VA Loan Calculator

Background.

A VA loan calculator answers the questions specific to a VA-guaranteed mortgage that a generic mortgage calculator cannot: what is my one-time VA funding fee, and how much am I saving every month by never paying private mortgage insurance? The VA home loan benefit, administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for eligible veterans, active-duty service members, and certain surviving spouses, has two structural features that set it apart from a conventional mortgage. First, most borrowers can purchase with 0% down — no 20% down payment is required to avoid mortgage insurance, because VA loans structurally never charge it, at any down payment level. Second, in place of ongoing mortgage insurance, VA loans charge a one-time funding fee at closing, which can be paid in cash or rolled into the loan amount, and which funds the VA loan guaranty program so it can continue operating without taxpayer subsidy.

The funding fee is not a flat rate — it depends on your down payment and whether this is your first use of the VA loan benefit or a subsequent use. Under the current schedule, set by the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019 and effective for loans closed on or after January 1, 2020, the fee for a first-time user with less than 5% down is 2.15% of the loan amount, dropping to 1.5% at 5% to 9.99% down and 1.25% at 10% or more down. A subsequent user with less than 5% down pays a higher 3.3%, but the 5%-9.99% and 10%+ tiers charge the identical 1.5% and 1.25% as a first-time user — the fee only diverges by usage history at the lowest down-payment tier. Since the 2020 change, regular military, Guard, and Reserve borrowers all pay this same unified schedule; the fee no longer differs by service category the way it once did. Certain borrowers are exempt from the funding fee entirely: veterans receiving VA compensation for a service-connected disability (or who would, but for receiving retirement or active-duty pay instead), Purple Heart recipients on active duty at closing, and surviving spouses receiving Dependency and Indemnity Compensation.

The no-PMI feature is the calculator's second focus. Conventional loans typically require private mortgage insurance whenever the down payment is below 20%, commonly running in the range of roughly 0.5% to 1.5% of the loan amount annually depending on credit and loan-to-value, and that insurance is a genuine ongoing monthly cost with no equity benefit to the borrower. A VA loan never charges monthly mortgage insurance, at any down payment level, including 0% down — the funding fee is the one-time cost that substitutes for it. This calculator shows an illustrative estimate of what a comparable conventional borrower might be paying monthly in PMI at the same down payment, using a representative 0.5% annual rate, so the value of the VA no-PMI feature is visible in dollars rather than left abstract.

Third, VA loans work against an entitlement system rather than a simple down-payment requirement. Each eligible veteran has a basic entitlement of $36,000 under federal statute, which historically backed a lender's guaranty up to a county-specific loan limit tied to conforming loan limits. Since 2020, that loan-limit ceiling no longer applies to a veteran using their full, unused entitlement — meaning most first-time VA borrowers today can finance a home with no VA-imposed loan limit at all, though individual lenders may still apply their own underwriting ceilings. Veterans with a prior VA loan still outstanding, or who have used entitlement that has not been restored, may have reduced entitlement remaining, which can reintroduce a loan-limit consideration for a subsequent purchase — a full multi-loan entitlement calculation is outside the scope of this page. Enter your home price, down payment, rate, term, usage history, funding-fee financing choice, and exemption status to see your funding fee, total loan amount, monthly principal and interest, total interest, and the illustrative PMI savings and basic entitlement figures below. Reviewed on 2026-07-27.

What is va loan calculator?

A VA loan is a mortgage guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and issued by private lenders (banks, credit unions, and mortgage companies) to eligible veterans, active-duty service members, National Guard and Reserve members, and certain surviving spouses. The VA does not lend the money itself; it guarantees a portion of the loan against default, which lets approved lenders offer more favorable terms than they otherwise would — chiefly, the ability to finance up to 100% of the purchase price with no down payment, and the complete elimination of monthly private mortgage insurance regardless of the down payment or loan-to-value ratio. In place of ongoing mortgage insurance, VA loans charge a one-time funding fee at closing, calculated as a percentage of the loan amount that varies by down payment size and by whether the loan is the borrower's first or a subsequent use of the benefit; the fee can be paid in cash or financed into the loan. Certain borrowers — those receiving VA compensation for a service-connected disability, Purple Heart recipients, and surviving spouses receiving Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, among others — are exempt from the fee entirely. Each eligible borrower has a statutory basic entitlement, and since a 2020 statutory change, VA loan amounts are no longer capped by county loan limits for a veteran using their full entitlement, though lenders retain their own underwriting discretion. This calculator models the funding fee, the resulting loan amount, the monthly principal-and-interest payment, and an illustrative comparison against the private mortgage insurance a conventional borrower at the same down payment would typically pay.

How to use this calculator.

1. 01Enter the home price.
2. 02Enter your planned down payment percentage — 0% is common and fully supported for VA loans.
3. 03Enter the interest rate quoted by your VA-approved lender.
4. 04Enter the loan term, typically 30 years (15-year terms are also available).
5. 05Select whether this is your first use of the VA loan benefit or a subsequent use — the funding fee differs at the lowest down-payment tier.
6. 06Select whether you plan to finance the funding fee into the loan or pay it in cash at closing.
7. 07Select whether you're exempt from the funding fee (service-connected disability compensation, Purple Heart, or DIC surviving spouse).
8. 08Review your funding fee, total loan amount, monthly principal and interest, total interest, the illustrative monthly PMI you're not paying, and your basic entitlement amount.

The formula.

Reviewed on 2026-07-27 against the current VA.gov funding fee schedule (effective for loans closed on or after January 1, 2020, under the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019). The calculator first computes the base loan amount as home price minus the down payment. It then selects a down-payment tier: less than 5% down, 5% up to 10% down, or 10% or more down. The funding fee percentage is read from that tier and the selected usage type — 2.15% / 1.5% / 1.25% for a first-time user across the three tiers, or 3.3% / 1.5% / 1.25% for a subsequent user — and is set to 0% if the borrower is exempt. The funding fee amount is the base loan amount multiplied by that percentage. If the fee is financed, it is added to the base loan amount to produce the total financed loan amount used for the payment calculation; if paid in cash, the financed amount equals the base loan amount unchanged. The monthly principal-and-interest payment then uses the standard amortizing-loan formula on the financed amount, with the periodic rate equal to the annual rate divided by 12 and the number of payments equal to the term in years times 12 (collapsing to principal divided by the payment count in the rare zero-rate case). Total interest is the sum of all payments minus the financed amount. The illustrative monthly PMI-savings figure applies a representative 0.5% annual rate to the base loan amount whenever the down payment is below 20% (the level at which conventional PMI would typically apply), divided by 12 — it is a planning illustration, not a quote from any specific insurer, since actual conventional PMI rates commonly range from about 0.5% to 1.5% annually depending on credit score and loan-to-value. The basic entitlement amount is the fixed statutory figure of $36,000 under 38 U.S.C. § 3703; it is not multiplied or adjusted by this calculator, since since 2020 it no longer imposes a loan-limit ceiling on a veteran using their full, unused entitlement.

A worked example.

Frequently asked questions.

References& sources.

1. [1]U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs — VA funding fee and closing costs.
2. [2]U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Benefits Administration — Funding fee tables for purchase and construction loans.
3. [3]Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019, Public Law 116-23 — unified the VA funding fee schedule for regular military and Guard/Reserve and removed VA loan limits for veterans with full entitlement, effective for loans closed on or after January 1, 2020.