Loan EMI Calculator

What is a loan EMI?

EMI stands for Equated Monthly Installment — the fixed amount you repay to your lender every month until the loan is fully paid off. Each EMI has two parts: the interest on the outstanding balance and a portion that reduces the principal. Early in the loan most of your EMI goes toward interest; later, more of it goes toward principal, even though the monthly amount never changes.

This calculator works for any reducing-balance loan offered by banks and NBFCs in India. For loan-specific inputs, try the dedicated Home Loan Calculator, Car Loan Calculator or Personal Loan Calculator.

The EMI formula

This calculator uses the standard reducing-balance formula:

EMI = P × r × (1 + r)^n ÷ [ (1 + r)^n − 1 ]

• P — loan amount (principal)
• r — monthly interest rate = annual rate ÷ 12 ÷ 100
• n — number of monthly installments = tenure in years × 12

Almost every retail loan in India is charged on a reducing balance, so interest is recalculated on the falling outstanding each month. Some short-term consumer and gold loans quote a flat rate instead, which looks cheaper but costs far more — a 10% flat rate is roughly equivalent to an 18% reducing-balance rate. The Simple Interest Calculator shows how flat interest is computed so you can compare the two honestly.

Working it out backwards, step by step

Most people do not arrive with all three numbers. They arrive with an EMI — the one the bank quoted, or the one their budget allows — and a gap where one of the others should be. Switch What do you want to find? at the top of the calculator and it solves in whichever direction you need. The arithmetic is below, so you can check it by hand.

How many months will it take? (you know the EMI)

Rearranging the EMI formula for n gives:

n = ln( EMI ÷ (EMI − P × r) ) ÷ ln(1 + r)

Take a ₹30,80,000 loan at 7.2% p.a. where you can pay ₹37,400 a month:

1. Monthly rate r = 7.2 ÷ 12 ÷ 100 = 0.006.
2. First month's interest is P × r = ₹18,480. The EMI clears it with ₹18,920 to spare, so the balance falls and the loan will close.
3. n = ln(37,400 ÷ 18,920) ÷ ln(1.006) = 0.6814 ÷ 0.005982 = 113.92.

So 113.92 months — 114 payments, about 9 years and 6 months, with the final instalment smaller than the rest. Total interest over the term is ₹11,80,451.

What interest rate is this really? (you know the EMI and the tenure)

There is no clean rearrangement for r — it sits inside a power and a sum at once, so it has to be solved numerically. The calculator brackets the rate and halves the interval until it converges, which stays reliable exactly where the usual shortcut (Newton's method) misbehaves, near 0%.

This is the mode to reach for when a shop offers "easy instalments" and never names a rate. A ₹1,00,000 purchase repaid at ₹9,500 a month for 12 months sounds mild — ₹14,000 of extra cost. Solved properly, it is 24.91% a year on a reducing balance.

How much loan does my budget buy? (you know the EMI you can afford)

P = EMI × (1 − (1 + r)^−n) ÷ r

At 9% over 20 years, an EMI of ₹40,000 supports a loan of ₹44,45,798 — repaying ₹96,00,000 in all, of which ₹51,54,202 is interest. Treat it as a ceiling rather than an approval: lenders also cap the amount by your income and, on secured loans, by the loan-to-value ratio. The Home Loan Eligibility Calculator applies those limits.

When the question itself does not add up

Search queries often carry an assumption that is quietly wrong. "Calculate interest on ₹18,38,079 at 10% for 1 year with an EMI of ₹51,810" cannot be satisfied as asked: at ₹51,810 a month that loan runs 42.23 months, not twelve. Clearing it inside a year would need an EMI of ₹1,61,596. The calculator answers the arithmetic rather than the assumption — and over the real 42-month term the interest comes to ₹3,49,978.

EMI for popular loan amounts and rates

The table below shows the monthly EMI for a 20-year tenure across common loan sizes and interest rates, calculated with the exact formula above. Use it as a quick sanity check before you fine-tune the sliders.

