What does my student loan do to my paycheck?
Your grace period ends six months after you leave school. Here is what the first payment does to the money that actually lands.
You owe $ at %, earning $ a year in .
Your payment: $341 a month.
Your paycheck goes from $4,053 to $3,712.
Keep a 4% 401(k) contribution and it is $3,544. That costs $168 a month and puts $400 a month into retirement.
Tap any number to make it yours.
Estimates. Standard 10-year plan, single filer, monthly take-home rather than one paycheck. No state picked, so state tax is estimated at 4%, about the national middle. Pick yours above and these sharpen.
The one move
Pay the minimum on this loan. Keep your 401(k) match.
A 6.5% loan is not the fire to put out first. If your employer matches, every dollar you send there doubles on day one. Extra loan payments come after the match and after a small cushion.
Where the money goes
Following the one move, with the 4% contribution running.
- Monthly gross
- $5,000
- Your 401(k), 4%
- $200
- Taxes (estimated)
- $915
- Loan payment
- $341
- What lands
- $3,544
Your $200 is matched. $400 a month goes in.
Your employer adds a dollar for every dollar, from the first paycheck. And the $200 comes out before tax, so your take-home drops by $168 rather than the full $200.
Assumes your employer matches dollar for dollar up to 4%, which is the commonest arrangement. Your benefits guide has the real terms, and they are worth checking before you set the number.
Over the full 10 years this loan costs about $10,877 in interest if nothing changes.
Every payday, not just today
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This is one month on one loan. The app watches the balance come down, the match land and the payment clear, and tells you when the priority changes.
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How these numbers are worked out
Five rules, all published, and one of them is the reason this is a page rather than a sentence.
You already know what you owe. What the first payment does to the money that actually reaches your account is a different number, and it is the one you will feel every month. This prices the standard plan, takes it out of take-home rather than salary, uses your state once you pick it, and puts the employer match ahead of extra payments below about 10% because that is the order that leaves you with more.
The payment assumes you do nothing, because most people will
Federal borrowers are placed on the standard 10-year plan unless they actively choose something else, so that is what this prices: the balance cleared over 120 months at your rate, using the same amortization the app uses for any other loan. It is not a recommendation, it is what happens by default, which is the situation most people are in during the weeks before a first payment. Income-driven plans changed under 2025 legislation, so this tool does not quote one rather than quoting one you may not be able to enrol in.
The payment comes out of take-home, not out of salary
This is the part that surprises people and the reason the page exists. A $60,000 salary is $5,000 a month gross and roughly $4,000 after federal tax, FICA and state tax, so a $341 payment is about 9% of what actually arrives rather than the 7% it looks like against the headline number. Every figure here starts from take-home for that reason. Federal tax uses 2026 single-filer brackets and the standard deduction, the same table every other calculator on this site reads, so two WeLeap tools cannot quote you different take-home for the same salary.
State tax is your state, once you pick it
Pick a state and the estimate uses a rate for that state rather than a national average, which matters more than people expect: the same salary and the same loan leave noticeably different amounts in Texas, Colorado and Oregon. Leave it unset and the page says so and falls back to about 4%, roughly the national middle. These are approximate effective rates for a single filer on a graduate salary rather than top marginal rates, and they do not include city or county tax.
The match comes before extra payments, below about 10%
A dollar-for-dollar employer match is an immediate 100% return, which no ordinary student loan rate competes with, and it is only paid in the months you actually contribute. So the order is: capture the full match, hold a small cash cushion, then send extra at the loan. Above 10% the loan moves ahead of anything optional. This is the same threshold the app applies to any debt, so the free tool and the app never disagree about the same loan.
The paycheck is shown twice, because the advice changes it
One figure is your paycheck with the loan payment and no retirement contribution. The other is the same paycheck once you are contributing enough to capture a typical match, which is what this page recommends you do. Showing only the first would mean the number on screen and the number you get after following the advice are different, and the gap between them is exactly what keeping the match costs. It is smaller than the contribution, because the contribution reduces the tax you pay.
