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Printed August 5, 2026 · https://trycleartally.com/pmi-calculator
Estimates for educational purposes only — not financial advice. See https://trycleartally.com/disclaimer.
PMI Calculator
Estimate your monthly PMI cost, the total you'll pay before it goes away, and exactly when you can remove it — the month you're allowed to ask, and the month it has to stop on its own.
Reviewed by the ClearTally editorial team · Last updated August 1, 2026 · Methodology & sources
Part of the mortgage calculators collection — 12 tools in the order most people need them.
10.0% down — 20% or more avoids PMI.
Editable estimate — commonly around 0.3%–1.5% a year, depending on credit score and down payment.
Monthly PMI
$225.00
0.75% a year on a $360,000 loan (90.0% LTV)
You can request cancellation
Jul 2034
~7y 11m in — when the balance reaches 80% of the original value
Total PMI paid by then
$21,375
95 payments of $225.00
Automatic termination
Sep 2035
~9y 1m in — at 78% LTV, if you never ask
Total PMI if it runs to 78%
$24,525
Asking at 80% saves $3,150
Assumes borrower-paid monthly PMI at a constant premium on the original loan amount, with drop-off dates based on your scheduled payments and the home's original value. Appreciation, a new appraisal, or extra payments can end PMI sooner. The PMI rate is an editable estimate — your quoted rate depends on credit score, down payment, and loan type. Estimate only, not financial advice.
PMI Worksheet
Monthly PMI
$225.00
Borrower-paid monthly PMI estimate on the original loan amount and original home value. Appreciation, reappraisal, or extra payments can end PMI sooner. Not financial advice.
Calculated using the standard formulas described at https://trycleartally.com/methodology — for educational estimates only, not a quote or financial advice. Verify with your lender or financial institution before making decisions.
How to get rid of PMI — the three ways it ends
On a conventional loan, PMI is temporary by law. The federal Homeowners Protection Act gives you three separate exits, and they fire in a specific order.
1. You ask, at 80% of the original value
The earliest exit, and the only one that needs you to do something. Once your balance is scheduled to reach 80% of what the home was originally worth, you can request cancellation in writing. Your servicer can require that you're current on payments, have a good payment history, carry no second lien on the property, and in some cases that the home hasn't lost value since you bought it. The calculator above shows the month you become eligible.
2. It stops on its own, at 78%
If you never ask, your servicer must terminate PMI automatically once the balance is scheduled to hit 78% of the original value, provided you're current on payments. This costs more than asking — on the example below, about fourteen extra months of premiums — which is the whole reason the first exit is worth acting on.
3. The midpoint backstop, whatever your balance
The rule most people have never heard of. PMI must end the month after you reach the midpoint of your loan's amortization schedule — halfway through the original term, so month 181 on a 30-year loan — even if the balance hasn't reached 78%. On a loan paying down normally this never binds, because 78% arrives years earlier. It exists for loans that amortize slowly, and it's the reason PMI can't quietly run for the life of a conventional loan.
There's a fourth route the law doesn't guarantee: many servicers will cancel early based on a currentappraisal rather than the original value. If prices in your area have risen, or you've renovated, paying for an appraisal can pull cancellation forward by years. That's a servicer policy rather than a right, so ask yours what it requires.
PMI is only one line of the real monthly cost — the mortgage calculator adds principal, interest, taxes, and insurance, and the home affordability calculator shows what price fits your income.
How it works
PMI — private mortgage insurance — is what lenders charge on conventional loans with less than 20% down; it protects them, not you, if the loan defaults. The premium is a yearly percentage of your original loan amount, paid monthly: a 0.75% rate on a $360,000 loan is $2,700 a year, or $225 a month. To find when it ends, we run your amortization schedule and apply the federal Homeowners Protection Act thresholds: you can ask your servicer to cancel PMI once the balance reaches 80% of the home's original value, and it must end automatically at 78% — with a third backstop at the midpoint of your loan term that applies whatever the balance is. All three are broken down in the section above.
The gap between those two thresholds is real money — on a typical loan, waiting for automatic termination instead of requesting cancellation costs another year-plus of premiums. Two things this tool doesn't model: appreciation (if your home's value has risen, a new appraisal may get PMI cancelled years earlier) and extra principal payments, which pull both dates forward. FHA loans work differently — their mortgage insurance (MIP) often lasts the life of the loan.
Example:buy a $400,000 home with 10% down ($40,000) at 6.5% for 30 years, with PMI at 0.75%. The loan is $360,000 — a 90% loan-to-value — so PMI runs $225 a month. On schedule, the balance hits 80% of the original value in month 95, about 8 years in, by which point you've paid roughly $21,375 in premiums. Left to terminate automatically at 78%, it runs to month 109 and about $24,525 — so asking as soon as you're eligible saves about $3,150.
FAQ
There are three exits under the Homeowners Protection Act. First, you can request cancellation once your balance is scheduled to reach 80% of the home's original value — ask in writing, be current on payments, have a good payment history, and expect your servicer to check that there's no second lien and that the home hasn't lost value. Second, if you never ask, PMI terminates automatically at 78% of the original value, as long as you're current. Third, and least known, it must end the month after the midpoint of your loan's amortization schedule — month 181 of a 30-year loan — even if the balance hasn't reached 78%. Separately, many servicers will cancel early based on a current appraisal rather than the original value, which is worth pursuing if prices in your area have risen.
Commonly somewhere around 0.3% to 1.5% of the original loan amount per year, paid monthly — on a $360,000 loan that's roughly $90 to $450 a month. Where you land in that range depends mostly on your credit score, your down payment, and the loan type. The rate in this calculator is an editable default: if you have a loan estimate, plug in your actual quoted premium.
It's a genuine tradeoff, not a rule. Waiting avoids the premium, but while you save, home prices and rents keep moving, and PMI on a conventional loan isn't forever — a few years of premiums may cost less than years of waiting. Buying sooner with PMI means a smaller down payment buffer and a bigger loan. Run your numbers both ways: this tool shows the total PMI cost, and the home affordability calculator shows what payment fits your income either way.
No — this calculator models PMI on conventional loans. FHA loans charge their own mortgage insurance premium (MIP) with different rules: an upfront premium plus an annual one, and with less than 10% down the annual MIP typically lasts the life of the loan rather than dropping off at 78% — refinancing into a conventional loan is the usual way out of it.
Sometimes, yes. PMI is what makes buying with 5–10% down possible at all, and the alternatives have their own costs: lender-paid PMI trades the monthly premium for a permanently higher rate, and piggyback second loans carry their own higher-rate payment. Since borrower-paid PMI is cancellable and the others aren't, the honest comparison is the total you'd pay under each until you'd hit 20% equity anyway — this calculator gives you that PMI total.