Skip to calculator
Calculate This

Finance lease calculator

Monthly payment for a finance lease where you own the asset after the last payment — margin plus a regional benchmark (EURIBOR, SOFR, SONIA, TONA, LPR…) or your own total rate.

Defaults to your region. Switch to compare any other scale.

Down payment
%
Buyout (final payment)
%

Decimals allowed: 2.5 or 2,5 = 30 monthly payments.

Interest rate

Auto values come from the official publisher and are cached for about 12 hours. Your contract may use a different tenor or fixing date — use the override below.

%
%

Required for manual benchmarks; for auto ones leave empty to use the value shown in the results. Negative values allowed.

Floor benchmark at 0%

Result

$489.83

Monthly payment

60 × $489.83 + Buyout (final payment): $3,000.00

  • Benchmark rate usedSOFR: 3.89% (as of 2026-11-10) · Federal Reserve Bank of New York · built-in fallback
  • Annual interest rate used6.79%
  • Financed amount$27,000.00
  • Down payment$3,000.00
  • Buyout (final payment)$3,000.00
  • Number of monthly payments60
  • Total of monthly payments$29,389.77
  • Total interest$5,389.77
  • Total cost$35,389.77
  • Effective annual rate (monthly compounding)7.005%
  • Step 1 · Financed amount (PV)$30,000.00 − 10% × $30,000.00 = $27,000.00
  • Step 2 · Buyout (final payment) (FV)10% × $30,000.00 = $3,000.00
  • Step 3 · Annual ratemargin + max(0; SOFR) = 2.9% + max(0; 3.89%) = 2.9% + 3.89% = 6.79% · Floor benchmark at 0%: Yes
  • Step 4 · Monthly rate r and number of payments nr = 6.79% ÷ 12 = 0.0056583; n = 5 × 12 = 60
  • Step 5 · Monthly payment (PMT)(PV − FV/(1+r)^n) · r / (1 − (1+r)^−n) = (27,000 − 3,000 / 1.0056583^60) × 0.0056583 / (1 − 1.0056583^−60) = $489.83
  • Step 6 · Total interestn × PMT + FV − PV = 60 × 489.83 + 3,000 − 27,000 = $5,389.77

Pay the $3,000.00 buyout and the asset is yours

Figures are net of VAT and fees. How VAT is charged on a finance lease (on each payment or on the price upfront) depends on the country and the contract.

Amortization schedule

YearPaymentsInterestPrincipalBalance at end
1$5,877.95$1,705.02$4,172.93$22,827.07
2$5,877.95$1,412.69$4,465.26$18,361.81
3$5,877.95$1,099.89$4,778.07$13,583.74
4$5,877.95$765.17$5,112.79$8,470.96
5$5,877.95$407.00$5,470.96$3,000.00
Buyout (final payment)$3,000.00$0.00$3,000.00$0.00

About this tool

A finance lease is essentially a purchase paid in instalments: the lessor buys the asset, you pay it off over the term, and ownership passes to you after the last payment. The buyout or final payment is usually small — often 0–10% of the price — so most of the value is repaid through the monthly payments.

The difference from an operating lease is who carries the asset's value at the end. In an operating lease a larger residual value stays open and you return, refinance or buy the asset; in a finance lease you are the economic owner from the start and the asset is yours once the buyout is paid. That is why finance-lease payments are higher for the same price and rate.

The payment is an annuity with a balloon: interest is charged every month on the whole outstanding balance, including the amount due at the end. Floating-rate contracts usually add a fixed margin to a regional benchmark — EURIBOR in the euro area (including the Baltics), SOFR in the US, SONIA in the UK, SARON in Switzerland, TONA in Japan, the LPR in China, and so on. Pick yours from the list: values published by central banks or official administrators load automatically, licensed ones (such as WIBOR, STIBOR or BBSW) are entered manually with a link to the source, and the tenor or fixing date in your contract may differ, so every value can be overridden.

VAT treatment differs by country and contract, and fees are not included. For a plain instalment loan without a buyout see the loan calculator; for property, the mortgage calculator.

Formula

  • PV = price − down payment
  • FV = residual / buyout (% × price, or amount)
  • r = annual rate ÷ 12; n = round(years × 12)
  • PMT = (PV − FV/(1+r)^n) · r / (1 − (1+r)^−n)
  • r = 0 → PMT = (PV − FV) / n
  • annual rate = margin + max(0, benchmark) | total rate
  • total cost = down payment + n · PMT + FV

How it is calculated

  1. Pick the currency, then enter the asset price and the down payment (as % or amount).
  2. Enter the residual / buyout at the end (as % of price or amount) and the term in years — 2.5 or 2,5 both work.
  3. Choose margin + benchmark (EURIBOR, SOFR, SONIA, SARON, TONA, LPR…): auto values come from official sources, manual ones link to the source; override if your contract fixes differently — or type the total annual rate.
  4. Read the monthly payment, totals and the step-by-step formula; open the schedule for a yearly or monthly breakdown.

Questions

What is the difference between a finance lease and an operating lease?

In a finance lease you repay almost the whole price and become the owner after the buyout; the lessor mainly provides financing. In an operating lease a larger residual value remains at the end and you return, refinance or buy the asset. Use the operating lease calculator with the same inputs to compare the two.

Can the buyout be 0%?

Yes. With a 0% buyout the payments fully repay the financed amount, exactly like an annuity loan. Some lessors set a small buyout (for example 1–10%) to lower the monthly payment; enter it as a percentage of the price or as an amount.

How is the monthly lease payment calculated?

It is an annuity with a balloon: PMT = (PV − FV/(1+r)^n) · r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), where PV is the price minus the down payment, FV is the amount due at the end, r is the annual rate divided by 12 and n the number of months. Payments are assumed at the end of each month; if the rate is 0%, PMT = (PV − FV)/n.

Which benchmark rates are supported, and where do the values come from?

Automatic, from the official publishers (cached for about 12 hours, with a built-in fallback): EURIBOR 3M (ECB, monthly average), SOFR (New York Fed), SONIA (Bank of England), SARON (Swiss National Bank), SWESTR (Riksbank), NOWA (Norges Bank), PRIBOR 3M (Czech National Bank), CORRA (Bank of Canada), the RBA cash rate, TONA (Bank of Japan) and China's LPR 1Y/5Y (CFETS). Manual, with a link to the official source because the data is licensed or has no free feed: STIBOR, NIBOR, CIBOR, WIBOR, WIRON, BUBOR, BBSW, TIBOR, COFIX, the RBI repo rate and Korea's CD 91-day rate (the last two start from a dated reference value). You can also pick a custom benchmark.

What does the 0% benchmark floor mean?

Benchmarks can be negative — EURIBOR was below zero from 2015 to 2022 and SARON is slightly negative again. Many Baltic and European lease contracts treat a negative benchmark as 0%, so the rate never falls below the margin. The option is on by default and works with every benchmark; switch it off if your contract passes negative rates through.

Why might my contract use a different benchmark value?

Contracts specify a tenor (overnight, 1, 3 or 6 months), a fixing date and how often the rate resets — for example 3M EURIBOR fixed two days before each quarter. Overnight rates such as SOFR, SONIA or SARON are often compounded in arrears or used as term versions. The calculator shows the latest published value; if your contract fixes differently, enter the value from your statement in the override field.

Sources

Related calculators