Calculator
Snowball vs Avalanche: See the Exact Difference
$8,000 at 24%, $7,000 at 18%, and $5,000 at 9%, starting at $800 a month — that figure falls as each balance clears.
- Avalanche
- 3 years — $4,887 of interest
- Snowball
- 3 years 5 months — $7,359 of interest
Difference: $2,472 and 5 months.
Estimations only — based on the numbers you enter. Not financial advice.
Run it on your own balances → Free, no signup, your numbers stay on your device.
How the two orders differ
Both orders put the same total toward debt each month. The difference is which balance receives the extra payment. Snowball applies it to the smallest balance first; Avalanche applies it to the highest rate first. Nothing else changes.
What the numbers show
On the three balances above, Avalanche finishes 5 months earlier and produces $2,472 less interest. The size of that gap tracks one thing: how far apart the highest and lowest rate sit. Move the same three balances to 17%, 16%, and 16% and the gap shrinks to $282 — the order still matters, just far less.
Ordering against the size of the payment
Ordering decides where each extra dollar goes; the size of the extra decides how much there is to place. Raising the monthly total from $800 to $900 under Avalanche cuts interest by $778 and removes 5 months. That is a smaller move than the $2,472 the ordering itself produced here, because a 15-point spread between 24% and 9% is unusually wide. Close the spread and the payment size takes over as the larger lever.
Questions
- Does the payoff order change my minimum payments?
- No. Minimums stay the same in both orders. Only the extra amount is redirected.
- What if two debts have the same APR?
- Order between them is arbitrary; the result is the same to the cent.
- Can I switch orders midway?
- Yes — the calculator recalculates from your current balances, so you can re-run it after any payment.
Other calculators: see what the minimum alone costs · turn the result into a date