Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) Calculator
Estimate your monthly payment under the Repayment Assistance Plan using AGI, claimed tax dependents, and—when applicable—each spouse’s eligible federal loan balance. If you are married, you also get the payment under both filing statuses and can price what filing separately would cost you at tax time. This is an estimate, not a servicer quote, a tax return, or an eligibility decision.
Estimate a Repayment Assistance Plan payment, including the dependent deduction and joint-filer spouse-loan allocation. Married borrowers also see the payment under both filing statuses and can price what filing separately costs in tax. Optional branches estimate monthly balance assistance and screen major loan-type warnings.
Your numbers appear here
Answer the questions on the left and your estimated monthly RAP payment shows up in this panel — no scrolling required.
How This Estimate Was Calculated
RAP starts with an annual base tied to adjusted gross income. Income of $10,000 or less uses a $120 annual base. Above $10,000, the base rises from 1% through 10% of AGI across the rule’s income bands. The calculator divides that annual base by 12 and subtracts $50 for each claimed dependent.
For a joint filer whose spouse also has eligible federal loans, the calculator next multiplies the household amount by the borrower’s share of the couple’s combined eligible balances. It applies the $10 minimum after that allocation. The calculation keeps full precision through allocation and rounds only the final estimate to cents because the final rule does not state an intermediate rounding convention.
What Loan Balance Changes—and What It Does Not
Loan balance does not normally set the RAP income-based payment. When two joint filers have eligible debt, their principal-plus-interest balances determine each spouse’s share. The optional balance-effects detail separately asks for the borrower’s outstanding principal, excluding accrued interest, to estimate monthly interest, an unpaid-interest waiver, matching principal assistance, and monthly principal reduction.
Those balance effects assume the required payment is made on time. Paying ahead in a way that advances the due date can create a period without a payment due and can prevent the interest and principal assistance for that period.
Filing Jointly or Separately on RAP
RAP charges a percentage of your whole adjusted gross income, stepping up one point at each $10,000 band from 1% to a 10% ceiling above $100,000. There is no poverty-guideline offset and no household-size adjustment — only a $50 monthly reduction per claimed dependent and a $10 floor. That is why joint filing costs a one-borrower couple so much: a borrower earning $50,000 with a spouse earning $100,000 sits in the 4% band alone at about $167 a month, but a joint return puts the household at $150,000, clears the $100,000 ceiling, and produces about $1,250 with no second balance to split it against.
A separate return is not free. It switches off the student loan interest deduction (IRC § 221(e)(2)), the earned income credit (§ 32(d)), the child and dependent care credit (§ 21(e)(2)), and the education credits (§ 25A(g)(6)). There is a quieter fifth cost too: for 2026 the separate-return brackets and standard deduction are exactly half the joint amounts, so splitting a couple’s income across two returns is free only when the two incomes are equal — and unequal incomes are precisely what makes separate filing tempting.
RAP does not double-count two borrowers. When both spouses have eligible loans and file jointly, § 685.209(g)(3)(i) computes one household payment from the combined AGI and divides it by each spouse’s share of the couple’s combined balance. Two borrowers at $47,500 each pay about $158 a month apiece filing separately, roughly $317 for the household; filing jointly puts them at $95,000 in the 9% band for about $713 — split by balance share, not the $1,425 the double-counting story predicts. The band step is a real cost worth weighing; the double count is a myth.
For the full explanation, read the marriage penalty in RAP, explained. Have a CPA confirm the tax side before you file — a filing status is chosen once a year and is difficult to unwind.
Before You Rely on the Estimate
Confirm the AGI, dependents, and outstanding eligible-loan balances used by the official calculation. Parent PLUS debt, some consolidations that repaid Parent PLUS debt, FFEL loans, Perkins loans, and private loans require separate review and may not be repayable under RAP.
For a broader explanation of plan access, benefits, and risks, read the RAP overview. For spouse-income detail, use the spouse-income guide. Confirm the official result with the Federal Student Aid Loan Simulator and your servicer.
Other RAP Decisions
This page estimates RAP by itself. If you need a starting-payment comparison, use the IBR-vs-RAP calculator or the RAP-vs-Tiered Standard calculator. For Public Service Loan Forgiveness strategy, use the RAP and PSLF guide.
Sources and Limitations
The controlling calculation is in 34 C.F.R. § 685.209 as amended by the RISE final rule, 91 Fed. Reg. 23768, effective July 1, 2026. This calculator does not retrieve tax or loan data, determine eligibility, verify official payment credit, predict future income, or replace an official servicer calculation.
RAP Calculator FAQs
RAP selects an annual base from your AGI band, divides it by 12, and subtracts $50 for each claimed tax dependent. If joint income and eligible spouse debt are included, the household amount is multiplied by your share of the couple's eligible balances. This estimator applies the $10 minimum after those steps and does not estimate a final payoff amount.
Enter your own AGI, usually Form 1040 line 11. If you are married, enter your spouse's separately as well — the calculator combines them for the joint-return figure and uses yours alone for the separate-return figure, so you do not have to work out which one applies before you see a number.
Only if the payment drop is larger than the tax it costs. A separate return measures RAP on your income alone, but it also switches off the student loan interest deduction, the earned income credit, the child and dependent care credit, and education credits, and it usually raises the tax bill when the two incomes are unequal. Answer married above, then open "Should we file jointly or separately?" to see the net.
IRC § 221(e)(2) allows the deduction to a married taxpayer only on a joint return. There is no partial version and no income level at which a separate filer qualifies. It is worth at most $2,500 multiplied by your marginal rate, and on a joint return it already phases out between $175,000 and $205,000 of modified AGI for 2026 — so many couples asking this question have nothing left to lose.
In Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin, spouses filing separate returns generally each report half the community income. That moves both of you to the midpoint: a lower-earning borrower loses most of the advantage they expected, while a higher-earning borrower can end up better off than in a common-law state. The calculator applies the rule once you choose your state.
Yes. After the dependent deduction and any required spouse-debt allocation, this estimator adjusts a calculated RAP payment below $10 to $10. It does not treat a general loan balance as a final payoff amount.
RAP subtracts $50 per month for each dependent claimed on the federal tax return used for the calculation. The rule uses tax-return dependents, not the broader family-size definition used by some other income-driven plans.
A joint return generally brings in combined AGI. When both spouses have eligible federal loans, the household amount is allocated by each spouse's share of the couple's eligible balances. Filing separately generally uses borrower-only income and does not use spouse-loan allocation.
The official result can differ because of the income record, dependent count, loan eligibility, outstanding principal and interest used for spouse allocation, timing, or servicer rounding. This calculator does not retrieve federal records or make an eligibility decision.
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