Right Repay

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RAP calculator: your Repayment Assistance Plan payment, with the formula shown.

RAP charges a share of your whole adjusted gross income, not of what is left after a poverty allowance. Enter your income and loans once and the calculator ranks RAP against IBR, PAYE, ICR and Standard on your numbers. The formula, the brackets and four worked examples are below.

Rank every plan for me, free Ten questions, two minutes, your own numbers.

How a RAP payment is calculated: AGI, the bracket, the percentage, divided by twelve, minus $50 per child, never under $10

The formula

Step 1, the bracket
Find your adjusted gross income in the table below. Each $10,000 bracket adds one percentage point, from 1% to 10%.
Step 2, the yearly amount
Multiply your whole AGI by that percentage, then divide by 12 for the monthly payment.
Step 3, children
Subtract $50 a month for each dependent child.
Step 4, the floor
The payment is never under $10 a month, and AGI of $10,000 or less pays the flat $10.
Married
Filing separately counts only your AGI. Filing jointly counts both incomes, and if both of you have federal loans the payment is split in proportion to the balances.

The brackets

Adjusted gross incomeShare of AGI
$10,000 or less$10 a month, flat
$10,001 to $20,0001%
$20,001 to $30,0002%
$30,001 to $40,0003%
$40,001 to $50,0004%
$50,001 to $60,0005%
$60,001 to $70,0006%
$70,001 to $80,0007%
$80,001 to $90,0008%
$90,001 to $100,0009%
Over $100,00010%

Four borrowers, the RAP payment next to the rest

Same engine as the app. RAP is often not the cheapest plan even when its monthly payment is the lowest, because the clock runs 30 years and the forgiven balance is taxed.

BorrowerRAP a monthIBR a monthStandard a month#1 planAll in on #1
$38,000 income, $27,000 in loans$95$117$307Income-Based Repayment$35,596
$46,000 income, $58,000 in loans$153$184$659Income-Based Repayment$63,762
$55,000 income, $48,000 in loans$229$259$545Standard 10-year$65,404
$85,000 income, $95,000 in loans$567$509$1,079Standard 10-year$129,445

Assumes single, a family of one, first loan after July 1, 2014, a 6.5% rate, no public service, flat income, and a 22% tax on any taxable forgiveness. Your own numbers change the order.

The formula with one borrower's numbers

$55,000 income, $48,000 in loans, single, family of one. This is the same math the app shows you for your own case.

Income that counts
$55,000 Your adjusted gross income, line 11 of your return.
Your bracket
5% AGI between $50,001 and $60,000 pays 5%.
Per year
$2,750 $55,000 × 5%
Per month
$229 $2,750 ÷ 12
Your payment
$229 Recalculated every year from your return.

What a payment formula cannot tell you

Interest that never lands

Interest your RAP payment does not cover is not charged and is never added to your balance. If less than $50 of a full payment reaches principal, the Department tops it up to $50. A payment calculator shows the bill; the ranking shows what that does to the balance over the years.

A 30-year clock, then a tax bill

What is left after 360 payments is forgiven and, under the law in force since January 1, 2026, taxed as income that year. Time on RAP does not count toward IBR's 20 or 25 year forgiveness if you switch later.

No cap

IBR never charges more than the 10-year Standard payment set when you enroll. RAP has no such cap, so above roughly $100,000 of income it can cost more per month than Standard.

Public service

Every on-time RAP payment counts toward the 120 for PSLF. Late payments do not, and RAP borrowers cannot use buyback for months in forbearance.

A man at a desk by a window reading a printed repayment plan with a pen in his hand

Your income, your loans, every plan.

The free ranking runs RAP, IBR, PAYE, ICR and Standard on your numbers, month by month, with the math shown. Positions 2 onward are free; the kit with the pre-filled form is $29.

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Sources

Two minutes now, or the Standard plan by default later.

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