Notice how sensitive the EMI is to the rate: on a ₹50 lakh loan, moving from 8.5% to 11% adds more than ₹8,200 to every monthly payment. Over 240 months that difference alone is close to ₹20 lakh — which is why negotiating even a quarter-point matters.

How the interest-and-principal split shifts

Take a ₹25,00,000 loan at 9% p.a. for 20 years. The EMI is a constant ₹22,493.15, but what that money buys changes dramatically over the tenure:

In the very first EMI, over 83% goes to interest and barely ₹3,700 chips away at the principal. It takes roughly a decade before the split crosses over and principal starts to dominate. Across the full term you pay about ₹28,98,356 in interest — more than the loan itself — for a total outgo of ₹53,98,356. This front-loading is exactly why early prepayments are so powerful.

Fixed vs floating interest rate

A fixed rate stays the same for the whole tenure (or a fixed period), so your EMI never moves — useful when you value certainty or expect rates to rise. A floating rate is linked to an external benchmark (most banks use the RBI repo rate), so your EMI or tenure adjusts whenever the benchmark changes. Floating rates start lower and let you prepay a home loan without penalty under RBI rules, which is why most long-tenure borrowers choose them. Fixed rates suit shorter loans where a rate spike would sting.

How much EMI can you afford?

Lenders assess your FOIR (Fixed Obligation to Income Ratio) — the share of your monthly income already committed to EMIs. A widely used rule of thumb is to keep all your EMIs together under about 40% of your net monthly income. On a ₹1,00,000 take-home salary, that caps total EMIs at roughly ₹40,000, and lenders will usually count existing car, personal or credit-card obligations against that ceiling before approving a new loan.

How prepayment cuts your interest

Because interest is charged on the outstanding balance, wiping out principal early has an outsized effect. Stay with the ₹25,00,000 loan at 9% for 20 years (EMI ₹22,493). Make a one-time ₹5,00,000 prepayment at the end of year 5 and keep the same EMI, and the loan closes in about 14.5 years instead of 20 — saving roughly ₹9.9 lakh in interest and around 66 EMIs. Prepay earlier, and you save even more.

You have two choices when you prepay: reduce the EMI (frees up monthly cash flow) or reduce the tenure (maximises interest saved). Keeping the EMI unchanged and shortening the tenure almost always saves the most.

What lenders check before approving your loan

• Credit score — a CIBIL score around 750 or above typically unlocks the best rates; a low score can mean rejection or a higher rate.
• Income and FOIR — stable, documented income and headroom under the ~40% obligation ceiling.
• Employment stability — salaried applicants with a steady job history and self-employed applicants with consistent business income are viewed favourably.
• Loan-to-value — for secured loans, a larger down payment (lower LTV) lowers the lender's risk and can improve your rate.
• Existing obligations and age — current EMIs, card dues and your age at loan maturity all shape the sanctioned amount and tenure.

How to use this calculator

1. Drag the Loan Amount slider or type the exact amount.
2. Set the Interest Rate your lender quoted (per annum).
3. Choose the Tenure in years.
4. Instantly see your monthly EMI, total interest, total payment and a year-by-year schedule.

Tips to reduce your EMI and interest

• Compare rates — even a 0.5% lower rate saves a lot over a long tenure.
• Prepay when you can — lump-sum prepayments cut the principal and total interest sharply.
• Shorter tenure — a longer tenure lowers the EMI but raises total interest; balance affordability against cost.
• Larger down payment — borrowing less directly reduces both EMI and interest.
• Put savings to work — if a lower rate or prepayment trims your EMI, invest the difference every month; the SIP Calculator shows how much that surplus can grow.

EMI by loan amount

Worked pages for the amounts people borrow most often, each priced at a rate and tenure realistic for that kind of loan rather than one blanket assumption: