Debt Snowball vs Avalanche Calculator
List your debts and how much extra you can pay each month — see when you'll be debt-free and how much interest you'll pay with the snowball (smallest balance first) and avalanche (highest rate first) methods. Simplified monthly model: fixed minimum payments, no new charges or fees.
Your debts
Monthly plan
Before you start
- Enter the balance you owe today and the minimum payment from your latest statement. The calculator keeps each minimum fixed until that debt is gone — real credit card minimums usually shrink as the balance falls, so paying the original amount is what makes the plan work.
- The plan only works if you stop adding to the debts. New purchases on a card being paid off aren't modeled and will push the debt-free month back.
- Interest here is charged monthly at annual rate ÷ 12. Card issuers usually charge daily on your average balance, so your real numbers can differ slightly — treat the result as a planning estimate, not your lender's schedule.
- If the two methods come out close, the cheaper one isn't automatically the right one: a plan you actually stick with beats a slightly cheaper plan you abandon.
Method comparison
Snowball costs more interest by $698.00, and takes longer by 1 month
Interest saved vs minimums only $4,073.00
Payoff order — Avalanche — highest rate first
How this calculator works
Each month, every open debt is charged interest at its annual rate divided by 12. Your total monthly budget — all minimum payments plus your extra amount — stays the same for the whole plan. First every debt gets its minimum; whatever is left goes to one target debt: the highest interest rate (avalanche) or the smallest starting balance (snowball). When a debt is paid off, its payment isn't spent elsewhere — it rolls onto the next target, so the payment aimed at each new debt grows. The calculator runs both orders month by month and compares them, plus a baseline where you only pay the minimums with no rollover. The rules follow how the method's originator and consumer-finance sources describe them; the monthly-rate convention follows the US Truth in Lending rules for nominal annual rates.
Frequently asked questions
Which is better, snowball or avalanche?
In pure money terms, avalanche: putting extra money on the highest rate first keeps total interest as low as possible, and research on debt repayment treats it as the textbook answer. Snowball usually costs a bit more, but studies of real debtors found that closing small accounts early made people more likely to finish paying off everything. Compare the interest difference shown above — if it's small, motivation may matter more than the math.
Why do I pay less with these methods than with minimum payments, if I'm adding only a little extra?
Mostly because of the rollover. When you pay only minimums, the money freed up by a paid-off debt stops working against your remaining debts. In both methods, that freed payment moves to the next debt, so your total monthly payment never drops until everything is paid.
The calculator says my debts never get paid off. Why?
Your total monthly budget doesn't cover the interest being added each month, or covers it so barely that the balance would take more than 50 years to clear. Increase the extra amount, or check whether a rate or minimum was entered wrong. If you genuinely can't cover the interest, this is a situation to discuss with your lender or a non-profit credit counselor — a payoff order won't fix it.
Part of Finance Calculators