Student Loan Refinance Calculator

About this tool

Compare your existing student loans — which often carry different rates across federal and private loans, or loans taken out in different years — against a single refinance offer. This tool combines your loans into a weighted average rate (weighted by balance, so a larger loan's rate counts for more) and calculates your current combined monthly payment against what a refinance would actually cost.

Key Features

• Add any number of existing student loans with their own balance and rate
• Calculates your true weighted average interest rate across all loans
• Compares current combined payment against the refinance offer's payment
• Shows total interest under the refinance offer
• Runs entirely in your browser — no financial details are ever uploaded

How to Use

1. Enter each current loan's balance, APR, and months remaining.
2. Enter the new APR and term from your refinance offer.
3. Click Compare to see your weighted average current rate versus the new offer.

When to use it

• Deciding whether a refinance offer that arrived by email is actually competitive against your real blended rate
• Combining several federal and private loans into a single weighted-average comparison
• Checking the new monthly payment before committing to a refinance application
• Understanding why your "average" rate isn't just a simple average of each loan's APR

Tips & limitations

• Refinancing federal student loans with a private lender means giving up federal protections — income-driven repayment plans, deferment, forbearance, and current or future federal forgiveness programs — permanently, even if the new rate is lower
• The weighted average is weighted by balance, not a simple average — a $20,000 loan at 7% pulls the blended rate up more than a $2,000 loan at 9% would
• A longer new term can lower the monthly payment while increasing total interest paid — the same trade-off that applies to any refinance
• This assumes a fixed rate for the new loan; if comparing a variable-rate offer, treat the result as based on today's rate only

How the weighted average rate is calculated

These three loans total $28,000, and the weighted average rate comes out to about 6.34% — closer to Loan A’s rate than a simple (unweighted) average of the three APRs would be, because Loan A makes up over half the total balance.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is the weighted average rate different from a simple average?

A simple average treats every loan's rate equally regardless of size. A weighted average scales each rate by how much of your total balance that loan represents, so a larger loan has more influence on the blended rate — which is the economically accurate way to think about your true overall interest cost.

Should I refinance federal loans?

That's a real trade-off, not just a math question — refinancing federal loans with a private lender permanently forfeits federal protections like income-driven repayment and current or future forgiveness programs, even if the new rate is lower. This calculator shows the payment math; the protections trade-off is worth weighing separately.

Does this account for loans with different remaining terms?

The current combined payment is calculated per loan using each loan's own remaining term, then summed — so loans with different payoff timelines are each handled correctly rather than forced into one shared term.

What if my refinance offer has an introductory or variable rate?

Enter the rate you'd actually pay under normal circumstances. This tool assumes a fixed rate for the full new term, so a variable-rate result should be treated as an estimate based on today's rate only.

Cite This Tool

Referencing this tool in a paper, article, or bibliography? Copy a ready-made citation below.

NexLove.org. (2026). Student Loan Refinance Calculator [Software]. https://nexlove.org/tools/student-loan-refinance-calculator.html

“Student Loan Refinance Calculator.” NexLove.org, 2026, nexlove.org/tools/student-loan-refinance-calculator.html.

NexLove.org (2026) Student Loan Refinance Calculator. Available at: https://nexlove.org/tools/student-loan-refinance-calculator.html (Accessed: 2026).

@misc{nexlove_student_loan_refinance_calculator,
  title = {Student Loan Refinance Calculator},
  author = {{NexLove.org}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://nexlove.org/tools/student-loan-refinance-calculator.html}
}

Embed This Tool

Add the live Student Loan Refinance Calculator tool to your own website with this snippet — it loads the real, working tool in an iframe, not a static screenshot.

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