PAYE Calculator (Pay As You Earn)
Estimate your monthly payment under PAYE — the Pay As You Earn plan — then compare it with the plans you can move to. PAYE charges 10% of discretionary income, never more than the 10-year Standard amount, and forgives the balance after 20 years. It also sunsets on June 30, 2028, so the useful question is usually not just what PAYE costs, but what you move to next. This is an estimate, not a servicer calculation or an eligibility decision.
Estimate a Pay As You Earn (PAYE) payment from income and family size, then optionally check the 10-year Standard cap, screen the PAYE enrollment conditions, and work out months remaining toward forgiveness.
How the PAYE Calculator Works
The formula is two steps and a ceiling. First, discretionary income = AGI − (150% × the poverty guideline for your family size and state), floored at $0 (34 C.F.R. § 685.209(b)(4)). Second, PAYE charges 10% of that figure, divided by 12 (§ 685.209(f)(1)). Then the ceiling: the payment can never exceed the 10-year Standard amount on your eligible balance (§ 685.209(f)(2)).
A worked example. A family of three in the contiguous states has a 2026 poverty guideline of $27,320, so PAYE protects $40,980. On a $60,000 AGI that leaves $19,020 of discretionary income; 10% of it is $1,902 a year, or $158.50 a month. If that borrower instead earned $150,000 as a household of one, the income formula would produce $1,050.50 — but on a $30,000 balance at 6.5%, the 10-year Standard amount is $340.64, and that cap is what they would actually pay.
Two smaller rules finish the calculation. A joint filer whose spouse also has eligible federal loans has the household amount prorated by each spouse's share of the couple's eligible debt. And a calculated amount under $5 becomes $0, while $5 to just under $10 becomes $10 (§ 685.209(g)(1)(iii)). A $0 PAYE payment still earns forgiveness credit. If you want to see the income figure on its own, the discretionary income calculator works it in isolation.
There Is No Partial Financial Hardship Test Anymore
If you have used a PAYE calculator before — including the one that used to sit at this address — you were probably asked whether you had a partial financial hardship, and told you could not enroll unless your income-based amount came in below the 10-year Standard amount. That test is gone.
The RISE final rule replaced the partial-financial-hardship condition with an election to have the payment recalculated so it does not exceed the applicable amount. The 10-year Standard figure survives at § 685.209(f)(2) as a cap on what you pay, not as a gate on whether you may enroll. In plain terms: a borrower whose income formula produces more than the 10-year Standard amount used to be shut out of PAYE, and now simply pays the capped figure.
This matters practically, because the Department's own FAQ pages and its income-driven repayment form still describe the older hardship framing in places. Processing can lag the regulation. If a servicer denies you on partial-financial-hardship grounds, that is worth preserving and challenging rather than accepting.
Who Qualifies for PAYE — and the One Disputed Condition
Four conditions decide PAYE, and three of them are settled:
Direct loans only (§ 685.209(d)(1)) — Direct Subsidized, Direct Unsubsidized, Direct PLUS made to graduate or professional students, and Direct Consolidation loans that are not excepted Parent-PLUS consolidations. An FFEL loan in your portfolio cannot go on PAYE, but it also does not block your Direct loans; the same-plan rule reaches only Direct loans. A PAYE denial is never really about the FFEL loan.
The “new borrower” test (§ 685.209(b)(13)(i)) — no outstanding Direct or FFEL balance as of October 1, 2007, plus a qualifying Direct disbursement on or after October 1, 2011. This is the condition that rules out most borrowers. A Parent PLUS disbursement does not make a parent a new borrower.
No new Direct Loan on or after July 1, 2026 (§ 685.209(c)(4)(v)) — one closes PAYE and the other legacy plans across your whole Direct portfolio. A new Direct Consolidation Loan is a new Direct Loan, so consolidating is not a route around this. It is also irreversible, which makes it a uniquely expensive mistake.
The fourth is genuinely unresolved. The printed regulation at § 685.209(c)(4)(iv) requires that you were repaying under PAYE on July 1, 2024 and generally bars re-entry after leaving. Against that: the Department currently tells borrowers PAYE enrollment stays open until July 1, 2027, its income-driven repayment form does not apply the gate, and the National Consumer Law Center reads the provision as vacated. No court has decided it.
Our practice on this is settled even though the law is not: if PAYE is the right plan for you, apply — do not rule yourself out on the strength of the printed text. Keep the application, the servicer's response, and any denial notice. And treat anyone who promises you approval with suspicion, because the regulation is real and nobody can guarantee how a servicer will read it.
PAYE vs. RAP vs. IBR — Where Each One Wins
Because PAYE has under two years left, the comparison is the point. The three plans differ in what income they measure and how long they run:
PAYE — 10% of discretionary income (AGI above 150% of the poverty guideline), capped at the 10-year Standard amount, forgiveness at 20 years.
RAP — a banded percentage of your entire AGI, from 1% to 10%, stepping at every $10,000, minus $50 a month per dependent. No poverty deduction and no cap, forgiveness at 30 years.
IBR — 10% of discretionary income for New IBR (20 years) or 15% for Old IBR (25 years), capped the same way PAYE is. Unlike PAYE and ICR, IBR does not sunset.
The structural consequence is that RAP has no household-size adjustment at all. At lower incomes and larger family sizes the poverty deduction makes PAYE and IBR dramatically cheaper; RAP's advantage lives in a middle band — moderate income against a large balance — and is bounded on both sides. Household size moves that crossover by tens of thousands of dollars, so run your own numbers rather than trusting a rule of thumb.
Run the comparison directly with the IBR vs. RAP calculator, or estimate each plan on its own with the RAP calculator and the IBR calculator. For the plan-versus-plan reasoning in prose, read PAYE vs. RAP and PAYE vs. IBR.
