Car Lease vs Buy Calculator

The lease's finance factor as the lessor quotes it. Each month's rent charge is the money factor times the capitalized cost plus the residual. The Federal Reserve's leasing guide says it is not a lease rate and cannot be turned into one by moving the decimal point; lenders often quote it times 2,400 as a rough equivalent APR, which is shown below as a convention and nothing more.

The manufacturer's suggested retail price, the sticker price before any discount. A lease's residual is set as a share of this figure and not of the price you agree, so a discount lowers what the lease finances without lowering the value the lessor expects the car to keep.

How many months the loan runs if you buy. If you sell before it is paid off, the sale pays off what is still owed; if that is more than the car is worth, the status line says so, because buying then needs cash at the sale.

The miles a year the lease allows before the excess charge applies, most often 10,000, 12,000 or 15,000. The residual is set for this allowance, which is why the bought car's value is moved for your miles above or below it rather than above or below a national average.

Optional. The yearly rate your cash could earn instead, whatever it would be invested in, read as an effective annual rate and compounded monthly at its monthly equivalent. With a rate entered, each choice also counts what its payments could have earned by the end of your years. Leave it blank to compare the money paid alone: a blank reads as no interest forgone. The FDIC's national rate for savings accounts was 0.37 percent on 2026-09-21.

The price you agree for the car, before tax and fees. Buying finances it, plus its sales tax and less your down payment; the lease starts its capitalized cost from it. Both choices use the same agreed price, so a better deal helps whichever you pick.

How many whole years you would keep the car before selling it, or keep leasing. Both choices are priced over the same years: buying sells the car at the end and pays off any loan still owed, and leasing repeats the same lease for as many months as the years cover. From 1 to 15, because the year-by-year comparison runs fifteen years.

The value the lessor expects the car to keep at the end of the lease, as a share of the MSRP. The lease payment covers the gap between the capitalized cost and this value, so a higher residual means a lower payment. The bought car is valued along the same forecast, reaching this residual at the end of the lease term, so the comparison uses the lessor's own view of the car.

Your combined state and local sales tax rate on a vehicle, entered as a percentage. Buying pays it once, on the agreed price. A lease pays it by your state's method, chosen below, and an upfront lease tax is paid again with every new lease.

How many months each lease runs, most often 24, 36, 48 or 60. The depreciation fee spreads the value the lessor expects the car to lose over these months, and each lease's one-off costs are spread over them too. When your years are not a whole number of leases, the last lease is counted for the months used only.

The annual percentage rate on the loan if you buy, entered as a percentage. The loan is repaid in equal monthly payments at one twelfth of this rate over the loan term. Experian's average for new-car loans in the second quarter of 2026 was 6.35 percent, and its averages by credit tier ran from 4.41 to 16.11 percent.

Optional. Cash you pay at signing to lower the capitalized cost and so the payment. It is paid again with every lease and spread over its months in the comparison, and where a state taxes the total of the payments it is taxed too. Leave it blank for none, the common zero-down lease: a blank reads as nothing.

The lessor's fee for arranging the lease, added to the capitalized cost here as many leases do, so it is financed in the payment and charged again with every lease. A former dealer's published survey puts the captive lenders' base fees at about 595 to 925 before any dealer markup, which is why it is asked for rather than left out.

How many miles you expect to drive in a year. Miles above the lease's allowance are charged at the excess rate; a bought car instead loses or keeps value for miles above or below the allowance, by the share of its price AAA's 2026 study moves depreciation for mileage. A lease refunds nothing for miles not driven. The national average is about 10,800 miles a year per light-duty vehicle.

Optional. The fee charged when you hand the car back, spread over the lease's months in the comparison. A survey of the captive lenders' own sites puts their fees at about 300 to 495, and Toyota's lender waives the fee when you lease again with it. Leave it blank when it is waived: a blank reads as nothing.

Optional. The share of its value the bought car loses each year after the lease term; up to the lease term its value follows the lessor's own forecast to the residual. Leave it blank for 14 percent a year, the rate that, after a first-year loss of 20 percent, loses the 56 percent of the price over five years that AAA's 2026 study implies; KBB says values fall 8 to 12 percent a year after the first two years. An entered 0 is a car that keeps its residual value, which is not the same as a blank.

How your state charges sales tax on a lease. Monthly on each payment adds the tax to every payment. Upfront on the total of payments collects it at signing on all the payments plus any cash paid down. Upfront on the vehicle price collects it at signing on the agreed price, as Texas and Virginia do. An upfront tax is paid again with every new lease. An excerpt of Georgia's revenue guidance, not confirmed here, describes an upfront base that leaves out the rent charge; if it holds, the total-of-payments method overstates a Georgia lease's tax a little.

Cash you pay upfront if you buy, taken off the price plus its sales tax before the rest is financed; a down payment larger than that total is used only up to it. Nothing down is a real choice, a loan for the whole amount, which is why this is asked for rather than left optional.

What the lessor charges for each mile over the allowance, paid when each lease ends, in dollars a mile. Consumer Reports puts the charge at usually 10 to 25 cents a mile. The year's excess miles times this charge are added to the lease's monthly cost, spread over twelve months.

The money factor times 2,400, the industry's rough equivalent APR. It is a convention and not a disclosed rate: the Federal Reserve says the money factor is not a lease rate and that no federal formula for a lease rate exists.

