IBR vs RAP: Which Student Loan Repayment Plan Is Better for You?

IBR usually works best for people who are close to loan forgiveness and can comfortably afford the monthly payments under that plan. RAP often works best for those who still have many years before forgiveness and who worry about growing balances or a potential tax bomb at the end.

There isn’t a single “better” plan. It depends on how close you are to forgiveness, how your family is counted, and how much the balance itself bothers you.

If you’re close to forgiveness, IBR usually makes more sense. At that point, you don’t have enough time left for unpaid interest to balloon your balance. The damage is already done, and the real goal is to cross the finish line as soon as possible.

IBR also uses a broader definition of family size—which can include children, domestic partners, parents, roommates, or other adults who live with you and receive more than half their support from you. That flexibility can help lower your payment if you support people who aren’t listed as dependents.

If you still have many years to go, RAP may be the better long-term fit. It’s designed to stop your balance from growing by waiving unpaid interest each month. For borrowers whose payments are too low to touch the principal, that interest relief can make the debt feel manageable again.

The tradeoff is that RAP counts family size more narrowly: you can include only dependents you actually claim on your tax return. That can make RAP more expensive if your household includes a domestic partner or shared children who don’t appear on your taxes.

So it really comes down to what matters more right now:

• If you’re near the end, speed to forgiveness matters most.

• If you’ve got a long road ahead, stability and balance control may matter more.

IBR and RAP both base your payment on your income—but they do it in very different ways.

IBR protects part of your income before calculating your payment. It looks at your income after subtracting about 150% of the poverty line for your family size, then takes 10–15% of what’s left. That buffer means most borrowers with modest incomes or bigger families get a lower bill under IBR.

RAP skips that buffer. It charges a flat percentage of your total income using brackets that rise as your income goes up.

Here’s the general range:

• 1% of income around $20,000

• 4% around $45,000

• 7% around $75,000

• 10% once you’re over $100,000

RAP also knocks $50 off for each child you claim on your taxes, but it doesn’t let you count anyone you don’t claim—like a live-in partner or shared-custody child.

That structure means:

• At lower incomes, RAP can start off cheaper because it charges so little at the bottom.

• As income rises, IBR usually wins because it only counts your income above the poverty line and adjusts for a bigger family.

• Over time, RAP may save you more if your payments are too small to cover interest—since it waives that interest each month and keeps your balance from growing.

IBR forgives your student loans faster than RAP does.

Under IBR, your loans are forgiven after 20 or 25 years of qualifying payments—20 years if you borrowed new loans after July 1, 2014, and 25 years if you borrowed before that.

Many borrowers have already picked up years of credit through the one-time account adjustment, which counts past time in repayment, deferment, or long forbearances. For some, that credit can shave off five, ten, or even more years from the clock.

If you switch to RAP, the forgiveness timeline resets to 30 years—no matter when you first borrowed. You don’t lose the progress you’ve already earned, though. You can still carry forward your qualifying months from IBR and other income-driven plans, including everything added through the account adjustment.

For now, IBR is the safer choice for most married borrowers—especially if you and your spouse earn uneven incomes or only one of you has student loans.

Here’s why: under IBR, you can choose to file taxes separately. That lets you base your payment only on your own income instead of your household’s combined income. It’s one of the main ways married borrowers keep their payments affordable when one spouse earns more or has no loans.

With RAP, those rules aren’t settled yet. The Department of Education’s RISE Committee is still debating whether married borrowers will get that same flexibility or if RAP will automatically combine household income when setting payments. If RAP requires joint income, many couples could see their payments jump.

Until the final RAP regulations are published—likely in late 2025—married borrowers who need income separation should stay in IBR or plan to enter it before RAP launches in 2026. If RAP ends up using joint income by default, IBR will remain the better fit for any household where filing separately lowers the bill.