Lease vs Buy Car Calculator

Any country Currency-neutral arithmetic. Enter figures in your own currency; no country tax rules are applied.

Compare leasing and buying over the same period, with the lease payment built from money factor and residual value, excess mileage counted, and the equity you keep by buying credited back.

Educational estimate only. Not a lending decision. Your numbers stay in this browser.

Enter the lease terms and the loan terms for the same vehicle. Amounts use major currency units.

The vehicle

The lease

These four numbers are what a lease contract is built from. Entering them lets the payment be worked out here rather than taken from a dealer quote.

Buying instead

Mileage and cashoptional

Going over a lease mileage allowance is the most common way a lease that looked cheaper ends up costing more. Enter all three mileage fields to include it.

Results

How to read this: the verdict describes how much room your numbers leave, not a decision or an offer. Change any input to see how much the result moves.

Keep comparing

Compare this against other loan options

A guided loan comparison journey is not built yet. Until it is, the loan calculator group puts payment, term, and total cost next to each other.

Browse loan calculators

Loan guides

These guides explain repayment schedules, APR, personal loan payment factors, and auto loan total cost.

For all guide topics, open Guides. For source and estimate boundaries, read Calculation Methodology and Sources and Assumptions.

Assumptions and formula

This calculator uses the standard fixed-rate repayment schedule, keeps full precision internally, and rounds currency only for display and export.

Each period applies interest, scheduled principal, then any allowed extra principal.

Worked example

A fixed-rate monthly repayment scenario produces a payment schedule that reduces principal until the balance reaches zero.

Frequently asked questions

Is it cheaper to lease or buy a car?

A lease usually costs less per month because you only pay for the depreciation during the term, not for the whole car. Whether it costs less overall depends on what you are left holding. This page builds the lease payment from the price, residual value, money factor, and term rather than asking you to type in a quoted figure, so a dealer number can be checked against it. It then charges the purchase for its payments and credits back the vehicle value at the end less anything still owed, because a lessee hands the car back and a buyer does not. Excess mileage is included when you supply your mileage and the allowance, which is the most common way a lease that looked cheaper turns out not to be.

Why is the lease payment calculated rather than entered?

So the comparison can check a dealer quote instead of trusting it. The payment is built from the price, residual value, money factor, and term, the way a lease contract builds it. Buying is credited with the vehicle value at the end less anything still owed, because a lessee hands the car back and a buyer does not.