Two income-driven plans still exist after this year's overhaul. Enter your balance, rate, income and family size to see the new Repayment Assistance Plan and Income-Based Repayment side by side against the standard 10-year payment.
If you last looked at income-driven repayment a year ago, most of what you learned is now out of date. SAVE — the plan that carried the most borrowers — was vacated by a federal court on 10 March 2026 and separately terminated by statute in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. PAYE and ICR survive only as legacy plans: closed to new enrollment, and gone entirely on 1 July 2028.
That leaves two live options. The Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) opened on 1 July 2026, and Income-Based Repayment (IBR) continues. They calculate payments in fundamentally different ways, which is why one can be dramatically cheaper than the other for the same borrower.
RAP's defining feature is that it charges a percentage of your total AGI — there is no poverty-line deduction at all. The rate climbs one percentage point per $10,000 of income:
| Adjusted gross income | Payment rate |
|---|---|
| $0 – $10,000 | $10/month floor |
| $10,001 – $20,000 | 1% of AGI |
| $20,001 – $30,000 | 2% of AGI |
| $30,001 – $40,000 | 3% of AGI |
| $40,001 – $50,000 | 4% of AGI |
| $50,001 – $60,000 | 5% of AGI |
| $60,001 – $70,000 | 6% of AGI |
| $70,001 – $80,000 | 7% of AGI |
| $80,001 – $90,000 | 8% of AGI |
| $90,001 – $100,000 | 9% of AGI |
| $100,001 and above | 10% of AGI |
From the resulting monthly figure you subtract $50 for every dependent you claim on your federal return, and the answer is floored at $10 — RAP has no $0 payment, however low your income goes.
IBR charges a share of discretionary income, meaning only the portion of your AGI above 150% of the federal poverty guideline for your family size. For 2026 in the 48 contiguous states that threshold is $23,940 for a household of one, rising by $8,520 per additional person. Earn less than the threshold and your IBR payment is genuinely $0.
Which rate applies depends on when you first borrowed. If your earliest loan was disbursed on or after 1 July 2014 you pay 10% of discretionary income and reach forgiveness in 20 years; borrowers who predate that cutoff pay 15% and wait 25 years. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act also removed the old partial financial hardship test, so there is no longer an income ceiling on IBR eligibility.
Because RAP taxes every dollar of AGI while IBR exempts the first 150% of the poverty line, the two formulas cross over as income rises. Three cases, all computed by the calculator above:
| Borrower | Standard | RAP | IBR |
|---|---|---|---|
| $45,000 AGI, single, no dependents | $444.08 | $150.00 | $175.50 |
| $72,000 AGI, family of 4, 2 dependents | $444.08 | $320.00 | $187.50 |
| $120,000 AGI, family of 2, no dependents | $738.06 | $1,000.00 | $729.50 |
All three use a $40,000 balance at 6% except the last, which uses $65,000 at 6.5%. In the third case RAP costs more than the standard 10-year plan — an income-driven plan more expensive than the plan it exists to relieve.
The reason sits in one comparison. Each extra person in your household raises IBR's exempt income by $8,520 (150% of the $5,680 poverty-guideline step), which cuts an IBR payment by $71 a month. Each dependent cuts a RAP payment by $50. So every additional household member moves the two plans $21 a month further apart in IBR's favour — which is why RAP loses ground as households grow, not gains it.
We swept every income from $0 to $300,000 across family sizes 1-6 and dependent counts 0-4. RAP is cheaper in only 3 of those 20 household configurations, and never by more than $50.50 a month — while IBR, where it wins, wins by up to $554.50. The full crossover study has the bands and the chart.
RAP's longer 30-year forgiveness clock — 360 qualifying payments, against IBR's 20 or 25 years — is a real cost. Two features partly offset it. Unpaid interest is waived rather than capitalised, so a payment that falls short of monthly interest no longer inflates your balance. And the government tops up any shortfall needed to make your principal drop by at least $50 a month, which means a RAP balance always moves down. Under IBR, a low payment on a large balance can leave you owing more years later than you borrowed.
Eligibility now depends heavily on dates. Loans issued or consolidated on or after 1 July 2026 can only use RAP — IBR is closed to them. If your loans predate that, both are open and worth comparing. Anyone still sitting on PAYE or ICR has until 1 July 2028 to move, and anyone parked in SAVE forbearance needs to pick something now, because that plan no longer exists to return to.
One caveat the calculator cannot capture: if you are married and file jointly, most plans count your spouse's income too. Filing separately can cut the payment substantially but usually costs you elsewhere on your tax return, and which way that nets out is genuinely individual.
Want the plain amortised payment without any income adjustment? Use the Student Loan Calculator. For the full background on the 2026 overhaul, read what changed when SAVE, PAYE and ICR gave way to RAP. Still deciding whether the degree pays for itself? Start with the College Cost Calculator, and if you are weighing loan payoff against investing, the Debt Payoff Calculator compares the two directly. The same ground is covered chapter by chapter in our book, From Paycheck to Portfolio. Working in public service? The PSLF Calculator tracks the 120 qualifying payments and what would actually be forgiven. Two deadlines decide this for you if you do not: PAYE and ICR sunset on 1 July 2028, with RAP as the default placement. Married? Whether your spouse income counts depends on how you file — see the filing-status guide.