Car Lease Calculator

How to use

1. 1Pick a preset (mass-market SUV, luxury sedan, EV with rebate, sign and drive, 48 month, or no sales tax) to load realistic numbers, or enter your own.
2. 2Enter the MSRP and the negotiated selling price. Negotiate by selling price, not by monthly payment.
3. 3Choose the lease term in months (24, 27, 30, 33, 36, 39, 42, and 48 chips cover the common terms).
4. 4Switch the rate input between Money factor (what dealers quote) and APR (what consumers ask for). Both are connected: APR equals money factor times 2400.
5. 5Enter the residual as a percent of MSRP (typical 36-month residuals are 55 to 65 percent on mainstream cars) or as a dollar amount.
6. 6Fill in cap cost reductions (cash down, net trade equity, rebates) and fees (acquisition, disposition, title and reg).
7. 7Pick the sales tax model that matches your state: monthly payment (most states), total of payments at signing (NJ, NY, MN, OH, GA), capitalized cost at signing (IL, TX), or no tax (NH, OR, MT, DE, AK). Enter the combined state-plus-local rate.
8. 8Read the three result cards (monthly payment with tax, due at signing, total cost of lease) and the itemized rows for every line in the calculation.
9. 9Copy the plain-text summary for a worksheet, deal memo, or follow-up with the dealer.

About this tool

Car Lease Calculator works the same way a dealership lease worksheet does. Enter the MSRP, the negotiated selling price, the lease term in months, the money factor or APR, the residual value (as a percent of MSRP or a dollar amount), any cash down, trade equity, or manufacturer rebates, the bank acquisition fee (capped into the lease or paid upfront), title and registration and doc fees, the lease-end disposition fee, and the sales tax rate and the tax model your state uses, and the calculator returns the full lease math line by line. The monthly payment is broken into a depreciation fee ((adjusted cap cost minus residual) over the term in months) and a finance or rent fee ((adjusted cap cost plus residual) multiplied by the money factor), the two components that together make up every closed-end US lease payment. The money factor and APR are shown side by side using the industry-standard APR equals money factor times 2400 conversion, so a money factor of 0.00150 reads as 3.6 percent APR and a quoted APR can be entered directly and converted to a factor. Sales tax is handled honestly: most US states tax each monthly payment, but a handful (NJ, NY, MN, OH, and GA) tax the total of payments at signing, and a few (IL and TX style) tax the capitalized cost upfront; sales-tax-free states (NH, OR, MT, DE, AK) are supported with a single click. The due at signing line includes the first month payment with tax, all cap cost reductions, any acquisition fee that is not capped into the lease, title and registration fees, and any upfront tax. The total cost of lease line adds everything you will pay over the life of the lease (due at signing plus the remaining monthly payments plus the disposition fee at lease end), so the trade-off between a lower monthly payment and the total cost is visible at a glance. Six preset scenarios cover a mass-market SUV, a luxury sedan, an EV with a manufacturer rebate, a sign-and-drive lease with zero cap reductions, a 48-month lease, and a no-sales-tax state. The tool also flags common mistakes: residual at or above MSRP (impossible because the car must depreciate), money factor entered as if it were APR, and selling price more than 50 percent above MSRP. Useful for shoppers comparing a dealer lease quote against the bank's published programs, drivers checking whether a payment is being marked up over the buy rate, EV buyers running the numbers on a rebate-heavy lease, and anyone deciding between a 36 and a 48-month term. All math runs in your browser. The MSRP, selling price, money factor, and residual you enter are never uploaded, logged, or sent to a server.

Free to use. Works in your browser. No signup, no login.