RAP PAYMENT
CALCULATOR

How the RAP formula works

RAP is the first income-driven plan in federal history that ignores the poverty line entirely. Every plan before it — IBR, PAYE, ICR, SAVE — first subtracted a protected amount (150% to 225% of the federal poverty guideline) from your income and charged a percentage of what was left. RAP charges a percentage of your entire adjusted gross income, on a sliding bracket scale set by Congress in the July 2025 reconciliation law:

Then two adjustments: subtract $50 per month for each dependent you claim on your federal tax return, and apply the $10 monthly floor — no RAP borrower ever pays $0, no matter how low their income falls. Full mechanics, including the bracket cliff at each $10,000 line, are on the payment formula page; the dependent deduction has its own deep-dive, and so does the $10 floor.

Three worked examples

Single teacher, $45,000 AGI, no kids, $38,000 balance

AGI lands in the 4% bracket: $45,000 × 4% ÷ 12 = $150/month. On SAVE she paid roughly $41 (5% of income above 225% of the poverty line). Her payment nearly quadruples — but under RAP her balance is guaranteed to fall every on-time month: unpaid interest is waived and the government tops up principal reduction to $50. This is the Department of Education's own headline example, and it's honest about the trade: higher payment, no balance growth.

Married nurse, $85,000 joint AGI, 2 kids, $60,000 balance

8% bracket: $85,000 × 8% ÷ 12 = $566.67, minus $100 for two dependents = $467/month. Filing separately might drop the AGI used to her income alone — the single biggest lever most married borrowers never pull. We decode it on the married-filing-separately page.

Gig worker, $18,000 AGI, 1 kid

1% bracket: $18,000 × 1% ÷ 12 = $15, minus $50 dependent deduction = below zero → floor applies: $10/month. On SAVE this borrower paid $0. The end of the $0 payment is one of the most consequential changes for low-income borrowers — and $10/month buys the interest waiver, which for this borrower cancels ~$97/month in interest that would otherwise accrue.

What the comparison columns assume

IBR uses 10% (new IBR) or 15% (old IBR) of income above 150% of the 2026 poverty guideline for your family size ($15,960 single, +$5,680 per additional person, 48 states), capped at your 10-year Standard amount. Standard is a straight 10-year amortization of your balance at your rate. SAVE is shown so you can see exactly what you're losing: 5%–10% of income above 225% of the poverty line — it was terminated by court order on March 10, 2026 and cannot be selected, but the delta explains why 7.5 million people are angry. If your new number is unaffordable on every federal plan, read RAP vs refinancing before you do anything irreversible — and if you're deciding when to move, start with switch now or wait.

Reading your results like an analyst

Four readouts deserve interpretation beyond the raw number. The RAP-vs-interest gap: if your payment sits below the monthly interest line, you are structurally a forgiveness-track borrower — the waiver is doing heavy lifting, your balance still falls $50/month, and your strategy pages are the forgiveness clock and the tax bomb. Payment above interest? You're a payoff-track borrower and should be comparing against Tiered Standard and possibly refinancing. The RAP-vs-IBR delta: under ~$75/month apart, the plans are close enough that clock credit should decide, not payment — see the crossover analysis. The bracket sub-line: if your AGI sits within ~$3,000 of a bracket boundary, you have a live AGI-management opportunity worth hundreds a year — the formula page ranks the levers. The SAVE row: it's red and dead for a reason; it exists so you can see what you're adjusting from, not what you can return to.

Scenarios worth running before you decide anything

1. Your raise: add $5,000–$10,000 to AGI and watch whether you cross a cliff — the difference between "my payment drifts up $40" and "it jumps $150" is worth knowing before you're surprised by the annual recertification.
2. Both filing statuses if married: your AGI alone vs combined. The gap is the gross value of the MFS lever, before tax costs.
3. Dependent changes: a child arriving (or aging off your return) moves the number $50 — small monthly, $600/year.
4. The layoff case: run your unemployment-year income. RAP's answer (as low as $10) versus a fixed plan's answer (unchanged) is the clearest picture of what the income-driven insurance is actually worth to your household.

Why our numbers may differ from your servicer\u2019s \u2014 and who wins

This calculator applies the statutory formula to the AGI you type. Your servicer applies the same formula to the AGI in your most recent processed tax return \u2014 which may be a year older than the number in your head, especially for late filers. When the two disagree, the return wins until the next recalculation, or until you submit current income documentation for an off-cycle adjustment. If your servicer\u2019s bill disagrees with the formula applied to your actual return data, that\u2019s not a quirk \u2014 it\u2019s a dispute, and the math on this page is your citation.