extra monthly amount to see how many years and how much interest it saves.