EMI Calculator
Calculate your loan EMI instantly. Enter loan amount, interest rate and tenure to see monthly EMI, total interest payable and total payment with a clear breakup.
Formula last reviewed 15 September 2026 · How we verify our calculators
Monthly EMI
- Total interest
- ₹11,59,342
- Total payment
- ₹21,59,342
Updates live as you type
Frequently asked questions
An Equated Monthly Instalment is the fixed amount you pay a lender each month until the loan is cleared. It is not an arbitrary figure — it is the exact payment that, repeated for the agreed number of months, reduces the balance to zero while covering interest on whatever is outstanding along the way. Every EMI contains both interest and principal, but the proportions shift steadily: interest dominates at the start and principal dominates near the end.
The formula is EMI = P x r x (1+r)^n / ((1+r)^n - 1), where P is the principal, r is the monthly interest rate and n is the number of months. The critical detail is that r is monthly, not annual — a 9% annual rate becomes 0.0075. The (1+r)^n term represents the loan compounding across the full tenure, and dividing by that term minus one converts it into a single repeating instalment. This calculator applies the formula exactly, with no rounding until the final display.
Because interest is charged on the outstanding balance, and early on that balance is nearly the whole loan. On a 10 lakh loan at 9% over 20 years, the first year's EMIs total about 1,07,967 of which 89,240 is interest and only 18,727 reduces the principal. The proportion improves every month, but slowly. By year ten the annual principal repaid has risen to about 41,970, and by year twenty to 1,02,883. This is normal amortisation, not an error or a hidden charge.
Yes, but the trade is steeper than it looks. On a 10 lakh loan at 9%, stretching from 10 years to 20 drops the EMI from 12,668 to 8,997 — about 29% less each month. Total interest, however, rises from 5,20,109 to 11,59,342, more than doubling. A longer tenure is a legitimate choice when cash flow is genuinely tight, but it should be a deliberate one, because lenders quote long tenures by default precisely because the monthly figure looks appealing.
A fixed rate is locked for the term, so the EMI never changes and you carry no rate risk — you pay a premium of roughly 1-2% for that certainty. A floating rate is linked to an external benchmark, usually the RBI repo rate, and resets periodically. Most Indian home loans are floating. Note that when a floating rate rises, most lenders keep the EMI unchanged and extend the tenure instead, so the effect is invisible on your monthly statement but very real in total interest.
Substantially, and the timing dominates the amount. A prepayment goes directly against outstanding principal, so it removes the interest that principal would have attracted in every remaining month — which is why the same sum applied in year two saves several times what it saves in year fifteen. When you prepay, ask the lender to reduce the tenure rather than the EMI; keeping the EMI constant is what converts the prepayment into interest saved rather than a smaller monthly bill.
For floating-rate loans taken by individuals, the RBI prohibits foreclosure charges and prepayment penalties, so you can prepay any amount at any time at no cost. Fixed-rate loans are different and commonly carry a penalty of 2-4% of the amount prepaid, as do loans to non-individual borrowers. Check the sanction letter rather than assuming, particularly if you took a fixed-rate loan specifically planning to clear it early.
A reducing-balance rate — what this calculator uses and what all home loans use — charges interest only on what you still owe. A flat rate charges interest on the original principal for the entire tenure, even though your balance is falling. The difference is dramatic: a flat 9% works out to roughly 16-17% on a reducing-balance basis. Some vehicle, consumer-durable and informal loans are still quoted flat, so if a lender's EMI is far above what this calculator shows for the same rate, a flat quote is the usual explanation.
Lenders typically approve total EMIs up to about 40-50% of net monthly income, but that is their risk threshold, not a recommendation for yours. A more durable rule is to keep all EMIs combined under roughly 35% of take-home pay and to confirm you could still service them after three to six months without income. The EMI is contractually fixed for up to twenty years while your income, expenses and job are not, and that asymmetry is what turns affordable loans into distressed ones.
The EMI is fixed. What it pays for is not.
Borrow ₹10,00,000 at 9% for 20 years and your EMI is ₹8,997 — the same ₹8,997 in month one and in month 240. What changes, invisibly, is where that money goes. In the first year you pay ₹1,07,967 in EMIs, of which ₹89,240 is interest and only ₹18,727 reduces what you owe. In the twentieth year the same annual total splits the other way: ₹1,02,883 principal and just ₹5,084 interest.
That inversion is the single most important thing to understand about any amortising loan, and it explains behaviour that otherwise looks strange — why your outstanding balance barely moves in the early years, why prepaying in year two is worth several times prepaying in year fifteen, and why a loan you have serviced faithfully for five years still shows a balance close to what you borrowed.
An Equated Monthly Instalment is simply the constant payment that exactly clears a loan over an agreed number of months, with interest charged on whatever is still outstanding. Because the outstanding amount falls each month, the interest portion falls with it, and since the total is fixed, the principal portion must rise to compensate. Nobody designs the split; it falls out of the arithmetic.
How the instalment is derived
The EMI formula answers a precise question: what fixed monthly amount, paid n times, has a present value equal to the loan?
EMI = P × r × (1 + r)ⁿ / ((1 + r)ⁿ − 1)
- P — the principal, the amount actually disbursed to you.
