The debt avalanche method pays off the highest interest rate first, regardless of balance size — the mathematically optimal order for minimizing total interest paid across every debt.
How it works
The identical simulation the debt snowball calculator runs — every debt gets its minimum, leftover budget goes to one targeted debt, a cleared debt’s payment rolls onto the next — but ordered by highest APR first instead of smallest balance first.
Why this order is optimal
Every dollar of extra payment does the most good applied to whichever debt is charging the most for every dollar still owed — which is exactly what ordering by rate rather than balance achieves. The debt snowball calculator on this site runs the identical simulation ordered by balance instead, for a behavioral reason: smallest-first tends to cost more interest overall but produces an earlier payoff of some debt, which some people find easier to stick with. Running the same numbers through both calculators shows exactly what that trade-off costs for your own specific debts.
How to use this calculator
- List each debt: name, balance, APR, minimum payment — one per line.
- Enter the total you can put toward all debts combined each month.
- Read the payoff order and total time and interest.
Frequently asked questions
Is avalanche always better than snowball?
Mathematically, in terms of total interest paid, yes — it’s optimal by construction. Whether it’s better for you depends on whether you’ll actually stick with a plan that might not produce a paid-off debt for a while, which is a genuinely different question this calculator doesn’t answer.
How much does avalanche actually save compared to snowball?
It depends entirely on your specific debts — the gap is largest when a high-rate debt has a large balance (so snowball leaves it accruing interest longest) and smallest when the highest-rate debt also happens to have the smallest balance (where the two methods can even coincide).
Why might my highest-rate debt not be the one I expected?
Because APR and balance are independent — a small store card can easily carry a higher rate than a large auto loan, and it’s the rate, not the balance size, that avalanche orders by.
Can I switch strategies partway through?
Yes — nothing about either method locks you in. Re-running this calculator partway through, with your updated balances, gives you a fresh avalanche order at any point.
Does this account for promotional 0% rates?
Enter the rate that will actually apply for most of the payoff period — if a 0% promotional rate will expire partway through, consider running the calculation again once it reverts to the standard rate, since the optimal order can change.