Reads OK, or explains why the inputs are not valid or which part of the comparison deserves a second look.

Sales tax on buying the car: the rate times the agreed price, paid once.

How many loan payments fall before the sale: all of them when the loan is repaid within your years, otherwise the months kept.

The level monthly payment on the loan at the APR over the loan term, the first one month after purchase and not rounded to cents. Nothing when nothing is financed.

Sales tax added to each lease payment where the state taxes a lease monthly; nothing where it collects the tax at signing.

The monthly lease payment with any monthly sales tax, the figure a lease offer advertises. It leaves out what is paid at signing and at the lease end.

What is still owed on the loan when you sell at the end of your years; the sale pays it off. Nothing once every payment has been made.

How many leases your years cover: the months kept over the lease term. A fraction means the last lease is counted for the months used only.

The lease's finance charge each month, by the Federal Reserve's formula: the money factor times the capitalized cost plus the residual. It is charged on the whole car and not only on the part you use up.

The body of the table: buying's advantage over leasing, worked out again for every pair of the two axes. One hundred and twenty-one cells, each the whole comparison run again; positive cells favour buying and negative cells leasing. It is part of the table rather than a result on its own.

Machinery, and NOT an input. Excel substitutes each value from the row axis into this cell while it fills the table; the rest of the time it mirrors the miles you drive a year. Change the miles above, never this: the axis is derived from it, so editing the mirror moves the axis while the table walks and the table comes out meaningless.

What the bought car is estimated to sell for at the end of your years: along the lessor's own forecast from the agreed price to the residual at the end of the lease term, then down at the later-years rate, and moved for your miles above or below the lease's allowance by AAA's 2026 mileage adjustment. Never below nothing. An estimate at typical condition, not a quote.

Sales tax collected at signing where the state taxes a lease upfront, on the total of the payments and any cash paid down, or on the agreed price. It is paid again with every new lease; nothing under the monthly method.

The values down the side of the table: miles driven a year, in steps of 2,000 either side of yours and never below nothing. The middle entry is your own mileage. Read along a row to see how the answer moves with the years kept at that mileage.

The values across the top of the table: years kept, in steps of one either side of yours and never below one. The middle entry is your own figure; a column past fifteen years is priced by the same formulas.

The value the lessor expects the car to keep at the end of the lease: the residual share times the MSRP. The lease pays for the gap between the capitalized cost and this value.

Machinery. Excel requires the formula being tabulated to sit in the table's top-left corner, where it means nothing to a reader, so it is formatted away. It holds buying's advantage over leasing.

Machinery, and NOT an input. The same for the column axis: Excel substitutes into it while filling the table, and the rest of the time it mirrors the years you would keep the car.

Everything paid on leases over your years, before any interest your cash could have earned: the monthly cost times the months kept.

The net cost of buying divided by the years kept. It usually falls the longer the car is kept, because the steepest depreciation and the loan interest both come early.

The net cost of buying over your years: the down payment, the loan payments and any payoff, less what the car sells for, plus the interest that money could have earned if you entered a rate.

How much less buying costs than leasing over your years: the cost of leasing less the net cost of buying. Positive means buying is cheaper, negative means leasing is. The table of mileages and years works this same figure out again around your own.

The net cost of buying before any interest your cash could have earned: the down payment, the loan payments made and any balance paid off at the sale, less what the car sells for.

The first number of years, from 1 to 15, at which buying the car and selling it would cost no more than leasing on the same terms. It is not a promise for every longer stay: when the car loses value fast after the lease term, leasing can be the cheaper way again for some years after it, which the year-by-year chart shows. Nothing means leasing stays cheaper for all fifteen years.

What the loan is for: the agreed price plus its sales tax, less the down payment.

What the lease finances: the agreed price plus the acquisition fee, less any cash paid down on the lease.

Which choice costs less over your years, read from the sign of buying's advantage; the two are called the same when they are within half a cent of each other.

The monthly lease payment before any sales tax: the depreciation fee plus the rent charge.

The part of each lease payment that pays for the value the car is expected to lose: the capitalized cost less the residual, spread over the months of the lease.

The cost of leasing over your years: everything paid on the leases plus the interest that money could have earned if you entered a rate. Insurance, fuel and upkeep are left out, as they are the same whichever you choose.

The interest inside the loan payments made before the sale: those payments less the principal they repaid.

The whole cost of leasing a month: the payment with tax, plus the cash paid down, upfront tax and disposition fee spread over the months of each lease, plus the year's excess-mileage charge spread over twelve months. Every month of every lease costs this, because later leases are assumed to be on the same terms.

The cost of leasing divided by the years kept, so a lease can be set beside a purchase kept for a different number of years.

What the money paid to lease could have earned by the end of your years at the rate you entered for your cash, each month's cost paid at the start of the month. Nothing when that rate is blank.

What the car sells for less what is still owed on it. Negative means buying needs cash at the sale to clear the loan, which the status line flags.

What each lease asks for at signing: the first payment, any cash paid down and any upfront sales tax. The acquisition fee is not in it, because this calculator finances that fee in the capitalized cost.

What the money paid to buy could have earned by the end of your years at the rate you entered for your cash: the down payment from the start and each loan payment from the month it is paid. Nothing when that rate is blank.

The miles you drive a year above the allowance, times the charge per mile. Nothing when you drive less than the allowance, because a lease refunds nothing for miles not driven.