How do I calculate my monthly mortgage payment in Canada?

Subtract your down payment from the home price to get your loan amount (plus any CMHC premium), convert your annual rate to a per-payment rate based on how it compounds, then apply the standard amortization formula over your amortization period. Enter your home price, down payment, rate, and amortization above and the calculator does this for you.

How does a mortgage amortization schedule work?

An amortization schedule breaks every payment into the portion that covers interest and the portion that reduces your principal. Early on most of each payment is interest; over time more goes to principal. The schedule on this page shows principal paid, interest paid, and remaining balance for each year of the mortgage.

What is the difference between a fixed and variable mortgage rate?

Canadian fixed-rate mortgages compound semi-annually, while most variable-rate mortgages compound monthly, so a variable rate produces a slightly higher payment at the same stated rate. Use the Rate type selector to switch between the two.

Do I need CMHC mortgage insurance?

CMHC insurance is required when your down payment is less than 20% on a home under $1.5 million. The premium is added to your mortgage and paid off over the amortization period. Putting 20% or more down avoids it entirely.

Mortgage Payment Calculator

Calculate your Canadian mortgage payment with accurate compounding for both fixed and variable rates.

Home price

Down payment

Annual interest rate

Rate type

Amortization period

Payment frequency

Monthly payment

$0.00

Total interest

Mortgage breakdown

Home price: $0
Down payment: $0

Total mortgage: $0
Total interest: $0

Total cost: $0

Amortization Schedule

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How to use this calculator

Enter your home price, down payment, and annual interest rate to calculate your monthly mortgage payment. Choose whether your rate is fixed or variable, select your amortization period (how long you want to pay off the mortgage) and payment frequency. This free Canadian mortgage payment calculator shows your periodic payment, total interest paid over the life of the mortgage, the principal and interest breakdown, and a year-by-year amortization schedule. If your down payment is less than 20% on a home under $1.5M, CMHC mortgage insurance is automatically factored in.

How is your mortgage payment calculated?

Every payment shown here is built from the same five steps a Canadian lender uses. Starting from your home price and down payment, the calculator works out your loan amount, converts your annual rate into a per-payment rate, then solves for the fixed payment that pays the loan off exactly over your amortization period.

Find the mortgage principal. Subtract your down payment from the home price. If your down payment is under 20% (on a home below $1.5M), CMHC insurance is added to this amount and financed over the life of the loan, so the loan amount used in every formula below is your principal plus any CMHC premium.
Convert the annual rate to a per-payment rate. The stated annual rate is split by how often it compounds, then re-expressed for your payment frequency. A fixed rate compounds semi-annually (twice a year) and a variable rate compounds monthly (12 times a year):r = (1 + i ÷ c)^{c ÷ n} − 1where i is the annual interest rate (as a decimal), c is the number of compounding periods per year (2 for fixed, 12 for variable), and n is the number of payments per year (12 for monthly, 26 for bi-weekly, 52 for weekly).
Solve for the level payment. The calculator uses the standard amortization (annuity) formula, where L is the loan amount and N is the total number of payments (years × n):Payment = L × r × (1 + r)^N ÷ [ (1 + r)^N − 1 ]
Build the amortization schedule. For each payment, interest equals the current balance × r, and whatever is left of the payment reduces the principal. As the balance falls, more of each payment goes to principal, which is why early payments are mostly interest.
Total it up. Total interest is the sum of every interest portion (the same as total payments minus the loan amount), and the total cost of the mortgage adds your down payment back in.

Worked example: a $500,000 home with $100,000 down (20%, so no CMHC) at a 5.00% fixed rate over 25 years, paid monthly. The loan is $400,000, the monthly rate is (1 + 0.05 ÷ 2)^{2 ÷ 12} − 1 ≈ 0.4124%, and N = 300 payments. Plugging into the formula gives a payment of about $2,326/month, or roughly $297,900 in interest over the full 25 years. Thanks to semi-annual compounding, that is slightly lower than the same rate as a variable (monthly-compounded) mortgage, which would run about $2,338/month.

Accelerated payments work a little differently. For accelerated bi-weekly (or weekly), the calculator first finds your regular monthly payment, then charges exactly half (or a quarter) of it every two weeks (or week). Because there are 26 bi-weekly periods in a year rather than 24, you make the equivalent of one extra monthly payment annually, paying the mortgage off years sooner and cutting total interest.

How does the mortgage amortization schedule work?

An amortization schedule breaks every payment into two parts: the portion that covers interest and the portion that reduces your principal. In the early years most of each payment goes to interest, because interest is charged on a larger outstanding balance. As the balance falls, more of each payment goes to principal, so the loan pays down faster toward the end.

The year-by-year schedule on this page shows the principal paid, interest paid, and remaining balance for each year of your mortgage, so you can see exactly how your balance declines over a 25 or 30 year amortization. A shorter amortization means higher payments but far less total interest, while a longer one lowers the payment at the cost of more interest overall.

How Canadian mortgage interest works

Canadian fixed-rate mortgages compound semi-annually (twice per year), not monthly like American mortgages, following the disclosure convention under the Interest Act of Canada. This means the effective rate used to calculate each payment is derived from the semi-annual equivalent: (1 + rate/2)^(2/periods) − 1, which results in slightly lower actual payments than a monthly-compounding mortgage at the same stated rate.

Most Canadian variable-rate mortgages compound monthly rather than semi-annually, which makes their payments marginally higher at the same stated rate. Use the Rate type selector to switch between the two: choose Fixed to compound semi-annually, or Variable to compound monthly, and the payment, total interest, and amortization schedule update accordingly.

What is CMHC mortgage insurance?

CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) insurance is required when your down payment is less than 20% of the purchase price on homes under $1.5 million. The premium is added to your mortgage principal and paid off over the amortization period, so you don't pay it upfront. The premium rate is 4.00% for a 5–9.99% down payment, 3.10% for 10–14.99%, and 2.80% for 15–19.99%. Putting 20% or more down avoids CMHC entirely.

Accelerated bi-weekly vs. regular bi-weekly

Regular bi-weekly payments divide your annual cost evenly across 26 pay periods, equivalent to 12 monthly payments per year. Accelerated bi-weekly payments are set to exactly half your monthly payment, applied 26 times per year, equivalent to 13 monthly payments. That extra month of principal each year can shorten your amortization by several years and save tens of thousands in interest on a typical mortgage.