Debt Avalanche Calculator

Last updated: August 5, 2026

Highest interest rate first. Enter your debts and this avalanche calculator builds the month by month schedule that minimises total interest, showing when each debt closes and what the ordering saves you.

How to use this calculator

Add every debt you want included, with its balance, APR, and minimum payment. This tool always runs the avalanche order: your highest interest rate is targeted first regardless of balance size, and every debt's minimum still gets paid. Enter a recurring extra payment if you have one; APR is the field that decides the order here, so copy it exactly from your statement rather than estimating.

Avalanche method calculator

The tool above is a complete avalanche method calculator: highest APR first, rolling payments, full schedule. The rate column decides everything here, so copy APRs from your statements rather than guessing.

Worked example

Three debts: Card A with $2,400 at 26.99% APR and a $60 minimum, Card B with $850 at 22.15% APR and a $35 minimum, and a personal loan of $5,000 at 11.86% APR with a $150 minimum, plus $200 extra per month. The 22.15% and 11.86% figures are the Federal Reserve's published May 2026 averages for card accounts assessed interest and 24-month personal loans; Card A's 26.99% is a hypothetical above-average rate.

Under the avalanche, Card A at 26.99% goes first, gone in month 11. Card B follows in month 13, and the personal loan closes in month 22. Debt free in 1 year and 10 months (22 months) with $1,210.14 of total interest: $34.07 less than the snowball order on identical debts and payments, and $3,976.19 less than minimum payments alone.

Want the same debts run both ways at once? Use the snowball vs avalanche comparison, or the full debt payoff calculator to include a minimums-only baseline.

The interest assumption, stated plainly

This calculator applies a monthly periodic rate, your annual rate divided by twelve, to each balance at the start of each month. Many card issuers instead apply a daily periodic rate, the APR divided by 365 or 360, to an average daily balance, which compounds daily. Your real statement will therefore differ from these results. Treat everything here as a planning estimate, not a payoff quote, and confirm figures with your lender. The full method and its sources are documented on the About page. Every figure on this page is generated by a Python engine, independently cross-checked against a JavaScript version before publishing, so the arithmetic itself has been verified even though it cannot capture your lender's exact billing cycle.

Frequently asked questions

What is the debt avalanche method?

You make minimum payments on everything, then put every spare dollar toward the debt with the highest interest rate. When it is cleared, its payment rolls onto the next highest rate. Because the most expensive borrowing dies first, the avalanche always pays the same or less total interest than any other ordering of the same payments.

How much does the avalanche save?

It depends on the spread between your rates and the size of the high-rate balances. In the worked example on this page it saves $34.07 against the snowball with both finishing in 22 months. Against minimum payments only, the same debts with a $200 extra payment save $3,976.19 and finish 82 months sooner.

Avalanche or snowball, which is better?

The avalanche wins on arithmetic every time. The snowball closes whole accounts sooner, which published research links to actually finishing. If the interest difference for your debts is small, and it often is, pick whichever you will sustain; if it is large, the avalanche is hard to argue with. The side by side comparison shows your own gap in dollars and months.

What if two debts have the same interest rate?

This calculator breaks the tie by the order you entered them, so the one higher in your list is paid first. With identical rates the total interest is the same either way; only the payoff order of those two debts changes.

Why is it called an avalanche?

The name contrasts with the snowball: instead of building momentum from small wins, you knock out the debt doing the most damage first, and the payments crash down the rate ladder from the top.

Sources

• Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Consumer Credit G.19, current release. Release date July 8, 2026, covering May 2026: 22.15% average on card accounts assessed interest, 11.86% average on 24-month personal loans. Checked 2026-08-03.
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How does my credit card company calculate the amount of interest I owe? Checked 2026-08-03.