Free Auto Loan Calculator
Calculate your monthly car payment from vehicle price, down payment, trade-in value, sales tax and loan term. Free. No signup required.
- Amount Financed$30,240.00 · 80%
- Total Interest$5,260.82 · 14%
- Sales Tax$2,240.00 · 6%
Sales tax alone adds $2,240.00 to the price before you even start financing — and interest tacks on another $5,260.82 over the life of the loan.
- Amount Financed$30,240.00
- Sales Tax$2,240.00
- Total Interest$5,260.82
- Total Cost$39,500.82
ƒShow your work
- 1Sales tax = $32,000.00 × 7% = $2,240.00
- 2Amount financed = price + tax − down payment − trade-in = $30,240.00
- 3Monthly payment M = $30,240.00 × [r(1+r)^60] / [(1+r)^60 − 1] = $591.68
About the Free Auto Loan Calculator
Car financing has more moving parts than a straight loan. The number on the sticker isn't what you actually finance — sales tax gets added, then a down payment and any trade-in value get subtracted, and the loan is written against whatever's left. This calculator runs that whole chain instead of just amortizing a flat number, so you can see exactly how a $6,000 trade-in or a 7% state sales tax rate moves your monthly payment, not just the final total.
It's built for the point right before you sign: checking the finance office's numbers against your own, or deciding whether a bigger down payment or a shorter term is worth negotiating for before you're sitting across the desk from a salesperson.
The vehicle price, your trade-in value, and how much you're putting down never leave your device — you can run real numbers on a car you're about to negotiate for without any of it being logged anywhere.
How it’s calculated
Most states charge sales tax on the vehicle price and roll that tax into the amount you finance rather than requiring it upfront in cash — so the loan principal here is price plus tax, minus your down payment and trade-in value, not just price minus down payment. That's a meaningfully bigger number to finance than people often expect when they first sit down to negotiate.
Frequently asked questions
Does sales tax get added before or after my trade-in is subtracted?
Tax is calculated on the vehicle price first, then your down payment and trade-in are subtracted from price-plus-tax to get the amount financed. Some states actually reduce the taxable amount by your trade-in value — check your state's rule, since that can meaningfully change the tax owed.
Should I put my trade-in toward the down payment or take a longer term instead?
Applying trade-in value reduces the amount financed either way — the real choice is term length. A shorter term with the same trade-in applied saves substantially more in interest than stretching the same reduced balance over more months.
Why is my dealer's payment quote different from this calculator's number?
Dealer financing often bundles in fees (documentation, dealer prep) or a marked-up interest rate versus what you'd get pre-approved for elsewhere. If the gap is more than a few dollars, ask for an itemized breakdown of what's in their number.
Is it better to get pre-approved by a bank or finance through the dealer?
Getting pre-approved first gives you a real rate to compare against and negotiating leverage — dealers can sometimes beat it, but you won't know unless you have your own number to hold them to.
How much does a shorter loan term actually save on interest?
Often more than people expect, since auto loan APRs on longer terms (72-84 months) also tend to run higher than shorter ones. Try the same vehicle price and rate at 48 vs 72 months here to see the real interest difference, not just the payment difference.
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