The rates that belong to one disbursement year
Federal Student Aid publishes the fixed rates for Direct Loans first disbursed on or after July 1, 2026, and before July 1, 2027. Undergraduate Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized loans are 6.52 percent. Direct Unsubsidized loans for graduate or professional students are 8.07 percent. Direct PLUS loans for parents and for graduate or professional students are 9.07 percent. The Federal Register notice of September 10, 2026, shows the same figures and the pieces: a 10-year Treasury high yield, rounded, plus a statutory add-on, subject to a maximum. For undergraduates the notice lists a 4.47 percent Treasury yield, a 2.05 percent add-on, an 8.25 percent maximum, and a 6.52 percent result. Graduate unsubsidized loans use a 3.60 percent add-on and a 9.50 percent maximum. PLUS loans use a 4.60 percent add-on and a 10.50 percent maximum. Each loan keeps its rate for life. A loan from an earlier year is not rewritten to 6.52 percent because a new year was announced.
The form opens on 6.52 percent so the new undergraduate rate is visible. If your note says something else, replace it. The payment for $10,000.00 at that undergraduate rate for 120 months is $113.65. The unrounded payment is about $113.65 before the half-up rounding the rest of this site uses. Interest over the term on that example is $3,637.92. That is the standard amortizing formula, the same one behind the mortgage calculator, not a federal repayment formula with a different definition of the month.
Ten years is a plan maximum, not every borrower's term
Federal Student Aid's repayment plan request says that under the standard plan you pay a fixed amount each month over a maximum repayment period that pays the loan off by the end of that period. For Direct Subsidized, Direct Unsubsidized, and Direct PLUS loans, that maximum is 10 years. For Direct Consolidation Loans, the maximum ranges from 10 to 30 years depending on the debt. The form's 10-year term matches that non-consolidation maximum. It does not look up your consolidation balance and pick a longer term. If you have a consolidation loan, the term on your disclosure is the one to type.
Loans first disbursed on or after July 1, 2026, can be subject to newer plan names. This page does not assign a borrower to a tiered standard plan or to an income-driven plan, because those plans depend on facts this form does not collect and on rules this page will not guess. The fixed payment here is what the balance, the rate, and the term produce. It is not a statement that your servicer will bill that amount. Servicers follow the plan on the account. If you did not pick a plan, Federal Student Aid has said borrowers are placed on a standard plan, and the details depend on disbursement dates. Read the servicer's letter. Do not treat this page as the letter.
What a fixed payment does not include
Income-driven payments are a percent of income, or another formula, and they can end in forgiveness after a stated number of qualifying payments. This calculator does not estimate forgiveness, a public-service count, or a tax consequence of forgiveness. It also does not add an origination fee. The interest it shows is the interest inside the amortizing schedule at a constant rate. In-school status, a grace period, and subsidized interest that the government pays for a time are not modeled. If interest capitalized before repayment, the balance you type should already include that capitalization. The page will not add it.
Extra payments shorten a fixed-rate loan the same way they shorten a mortgage. The payoff calculator takes a balance, a rate, and the payment you will send, including an extra amount. You can bring the $113.65 figure from this page over there if you want to see a larger payment. This page itself shows the contractual payment for the term, not a comparison of extra principal. Paying extra on a federal loan can have program consequences this arithmetic does not describe, including how payments are applied across a group of loans. The servicer's allocation rules are outside the formula.
How to use the three published rates
Use 6.52 percent only for an undergraduate Direct loan first disbursed in that July-to-June window. Use 8.07 percent for a graduate or professional unsubsidized loan in the same window. Graduate students are not eligible for Direct Subsidized loans, which the Federal Register note states. Use 9.07 percent for a parent PLUS loan or a graduate PLUS loan in that window. Mixing them into one balance at one rate is a simplification. If the loans have different rates, run them separately or accept that a blended rate is your assumption, not the Department's.
Giuseppe Ilarda, the site owner, writes and checks the payment. The page is an educational estimate. It is not advice to borrow for school, not a comparison of schools, and not a claim that a payment fits a budget. The affordability page will take a monthly debt payment, including a student-loan payment you type, and divide it by income. The disclaimer is the limit on what any of those ratios mean. The editorial policy states the rounding: contractual payment half-up to the cent, then interest each month half-up to the cent, and a last payment that clears the balance.