The debt snowball pays off your smallest balance first for quick, motivating wins — then rolls each freed-up payment onto the next debt. List up to four debts, add any extra you can throw at them, and see your debt-free date, total interest, and time saved.
Smallest balance first
Enter each debt's balance, APR, and minimum monthly payment. Leave a balance blank to skip that row.
On paper, attacking your highest-interest debt first (the avalanche method) saves the most money. So why do so many people succeed with the snowball instead, which deliberately ignores interest rates and targets the smallest balance? Because getting out of debt is a behavior problem as much as a math problem. Knocking out a tiny $800 card in a couple of months delivers a real, visible win — and that jolt of momentum keeps you going when a spreadsheet-optimal plan would have you grinding on a huge balance for a year before seeing anything disappear.
The mechanics are simple and powerful. You make the minimum payment on every debt, then pour every spare dollar onto the smallest one until it's gone. The moment it's paid off, you take the entire payment you were making on it and roll it onto the next-smallest debt. That payment keeps growing like a snowball rolling downhill — debt three gets attacked with its own minimum plus everything freed from debts one and two plus your extra. By the final debt you're hurling a massive monthly payment at it, and balances that once felt permanent vanish in months.
This calculator runs the full month-by-month simulation for you, including the rolling payments, and compares it against the lazy path of only ever paying minimums. The difference in both time and interest is usually eye-opening — often years and thousands of dollars. The single biggest lever is the extra payment: even $100 or $150 a month dramatically shortens the timeline. If the smallest-balance ordering bothers your inner optimizer, run the numbers in the avalanche version too and pick whichever plan you'll actually stick with, because the best debt strategy is the one you finish.
Clearing a small balance fast gives the motivation that keeps most people on track to the finish.
Each paid-off debt's payment stacks onto the next, growing your firepower month after month.
The bigger your extra monthly payment, the sooner you're free. Even a small amount changes the math.
The snowball method orders debts by balance, smallest first, regardless of interest rate. You pay minimums on everything and throw all spare cash at the smallest balance; when it clears, its whole payment rolls onto the next one, so the amount attacking each successive debt grows like a snowball. Mathematically this is never cheaper than paying the highest rate first — the avalanche method — but it clears individual accounts sooner, and the evidence on real repayment behaviour suggests people are more likely to finish what they start when early wins arrive quickly. The right choice depends on whether the binding constraint is arithmetic or motivation.
Rollover payment = Sum of minimums + ExtraWhen debt k clears: payment on debt k+1 = its minimum + everything freed so farOrder: snowball sorts by balance ascending; avalanche sorts by APR descendingwhere:
Assumptions: Assumes no new borrowing and that freed payments are genuinely redirected rather than absorbed into spending. That redirection is the entire mechanism; without it both methods collapse to paying minimums.
A store card of $1,200 at 26%, a personal loan of $6,000 at 12%, and a card of $9,000 at 19%. Minimums total $310, and $300 extra is available.
ResultDebt-free in about 29 months; avalanche saves roughly $180
The gap between the two methods here is under 8% of total interest, which is typical when balances and rates are loosely correlated. Where a large balance also carries the highest rate the avalanche advantage grows, and where the smallest debt is also the most expensive the two orders coincide exactly.