How it works
How Right Repay ranks the plans, and what it does not do.
Every number on this site comes from one deterministic engine that applies the published rules to your answers. No model guesses a payment; the arithmetic is shown and every rule links to its source.
Rank every plan for me, free Ten questions, two minutes, your own numbers.
What the engine does
- Takes your answers: adjusted gross income, tax filing status and spouse income, household size, loan balance and average rate or the exact loans from your studentaid.gov file, when you first borrowed, Parent PLUS or FFEL loans, public service and qualifying payments so far, your goal.
- Checks eligibility plan by plan with the rules on each plan page: loan dates, loan types, the July 1, 2026 and July 1, 2028 cutoffs, PSLF rules. Plans you cannot use are set aside with the reason.
- Runs every eligible plan month by month until the balance is paid or forgiven: the payment formula, the 2026 poverty guidelines, interest accrual and each plan's interest subsidy or waiver, yearly recalculation of income-driven payments, the Standard cap where it applies, forgiveness at 120, 240, 300 or 360 qualifying payments.
- Adds the tax on a forgiven balance where the law makes it taxable (22% assumed) and none for PSLF.
- Ranks on what you pay all in (payments plus that tax), or on the first monthly payment if that is the goal you chose, with PSLF-qualifying plans first for public servants.
- Shows the math: the formula with your numbers in it, line by line, and the factors that separated #1 from #2.
What it assumes
- Income
- Flat unless you set a growth rate in the what-if; income-driven payments recalculate every year from that.
- Interest
- Your average rate on the whole balance, or each loan's own rate when a loan file is dropped in.
- Poverty guidelines
- 2026 HHS figures for your household size and region.
- Tax on forgiveness
- 22% federal, applied to non-PSLF forgiveness. State tax is not modeled.
- Dates
- Rules as published for 2026, checked against the Department's pages, the regulations and the 2025 law on the date shown in the footer.
What it does not do
It never contacts your servicer
Nothing is sent to studentaid.gov or any servicer. Your loan file is read on your device and only the loan figures are sent to rank the plans.
It is not advice
Right Repay is software from Wedgeworks, not a law firm or a financial advisor, and it promises no forgiveness. It ranks the published rules against your numbers and shows its work so you, or someone you trust, can check it.
Sources
- Repayment plans Federal Student Aid
- Income-driven repayment plans Federal Student Aid
- 34 CFR 685.209, income-driven repayment plans Code of Federal Regulations
- 34 CFR 685.208, repayment plans Code of Federal Regulations
- Public Law 119-21, the 2025 reconciliation act (student loan title) Congress.gov
- The Repayment Assistance Plan, In Focus IF13075 Congressional Research Service
- 2026 poverty guidelines HHS, ASPE
- Public Service Loan Forgiveness Federal Student Aid