Average Student Loan Debt Payment Per Month

College is an opportunity and also an investment that many rely on student loans to make. Those who do must understand the impact of the resulting monthly payments on their buying power.

After trending sporadically downward in 2023 and 2024, total student debt stood at more than $1.77 trillion in Q4 2024 — the highest total ever.¹ That’s more than the totals for auto loans and revolving credit, including credit card debt. Only the mortgage market supports more debt in the U.S. today at $12.61 trillion.²

A recent analysis pegs the average federal student loan debt balance at nearly $39,000 per borrower, with the total including private loans amounting to nearly $42,000.³ Student loan debt reduces consumer spending, discourages business growth and home buying, and may result in more Americans needing the protection of the social safety net.⁴

Ultimately, that’s because student loan debt payments take a significant chunk of people’s monthly incomes. Here, we’ll explore average monthly debt payments among various student groups to better understand the financial implications of student loan debt.

Analyzing average monthly student loan debt payments is a comparative exercise. Everyone’s loans and goals are different.

Borrowers may defer student loan payments while they are in school, although some manage to make payments. Repayment typically begins six months after graduation.

Unsurprisingly, undergraduate students earning an Associate’s degree accrue smaller loans, with students earning a Bachelor’s degree spending significantly more on college.

According to 2023 data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the average student loan debt for all Associate’s and Bachelor’s degree students upon graduation is $29,910.⁵

Assuming the borrower’s goal is to repay the lowest debt total over time, the calculation for a standard repayment plan over 10 years at current interest rates reveals a monthly payment of $340 and an estimated total payoff amount of $40,809.

That monthly payment figure is considerably more than half the average monthly car payment for a used car in the U.S., which is $525.⁶

The average debt for Associate’s degree earners is $22,040, which yields a monthly payment of $251 and an estimated total payoff of $30,072.

For Bachelor’s degree earners, the average debt is $35,530, which yields a monthly payment of $404 and an estimated total payoff of $48,477.

For perspective, consider that the median annual earnings of full-time, year-round workers with Associate’s degrees is $49,500 ($4,125 in gross monthly earnings).⁷

The concept of education as investment plays out even more vividly for students pursuing graduate or professional education. The latest NCES data shows more than 925,000 students earned Master’s degrees and more than 205,000 earned doctorates or professional degrees in 2022-23.⁸

What’s most telling about the earning expectations of graduate and professional students is that when it’s time for graduate school, comparatively few students choose traditionally lower-paying degrees in liberal arts.

Of the 10.3% of undergraduate and graduate degree earners who chose liberal arts, only 0.44% earned Master’s degrees and 0.03% earned doctorate or professional degrees.⁹

Total debt load naturally increases with degree attainment and expected earning potential, with Master’s degree earners at the lower end of the scale and law and medicine graduates way above everybody else at over $150,000 and $210,000, respectively.¹⁰

Trends in higher education attendance lean toward women, with 54% of undergraduate and 58% of graduate students reporting their gender as female.¹¹ The differences in monthly student loan payments between men and women undergraduates are relatively minor — on the surface.

Drawing again on the NCES data, the average debt for male Associate’s degree earners is $20,210, which yields a monthly payment of about $230. The average for females is $23,080, which produces a monthly payment of about $262.

The average debt for male Bachelor’s degree earners is $34,670, which yields a monthly payment of about $394. The average for females is $35,930, which generates a monthly payment of about $409.⁵

These numbers don’t necessarily have to significantly impact monthly student loan payments for undergraduates, but they do in the real world, with recent data showing that median weekly earnings for full-time salaried U.S. women are only 83.6% of their male counterparts. That discrepancy accentuates seemingly minor gender-based student loan differences.¹²

Racial and ethnic identity is another matter entirely when it comes to student loan debt, and stark differences play out through the racial wealth gap, with data from Q3 2024 showing black households with an average wealth of about $311,000, Hispanic households with about $251,000, and white households with about $1.4 million.¹³

The racial wealth gap results in fewer college students of color having enough resources to pay their way without student loan support. The gap also burdens graduates coming out of college with additional financial responsibilities they may not be able to handle as easily as white graduates.

For various reasons, Hispanic students tend to borrow less when they go to college. However, they may face disproportionate challenges in paying off the debt they owe.¹⁴

Ultimately, the decision to attend a particular college or university may be as much about the experience and connections made as about the academic or classroom expertise offered.

For example, some undergraduate students attend expensive private schools instead of deferring those experiences to graduate school, where they could have more direct career and professional development impact.

Attending a public four-year in-state institution is the best deal, with an average annual tuition of $9,750. Attending a nonprofit four-year private institution costs $38,421 annually — 350% higher than public college tuition.¹⁵

That’s why private school undergraduates tend to owe more student loan debt. Many private schools offer significant financial assistance funded through endowments or other means, but the cost of attending a private school results in a greater debt burden for undergraduates who make that choice.

The best source of tools and resources to understand and plan for student loan debt and monthly payments is Federal Student Aid, America’s largest student financial aid provider.

We used the Loan Simulator at Federal Student Aid to compute monthly loan payments. We assumed students were on standard repayment plans and paying over 10 years at current interest rates for direct subsidized undergraduate and graduate loans. We assumed the goal was to pay the lowest total amount over time.

Average Student Loan Debt by Age
Average Student Loan Debt by Degree
Average Student Loan Debt by Year
Average Student Loan Debt by State
Average Student Loan Debt by Generation
Average Student Loan Debt by Race

¹ https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SLOAS
² https://www.newyorkfed.org/microeconomics/hhdc
³ https://educationdata.org/student-loan-debt-statistics
⁴ https://educationdata.org/student-loan-debt-economic-impact
⁵ https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d23/tables/dt23_331.95.asp
⁶ https://www.bankrate.com/loans/auto-loans/average-monthly-car-payment
⁷ https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cba/annual-earnings
⁸ https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/search/viewtable?tableId=36307
⁹ https://educationdata.org/number-of-college-graduates
¹⁰ https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d23/tables/dt23_332.45.asp
¹¹ https://www.bestcolleges.com/research/college-enrollment-statistics
¹² https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2024/womens-earnings-were-83-6-percent-of-mens-in-2023.htm
¹³ https://www.stlouisfed.org/institute-for-economic-equity/the-state-of-us-wealth-inequality
¹⁴ https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/02/latino-student-loan-borrowers-face-extra-challenges-as-bills-restart.html
¹⁵ https://educationdata.org/private-vs-public-college-tuition