- r — the monthly interest rate, not the annual one. A 9% annual rate becomes 9 ÷ 12 ÷ 100 = 0.0075.
- n — the number of monthly instalments: years × 12, so 240 over twenty years.
The (1 + r)ⁿ term is the loan compounding forward over the full tenure. The numerator scales that by the principal and the rate; the denominator converts it into a per-instalment figure. Everything else on your statement — total interest, total payment, the amortisation schedule — is derived from this one number.
Once you have the EMI, the rest is bookkeeping done fresh every month:
1. Interest for the month = outstanding balance × r 2. Principal repaid = EMI − interest for the month 3. New balance = old balance − principal repaid
Repeat 240 times and the balance lands exactly on zero, which is what the formula was constructed to guarantee.
Following the money through a ₹10 lakh loan
P = 10,00,000, r = 0.0075, n = 240.
Step 1 — the growth factor. (1.0075)²⁴⁰ = 6.0092.
Step 2 — the numerator. 10,00,000 × 0.0075 × 6.0092 = 45,069.
Step 3 — the denominator. 6.0092 − 1 = 5.0092.
Step 4 — divide. 45,069 ÷ 5.0092 = ₹8,997 a month.
Over 240 months you pay 8,997 × 240 = ₹21,59,342, of which ₹11,59,342 is interest. You borrowed ₹10 lakh and you will repay more than twice that.
Now the first month in detail. Interest = 10,00,000 × 0.0075 = ₹7,500. Your EMI is ₹8,997, so only ₹1,497 comes off the principal, leaving ₹9,98,503 owing. Month two charges interest on that slightly smaller balance — ₹7,489 — so ₹1,508 of principal is repaid. The principal portion grows by roughly 0.75% every month, slowly at first and then noticeably: by year ten it is ₹41,970 a year, by year twenty ₹1,02,883.
What the tenure does. Keep everything else and shorten the loan to 10 years: the EMI rises to ₹12,668, up about 41%, but total interest falls from ₹11,59,342 to ₹5,20,109 — a saving of ₹6,39,233. At 15 years the EMI is ₹10,143 and interest is ₹8,25,680. Each step shorter costs meaningfully more per month and saves considerably more overall.
When to run this before you borrow
Before agreeing a tenure. Lenders tend to quote the longest tenure you qualify for, because it produces the most attractive monthly figure and the most interest for them. The comparison above is the one to make yourself.
When comparing two loan offers. A lower rate is not automatically better if it comes with higher processing fees on a short tenure, and a 0.25% difference matters enormously over twenty years but barely at all over three.
Before a prepayment. Compare the interest saved against what the same money would earn elsewhere. Early in a loan, prepayment is hard to beat.
When judging affordability. Lenders generally want total EMIs below roughly 40–50% of net monthly income. Your own limit should be stricter, because the EMI is fixed while your income and expenses are not.
Reading the three numbers
The EMI is the only figure your monthly budget cares about, and the one lenders lead with.
The total interest is the true price of the loan, and the number worth staring at. Expressed against the principal, ₹11,59,342 on ₹10,00,000 is 116% — you are paying for the house, and then for it again.
The total payment matters most when comparing structurally different offers, since it collapses rate and tenure into one comparable figure. Be careful, though: it ignores the time value of money, so a lower total spread over a longer period is not automatically worse.
One reading people get wrong: a floating-rate loan's EMI usually does not change when the repo rate moves. Most Indian lenders hold the EMI constant and adjust the tenure instead, so a rate rise quietly adds months or years to your loan while your statement looks unchanged. Check your amortisation schedule after any rate change, not your EMI.
Where borrowers get caught
Confusing flat and reducing-balance rates. A "flat" rate charges interest on the original principal for the whole tenure, so a flat 9% is roughly equivalent to a reducing-balance rate of 16–17%. Some vehicle and consumer loans are still quoted this way. If a quoted EMI is much higher than this calculator's, a flat rate is the usual reason.
Ignoring what is not in the EMI. Processing fees, documentation charges, mandatory insurance and stamp duty are paid outside the EMI and can add one to two percent of the loan to its real cost.
Prepaying late. Prepayment reduces future interest only on the months that remain. The same ₹1 lakh applied in year two saves several times what it saves in year fifteen.
Choosing the EMI you can just afford. An EMI sized to today's income with nothing spare is a loan that becomes a crisis the first time a job changes or a medical bill arrives.
Assuming prepayment penalties are gone. Floating-rate loans to individuals cannot carry a foreclosure penalty, but fixed-rate loans and loans to non-individuals still can. Check the sanction letter before planning around prepayment.
Reading the tenure as fixed on a floating loan. As above — on most floating-rate loans, a rate rise lengthens the loan rather than raising the instalment, and the extra months are all interest.
Letting the lender choose the tenure on a prepayment. When you make a lump-sum prepayment, most banks default to reducing the EMI and leaving the tenure untouched — which feels generous and is the weaker option. Reducing the tenure while holding the EMI constant removes the most expensive future months entirely. On a ₹10 lakh loan at 9%, a ₹1 lakh prepayment at the end of year three saves roughly ₹2.6 lakh in interest if applied to the tenure, against a fraction of that if applied to the instalment. The bank will do whichever you ask, but it will rarely ask you which you want.