Where this stops These are estimates for planning, not personalised financial, tax or legal advice, and WeLeap is not a registered investment adviser. The payment assumes the standard 10-year plan; if you are on an income-driven plan your payment is set by a formula this page does not model, and federal repayment plans changed under 2025 legislation, so studentaid.gov and your servicer are the authorities on what you can enrol in and what you owe. Federal figures are 2026 single-filer brackets and the standard deduction; if you are married, have dependants or a second job, the take-home here is the wrong shape. State tax is an approximate flat rate rather than a bracket calculation. Private loans, variable rates, consolidation and forgiveness programmes are all outside what this works out.
Questions people actually ask
When does my student loan grace period end?
Federal loans give most borrowers six months after leaving school, so a May graduate is usually due their first payment in November and a December graduate in June. The date is set by when you dropped below half-time enrolment rather than by your graduation ceremony, and your servicer is the authority on it. The useful thing to know is that the grace period ending is not a notification you can rely on receiving: servicers change, addresses go stale, and the first payment is due whether or not the reminder reached you.
What will my first student loan payment be?
Unless you choose otherwise, you are placed on the standard ten-year plan, and the payment is the amount that clears the balance in 120 months at your interest rate. On $30,000 at 6.5% that is about $341 a month. The figure this tool shows is that calculation, which is also the answer to "what happens if I do nothing" — the situation most borrowers are actually in during the weeks before the first payment.
Should I pay extra on my student loans or contribute to my 401(k)?
If your employer matches, the match comes first. A dollar-for-dollar match is an immediate 100% return, which no loan interest rate competes with, and it is only paid in the months you contribute. Below roughly 10% interest, the usual order is: capture the full match, build a small cash cushion, then send extra at the loan. Above 10% the loan moves ahead of anything optional. Most federal undergraduate loans sit well under that line, which is why the common instinct to cut retirement contributions to attack a 6% loan is usually the wrong trade.
Why is the payment bigger than I expected as a share of my paycheck?
Because a loan payment comes out of take-home rather than salary. A $60,000 salary is about $5,000 a month gross, but roughly $4,000 after federal tax, FICA and state tax, so a $341 payment is closer to 9% of what actually lands than the 7% it looks like against gross. That gap is the reason this tool shows the paycheck before and after rather than the payment on its own.
Does this cover income-driven repayment plans?
Not yet, and deliberately. Federal repayment plans changed under 2025 legislation and the plans a new borrower can enrol in differ from what most calculators still assume. Quoting a plan name or a payment formula that is out of date would be worse than not offering the comparison, so this tool prices the standard plan only and says so. Check studentaid.gov for what you can currently enrol in.
How long does the standard student loan repayment plan take?
Ten years — 120 monthly payments — which is the default federal repayment term and what this calculator models unless you are on something else. It is worth knowing that is an assumption rather than a fact about your loan: income-driven plans run longer and cost more in total interest, and refinancing privately can shorten or extend it. The payment shown here is what a ten-year standard schedule requires on the balance and rate you entered.
How much interest will I pay in total on my student loans?
On a standard ten-year schedule the total is your monthly payment multiplied by 120, minus the amount you originally borrowed — which is the figure this calculator shows alongside the payment. It is usually larger than people expect, because the early payments are mostly interest. Every extra dollar sent above the required payment reduces that total, and reduces it more the earlier it is sent, since it removes principal that would otherwise accrue interest for the remaining years.
Estimates to help you think, not financial advice. See all 10 free calculators.
Once the payment is set
This page covers one loan and one paycheck. These cover what sits around it.
- Money PlanThis page shows what one loan does to one paycheck. This one takes the whole paycheck and puts the loan, the buffer, the match and everything else in order.
- First Paycheck SetupIf the job is also new, the 401(k) and HSA boxes are sitting in a portal waiting on numbers. This gives you the exact ones, before the enrolment window closes.
- Credit Card PayoffA student loan at 6% and a card at 24% are not the same debt. If you carry a balance, that is the one the order should start with.
All of them are free and need no account. Browse every WeLeap money calculator.