Federal Student Loan Limits Calculator — After Grad PLUS (2026-27)

For graduate students (anyone in a graduate program that is not a professional degree), the Direct Unsubsidized Loan limit is $20,500 a year and $100,000 in total. For professional students it is $50,000 a year and $200,000 in total. Across all of a student's federal loans, undergraduate and graduate, the lifetime maximum is $257,500; Parent PLUS loans made to that student as a parent do not count toward it. These apply to periods of enrollment beginning on or after July 1, 2026 (34 CFR 685.203).

Undergraduates are unchanged: a dependent student can borrow $5,500 in the first year, $6,500 in the second and $7,500 after that, up to $31,000 in total (no more than $23,000 of it subsidized); an independent student $9,500, $10,500 and $12,500 a year, up to $57,500 in total.

For new borrowers, yes. The regulation says that beginning on July 1, 2026, a graduate student or professional student may not borrow a Direct PLUS Loan (34 CFR 685.200(b)(2)). There is one exception: a student who was enrolled in a program on June 30, 2026 and had a Direct Loan made for that program before July 1, 2026 keeps the old limits, including Grad PLUS up to the cost of attendance, for the "expected time to credential", the lesser of three academic years or the time left in the program. A student who withdraws or leaves the program loses the exception, and a student who starts a different program does not have it. Use the box in the calculator to see both cases.

The regulation lists them: pharmacy (Pharm.D.), dentistry (D.D.S. or D.M.D.), veterinary medicine (D.V.M.), chiropractic (D.C. or D.C.M.), law (LL.B. or J.D.), medicine (M.D.), optometry (O.D.), osteopathic medicine (D.O.), podiatry (D.P.M., D.P. or Pod.D.), theology (M.Div. or M.H.L.) and clinical psychology (Psy.D. or Ph.D.). A professional degree is generally doctoral, needs at least six academic years of college-level coursework including two after the bachelor's degree, and generally requires a license to practice. Degrees not on the list, such as nursing, physician assistant, physical therapy, business, public health and most master's and doctoral programs, are treated as graduate degrees with the lower limits. A program that awards both a graduate and a professional degree counts as professional if more than half of its credit hours count toward the professional degree.

Parent PLUS is still available but capped: $20,000 a year and $65,000 in total for each dependent student, and never more than the cost of attendance less other aid, including the student's own loans. Parent PLUS loans cannot be repaid under the Repayment Assistance Plan; for loans made on or after July 1, 2026 the plan is the Tiered Standard plan. There is a transition exception for parents of a student already borrowing before July 1, 2026. The RAP vs. IBR calculator explains which plans are open to which loans.

Yes. From July 1, 2026 a school may limit the total Direct Loans a student or parent can borrow for a program for an academic year, as long as the limit applies to every student in that program, and it has to tell students. The calculator shows the federal limit, not what a particular school will offer. Borrowing is also capped by the cost of attendance less other aid, and reduced in proportion to less-than-full-time enrollment.

Interest rates are the fixed rates for loans first disbursed from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027: 6.52% for undergraduate loans, 8.07% for graduate and professional unsubsidized loans and 9.07% for PLUS loans (the 10-year Treasury high yield of 4.468% at the May auction plus 2.05, 3.60 and 4.60 points). Rates for later years are set each May and will differ. The loan fee is 1.057% on subsidized and unsubsidized loans and 4.228% on PLUS loans, for loans first disbursed before October 1, 2027, truncated to the cent and taken out of each disbursement. The calculator adds simple interest from the start of each academic year until six months after the program ends, then adds it to the loan (subsidized undergraduate loans do not accrue interest in school).

Savings, work income, scholarships and a school's own aid, or a private loan. Private lenders set their own rates and terms, and unlike federal loans they have no income-based repayment or federal forgiveness, so the payment stays the same if your income drops. The calculator's private-loan line uses a rate you enter, on a 10-year loan, to show the size of the payment; it is not a quote or a recommendation to borrow.