What Happens When PAYE Sunsets on June 30, 2028
PAYE has not ended, and anyone telling you it has is wrong. It sunsets on June 30, 2028. What happens next is written into the regulation rather than left to a servicer: if you make no other election by July 1, 2028, you are placed on RAP, or on IBR for any loans RAP cannot take (§ 685.209(c)(7)(iii)(A)). You are not dumped onto the Standard plan, and you are not thrown out of income-driven repayment.
Your progress travels with you. Months you paid under PAYE before July 1, 2028 count toward RAP's 360-payment clock. The asymmetry runs one direction only: months paid under RAP generally do not carry back into PAYE or IBR (§ 685.209(k)(4)(i)(A)). So moving off PAYE does not restart anything, but moving onto RAP and then wanting to come back would cost you.
One deadline is easy to miss. PAYE qualifies for PSLF only through June 30, 2028 (§ 685.219(b)(28)(iv)–(v)). If you are working toward 120 qualifying payments and will still be short in mid-2028, you need to be on a plan that keeps qualifying — and you want that move planned, not discovered.
Sources and Limitations
The formula, the eligibility conditions, the 2028 default placement, and the forgiveness term all come from 34 C.F.R. § 685.209 as rewritten by the RISE final rule, 91 Fed. Reg. 23768 (effective July 1, 2026). Poverty guidelines are the 2026 HHS figures at 91 Fed. Reg. 1797, republished each January.
This calculator estimates a payment. It cannot retrieve your tax or loan records, confirm your loan types, verify family size, decide whether you qualify for PAYE, determine PSLF credit, or replace what your servicer calculates. Where the Department's borrower-facing pages and the codified regulation conflict, the regulation controls the legal question — but the Department controls what happens to your application. Confirm any result with the Federal Student Aid Loan Simulator and your servicer.
PAYE Calculator FAQs
PAYE charges 10% of your discretionary income, divided by 12. Discretionary income is your adjusted gross income minus 150% of the federal poverty guideline for your family size and state, and it never goes below $0. The payment is then capped: PAYE can never charge more than the 10-year Standard amount on your eligible balance. If the calculated figure comes out under $5 it becomes $0, and between $5 and $10 it becomes $10.
Yes. PAYE has not ended. It sunsets on June 30, 2028, and the Department of Education currently tells borrowers that enrollment remains available until July 1, 2027. There is a complication: the printed regulation also says a borrower must have been repaying under PAYE on July 1, 2024 and generally bars re-entry after leaving. That text is disputed, the Department is not applying it on its own income-driven repayment form, and no court has ruled. If PAYE is the right plan for you, apply — do not rule yourself out on the strength of the printed text. Nobody can promise you approval.
No. The RISE final rule replaced PAYE's partial-financial-hardship entrance test with an election to have your payment recalculated so it does not exceed the applicable amount. The 10-year Standard figure survives as a cap on the payment, not as a gate that decides whether you may enroll. This matters if you have seen an older calculator or an out-of-date Department page: a borrower whose income-based amount exceeds the 10-year Standard amount used to be shut out, and today simply pays the capped figure instead.
If you make no other election by July 1, 2028, you are automatically placed on RAP — the Repayment Assistance Plan — or on IBR for any loans RAP cannot take. You are not dropped onto the Standard plan, and you are not thrown out of income-driven repayment. Your PAYE payments are not lost either: months you paid under PAYE before July 1, 2028 count toward RAP's 360-payment forgiveness clock. The reverse is not true, so months paid under RAP generally do not carry back into PAYE or IBR.
Four things have to line up. You need eligible loans, which means Direct loans only — Direct Subsidized, Direct Unsubsidized, grad or professional Direct PLUS, and non-excepted Direct Consolidation loans. You need to be a “new borrower”: no outstanding Direct or FFEL balance as of October 1, 2007, plus a qualifying Direct disbursement on or after October 1, 2011. You must not have received a Direct Loan on or after July 1, 2026. And there is the disputed July 2024 condition described above. The new-borrower test is the one that rules out most people.
No. This is a common and costly misreading. FFEL loans can never go on PAYE, because PAYE is a Direct Loan program plan. But an FFEL loan sitting in your portfolio does not block your Direct loans from PAYE — the rule requiring all loans to be repaid together reaches only Direct loans. Your FFEL loan stays on the FFEL side, typically on FFEL-side IBR, while your Direct loans go wherever they qualify. If a servicer denies PAYE, the reason is the enrollment conditions, not the FFEL loan.
It depends on your income and family size, and the answer flips. PAYE takes 10% of discretionary income, which protects 150% of the poverty guideline for your household. RAP takes a banded percentage of your entire adjusted gross income with no poverty deduction at all, minus $50 a month per dependent. At lower incomes the poverty deduction makes PAYE dramatically cheaper; in a middle band RAP's interest subsidy and lower rate can win. PAYE also forgives at 20 years against RAP's 30. The catch is the horizon: PAYE has under two years left, so the real comparison is usually PAYE now versus the plan you will be on in 2028.
Only through June 30, 2028. PAYE is a qualifying repayment plan for Public Service Loan Forgiveness for payments made up to that date, and not after. If you are pursuing PSLF and will still be short of 120 qualifying payments in mid-2028, you need a plan that continues to qualify — which in practice means IBR or RAP. Plan that move before the deadline rather than after it.
240 qualifying monthly payments — 20 years. If you have an official income-driven payment count on StudentAid.gov, this calculator will subtract it from 240 for you. Use the official count, not your own reconstruction from payment history; the Department's count is the one that decides forgiveness, and only the Department can determine whether the requirements are satisfied. Bear in mind that the 20-year term will outlive the plan itself, so most borrowers will finish that clock somewhere other than PAYE.