Loan & Mortgage
Free Loan & Mortgage: use =PMT(rate/12, years*12, -amount) to get the level monthly repayment.
Total interest €137,642.42 · Total paid €387,642.42
Need it as an auditable file?
The full month-by-month schedule ships inside the Corporate Finance Suite — formula-driven, unlocked, audit-ready.
How it works
In Excel or Google Sheets, use =PMT(rate/12, years*12, -amount) to get the level monthly repayment.
Put the loan amount, the annual interest rate and the term in years into their own cells.
In a blank cell type =PMT(rate/12, years*12, -amount), clicking each input cell.
Press Enter — the monthly payment appears as a positive figure thanks to the minus on the amount.
Multiply the payment by the number of months to see total paid, then subtract the principal for total interest.
What this does
PMT returns the fixed monthly payment that fully repays a loan — principal plus interest — over its term. It assumes a constant rate and equal payments, which is how the overwhelming majority of mortgages, car loans and personal loans are structured. Dividing the annual rate by 12 and multiplying the years by 12 puts everything on a monthly footing; the negative sign on the amount makes the payment show as a positive number.
A worked example
A €250,000 mortgage at 3.8% over 25 years: =PMT(3.8%/12, 25*12, -250000) returns about €1,292 a month. Over the full term you repay roughly €387,500, so interest alone is about €137,500 — the area the balance curve above shrinks as you shorten the term or drop the rate. Whether you are comparing mortgage offers, sizing a car loan, or stress-testing a budget against a rate rise, PMT is the one formula that turns a headline rate into the number that actually hits your account each month.
Common mistakes
- Forgetting to divide the annual rate by 12, which inflates the payment roughly twelve-fold.
- Entering the loan amount as positive, so
PMTreturns a negative payment. - Mixing the term and rate periods (annual rate with a monthly term, or vice versa).
- Ignoring fees, insurance or an offset, which the bare
PMTfigure does not include.
FAQ
Why is the amount negative in PMT?
PMT follows a cash-flow convention: money you receive is positive, money you pay is negative. Entering -amount simply flips the returned payment to a positive number.
How do I see the interest portion?
Total interest is the sum of all payments minus the principal. For a month-by-month split, use the amortization calculator, which breaks each payment into interest and principal.
Does this match my bank’s figure?
The core repayment will match closely; small differences come from fees, rounding, or daily vs monthly interest accrual your lender may use.