True Cost of BNPL Calculator
Enter your purchase details to see the effective APR, total cost with any late fees, and how it compares to a credit card.
A "Pay in 4" plan advertised at 0% interest costs the purchase price when every installment lands on time. The number that's harder to see is what the same plan costs once a payment slips, a longer-term loan carries an APR, or several plans run at once. This calculator puts that figure in plain terms: it takes the purchase amount, the provider's fee schedule, the plan length, and the number of missed payments, and returns an effective APR alongside the total dollar cost.
Two APR methods are shown side by side — a simple method and the TILA (Truth in Lending Act) method lenders use for disclosed loans — because the two can differ on short-term installments. The same result is placed next to the cost of the purchase on a credit card at a rate you choose, so the two financing paths sit next to each other rather than on separate pages. Nothing is entered on a server; the math runs in your browser.
Enter the total purchase price you're financing.
Choose the company offering the installment plan.
Select a provider first to see available plans.
How many scheduled payments you expect to miss or pay late.
The APR on the credit card you'd use as an alternative. US average is around 22%.
How to read the result
The effective APR translates a flat fee into an annualized rate. Because a "Pay in 4" plan is repaid over roughly six weeks, even a small $5–8 late fee represents a large share of the amount financed for that short window — which is why a single missed payment on a modest purchase can produce a headline APR in the 35–60% range. A longer-term installment loan spreads any stated APR across more months, so the same percentage carries a different dollar weight.
Fee data reflects each provider's publicly published schedule and is verified periodically, not in real time. Terms and fees current as of early 2026 — verify directly with your provider before completing a purchase. The calculator presents the numbers; the decision about any specific purchase is yours.