Student Loans

How much would Public Service Loan Forgiveness write off?

What 120 qualifying payments come to, what is left at the end, and which plans earn credit. The plan most borrowers land on by default earns none.

Never written into the address bar.
Written off at payment 120$90,000.00

120 more qualifying payments, totalling $38,400.00, and the rest is discharged tax-free.

  • 0Payments already made
  • 120Payments still to make
  • $38,400.00You will pay from here
  • $90,000.00Written off

What has to be true alongside the arithmetic

Full-time work for a government at any level, a 501(c)(3), or a non-profit with a majority of staff on qualifying public services, for every one of the 120 months, and still working for one when you apply. For-profit employers do not count, and neither do labour unions or partisan political organisations.

The employer rule that would have narrowed this further was struck down on 30 June 2026, the day before it took effect, so the older and broader definition governs.

Payment counters on StudentAid.gov are not currently displaying, pending court-ordered changes, so the number of payments you have made may be hard to confirm right now.

The plan you are put on by default earns nothing

Tiered Standard is the automatic plan for anyone entering repayment with a loan first disbursed on or after 1 July 2026, and its payments do not count towards Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Someone working for a qualifying employer who never chooses a plan can spend years making payments that earn no credit at all. Choosing an income-driven plan is the single most valuable thing a public service borrower can do.

Why a low payment is the point

Anything still outstanding after 120 qualifying payments is written off tax-free, so the less you pay along the way the more is forgiven. On the ten-year Standard plan the loan clears at roughly the same moment the count is reached, which is why this page tells you when there would be nothing left to forgive.

The employer rule that was struck down

A regulation that would have let the Secretary disqualify employers for a "substantial illegal purpose" was vacated in its entirety on 30 June 2026, the day before it was to take effect, as beyond the Secretary's authority and unconstitutionally vague. The older and broader definition of a qualifying employer governs. Whether that is being appealed is not established here.

Sources

  1. Public Service Loan Forgiveness, U.S. Department of Education. Checked on . Backs the 120 qualifying payments and which plans qualify; that Tiered Standard payments do not qualify; the qualifying and non-qualifying employer categories; that the vacated employer rule has no effect.
  2. Teacher Loan Forgiveness, U.S. Department of Education. Checked on . Backs the $17,500 and $5,000 amounts and who each applies to; the five complete and consecutive years requirement; that the same service cannot count towards PSLF.
  3. Total and Permanent Disability discharge, U.S. Department of Education. Checked on . Backs the three qualification routes; the automatic discharge through quarterly data matches; the three-year monitoring period and that a VA-based discharge has none.
  4. Closed School discharge, U.S. Department of Education. Checked on . Backs the 180-day window and the automatic discharge one year after closure; the refund of payments and deletion of adverse credit history.
  5. Court actions affecting income-driven repayment, U.S. Department of Education. Checked on . Backs that the tax exclusion covered discharges from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2025; that a milestone reached before 2026 remains covered if the discharge is processed later.

The rules behind this calculator were last checked on .

Related