1. Add each debt you’re carrying — credit cards, personal loans, car loans — with its balance, APR, and minimum monthly payment.
2. Enter any extra amount you can pay each month beyond the minimums.
3. Compare Snowball vs. Avalanche side by side — see your debt-free date, total interest, and a month-by-month schedule.
4. Save your plan in your browser, then return monthly to log real payments and update your progress.

Snowball: pay off your smallest balance first, regardless of interest rate, then roll that payment into the next-smallest debt. Built for motivation through early wins.

Avalanche: pay off your highest-APR debt first, regardless of balance size. Mathematically minimizes total interest paid.

With snowball, you’d attack the store card first ($800, smallest), then the credit card ($1,200), then the personal loan ($3,500) — regardless of rate.

With avalanche, you’d attack the store card first too (26% APR, highest) — then the credit card (22%) before the personal loan (11%). In this example the order happens to match; the gap between methods grows when a large balance also carries a high rate.

It depends on your specific numbers. When your highest-interest debt is also your smallest balance, snowball and avalanche often produce nearly identical results. When your highest-interest debt is your largest balance, avalanche saves meaningfully more in total interest — but takes longer to feel a first win. Run both using the calculator above to see your actual numbers.

Neither is universally better — avalanche minimizes total interest, while snowball tends to keep people more motivated through early wins. If the interest difference between the two is small for your debts, pick whichever you’re more likely to stick with.

No — it assumes the APR you enter stays constant. If you have a variable-rate card or loan, treat the result as an estimate and recheck periodically using your account’s current rate.

This calculator assumes you can cover all minimum payments plus your extra amount. If you’re struggling to meet minimums, consider speaking with a nonprofit credit counseling service before taking on a debt consolidation product.

No. Everything you enter is saved only in your own browser’s local storage. WebyTools never receives or stores your debt figures on any server. See our Privacy Policy for details.

The projection assumes consistent payments. If you miss or reduce a payment, your actual payoff date will shift later — update your saved plan with the real balance to keep the projection accurate.

You can enter any debt with a balance, rate, and minimum payment. That said, snowball/avalanche is mainly designed for multiple shorter-term debts (credit cards, personal loans) rather than a single long-amortization mortgage, where the strategy differs.