Debt-to-Income Ratio Calculator

Debt-to-income ratio, or DTI, is the share of your gross monthly income that goes toward debt payments. Lenders use it as a gate: before they look at credit score or down payment, they check whether your existing, and proposed, payments leave enough room in your income to comfortably repay a new loan.

This calculator shows both ratios lenders actually use, your current position, and what adding a new loan payment would do to it, before you commit to anything.

How does this calculator work?

Enter your gross monthly income, your housing payment, and your other monthly debt payments. If you're considering a new loan, add its estimated payment in the optional field to see the before-and-after comparison.

Not sure what you can afford yet? Start with our Home Affordability Calculator.

Front-end DTI divides your housing payment alone by your income. Back-end DTI divides every debt payment listed, including housing, by your income, which is the number most lenders weigh most heavily.

If a new loan payment is entered, the calculator shows your back-end DTI both with and without it, along with a breakdown of what share of your income each debt category represents.

What DTI is and why lenders care

A lender extending credit is making a bet that you'll be able to repay it. DTI is one of the simplest ways to check that bet: it compares what you already owe each month against what you actually bring in, before a new payment is added on top.

Two borrowers earning the same income can look very different to a lender. Someone earning $6,000 a month with $500 in existing debt payments has far more room for a new loan than someone earning the same $6,000 with $2,000 already committed, even though their incomes are identical. DTI is what makes that difference visible in a single number.

Front-end vs. back-end DTI

Front-end DTI, sometimes called the housing ratio, looks only at your proposed or current housing payment against income. Back-end DTI looks at every recurring debt payment: housing, auto, student loans, credit cards, and anything else you owe monthly, against that same income.

Lenders generally weigh back-end DTI more heavily, since it captures your full monthly obligation rather than just housing. If you already know your target payment, plug it into our home loan calculator to estimate it before running the numbers here.

What counts as debt

DTI counts recurring, required debt payments: mortgage or rent, auto loans, student loans, credit card minimums, personal loans, and court-ordered payments like alimony or child support. It does not count expenses like utilities, groceries, insurance, subscriptions, or savings contributions, even though those are real monthly costs that affect your budget.

If you have an auto loan or are comparing a refinance, that payment counts toward back-end DTI either way. The same goes for a 401(k) loan: even though you're borrowing from your own retirement account, the repayment is still a recurring monthly obligation that lenders count.

Have a loan on a boat, RV, ATV, aircraft, or land? Those payments count too, check the payment on any of them: RV loan, boat loan, motorcycle loan, ATV loan, aircraft loan, or land loan.

How to lower your DTI before applying

The fastest way to lower back-end DTI is to reduce a monthly payment or pay off a debt entirely, since every dollar of payment removed comes straight off the ratio's numerator. Paying off the $150 credit card minimum from the example above drops back-end DTI by 2.5 percentage points on its own, from 39.17% to 36.67%. Paying off the credit card and the $400 auto loan together drops it further still, from 39.17% all the way to 30.00%, moving this borrower from borderline into a strong position without any change in income.

Before adding new debt, it helps to know exactly what the payment will be. Our personal loan calculator, student loan calculator, and business loan calculator all estimate a monthly payment you can test in the new loan field above before you apply for anything.

Increasing income works the same direction from the other side: a raise, a second income source, or paying down a large balance ahead of schedule all shrink the ratio, whether the numerator drops or the denominator grows.

Worked example

A borrower earning $6,000 a month with a $1,500 housing payment, a $400 auto loan, a $300 student loan, and $150 in credit card minimums, considering a new $300 monthly loan payment.

Gross monthly income

$6,000

Housing payment

$1,500

Auto + student + credit card

$850/mo

Front-end DTI

25.00%

Back-end DTI (current)

39.17%

Back-end DTI (with new loan)

44.17%

How the numbers work

Front-end DTI is $1,500 ÷ $6,000 = 25.00%. Back-end DTI adds the $400, $300, and $150 in other debt to housing: $2,350 ÷ $6,000 = 39.17%, already in many lenders’ borderline range before any new loan is added.

Adding the $300 new loan payment brings total monthly debt to $2,650, for a back-end DTI of $2,650 ÷ $6,000 = 44.17%, a jump of exactly 5 percentage points that pushes this borrower past the 43% line many conventional lenders treat as a soft ceiling.

The new loan itself might be affordable in isolation, but stacked on existing debt it moves this borrower from borderline into a range where qualifying for most conventional loans gets harder. Seeing that before applying, not after, is the entire point of checking DTI first.

DTI vs. credit score

DTI and credit score measure two different things, and lenders check both. Credit score reflects payment history and how you have managed debt over time: on-time payments, credit age, and how much of your available credit is in use. DTI reflects your current capacity: whether your income today can absorb another monthly payment, regardless of how well you have paid past debts.

A borrower can have an excellent credit score built over many years and still be denied a loan on DTI alone, if too much of their income is already committed elsewhere. The reverse also happens: a strong DTI does not offset a poor payment history. Lenders generally want both a manageable ratio and a track record of reliably making payments.

Where the thresholds come from

The 36% and 43% lines shown on the qualification gauge are common industry guideposts, not universal rules. Conventional loans often favor a back-end DTI below 36%, though many lenders extend credit up to 43% or higher depending on compensating factors like credit score, down payment, or cash reserves. FHA loans frequently allow higher ratios, and VA loans use their own residual-income test rather than a strict DTI cutoff. Always confirm the actual threshold with the specific lender and loan program you're considering.