How We Calculate

Every calculator on VA Loan Calculator runs in your browser with the formulas below. Official figures come from VA.gov, the VA Lenders Handbook (VA Pamphlet 26-7), FHFA and HUD, and they were last checked on November 1, 2026. Anything that is an assumption, such as a tax or insurance amount, is shown as an input you can change.

Monthly payment and amortization

The payment calculator uses the standard formula for a fixed-rate loan: payment = loan × r ÷ (1 − (1 + r)⁻ⁿ), where r is the annual rate divided by 12 and n is the number of monthly payments. If the funding fee is financed, it is added to the loan first. Property tax, home insurance and HOA dues are added on top. No mortgage insurance is added, because VA loans do not charge it.

Check case: a $400,000 home with 0% down on first use carries a 2.15% funding fee of $8,600, for a loan of $408,600.

VA funding fee

The funding fee calculator applies the schedule on VA.gov, in effect since April 7, 2023, to the loan amount (not the price):

• Purchase or construction: 2.15% first use and 3.30% after first use with less than 5% down; 1.50% with 5% or more down; 1.25% with 10% or more down.
• Cash-out refinance: 2.15% first use, 3.30% after first use.
• IRRRL: 0.50%. Loan assumption: 0.50%.
• Exempt borrowers, such as veterans receiving VA disability compensation, pay 0%.

Affordability and debt-to-income

The affordability calculator works backward: gross monthly income × your target debt-to-income ratio (41% by default, the VA's benchmark), minus your existing monthly debts, gives the most you could spend on housing. It then solves for the home price at which principal and interest (on the loan plus any financed funding fee), property tax and home insurance (entered as yearly percentages of the price) add up to exactly that amount. The DTI calculator runs the same numbers forward and compares the result with 41%, which the Lenders Handbook treats as a benchmark that calls for closer review, not a hard cap.

Residual income

The residual income calculator uses the VA's residual income tables from chapter 4 of the Lenders Handbook, by region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West), family size and loan amount (below $80,000, or $80,000 and above). For a family of four in the South with a loan of $80,000 or more, the minimum is $1,003 a month. Maintenance and utilities are estimated at $0.14 per square foot, as the Handbook describes. When the debt-to-income ratio is above 41%, the calculator also shows whether residual income is at least 20% above the minimum, a key compensating factor in the Handbook.

Entitlement and loan limits

Veterans with full entitlement have no VA loan limit. For those with entitlement in use, the entitlement calculator follows the VA's method: remaining entitlement = 25% of the county's conforming loan limit − entitlement already in use. The largest loan with no down payment is about four times the remaining entitlement, and above that the down payment is typically 25% of the price minus the remaining entitlement. The default limit is the 2026 baseline conforming loan limit of $832,750 for a one-unit home, with a high-cost ceiling of $1,249,125, as announced by FHFA. Your county may differ, so the limit is an input.

Closing costs

The closing cost calculator adds the lender, third-party and prepaid items you enter, with editable defaults (a 1% origination charge, a $700 appraisal, title and recording fees, and 15 days of prepaid interest), and adds an escrow of two months of insurance and three months of property tax. Seller credits are applied first to closing costs and then to prepaid items, and seller concessions are checked against the VA's 4% cap on concessions.

IRRRL break-even

The IRRRL calculator compares your current and new payments, adds the 0.50% funding fee and your costs, and divides costs by the monthly saving to get the break-even. It flags the two statutory tests: fees and costs must be recouped within 36 months, and the new rate must be at least 0.50 percentage points lower for a fixed-to-fixed refinance (2.00 points when moving from a fixed rate to an adjustable one).

VA vs. FHA and VA vs. conventional

The VA vs. FHA calculator uses FHA's 3.5% minimum down payment, the 1.75% upfront mortgage insurance premium and the annual premiums from HUD Mortgagee Letter 2023-05 (0.55% a year for most 30-year loans with less than 5% down). The VA vs. conventional calculator uses a 3% minimum down payment and charges private mortgage insurance at the rate you enter until the scheduled balance reaches 78% of the original value, when the Homeowners Protection Act requires it to end.

What the calculators cannot know

Your actual rate, the lender's fees, your county's taxes and insurance, how a lender treats specific income or debts, and any lender rules stricter than the VA's. Results are estimates, not a loan offer, a preapproval or financial advice. The Loan Estimate from a VA-approved lender is the document that counts.

How we keep the numbers right

The funding fee schedule lives in one shared file used by every calculator, so a rate change is made once. Each calculator is tested against hand-worked examples like the ones on this page and in the guides before it goes live, and the official figures are rechecked whenever the VA, FHFA or HUD publishes a change, and at least once a quarter. Found a result that looks wrong? Tell us what you entered and what you expected. See also the editorial policy and the legal notice.

Written by Dylan Castro. Last updated: November 1, 2026.