Debt Snowball vs Avalanche Calculator
Put in your debts, add whatever extra you can pay each month, and see both plans side by side: how long each takes and how much interest each one costs you. Free, nothing to install, nothing saved anywhere.
Your debts
Minimum payment is what the lender requires each month. If you are not sure, credit cards are usually 1–3% of the balance or a fixed floor such as $25 — use the number on your statement.
Extra payment
This is the number that does the work. Even $50 changes the picture — try it.
Side by side
Snowball
Smallest balance first. Slower on paper, but you clear whole debts early, and that is what keeps most people going.
Avalanche
Highest interest rate first. Mathematically cheapest, always. The first debt can take a while to fall.
Snowball, avalanche or your own order — a month-by-month payoff plan with a debt-free date and the interest you save
See the spreadsheet → $9.99Which method should you pick?
Avalanche always costs less in interest — that is arithmetic, not opinion. But the gap is often smaller than people expect, and the snowball gives you a finished debt sooner, which is the thing that stops people quitting in month four. Run both above with your real numbers: if avalanche saves you a few hundred over several years, take the method you will actually stick to. If it saves thousands, take the maths.
How this calculator works
Each month it adds interest at your APR ÷ 12, pays every minimum, then throws the whole extra payment at one target debt — the smallest balance for snowball, the highest rate for avalanche. When a debt is cleared, its minimum payment rolls into the extra, so the payment grows as you go. That rolling payment is the entire idea behind both methods.
It assumes the rates and minimums stay as you entered them and that you add no new debt. Nothing you type here is stored or sent anywhere — the calculation runs in your browser.
