semkuLeasing calculator
Enter your car lease terms to see monthly costs, spending at return and an optional purchase comparison over the same period.
US car lease model using the money factor method most lessors use · USD.
Down payment, residual and more
Fees
Monthly payment tax rate
Compare buying over the same period (optional)
Both sides exclude taxes and all fees; the lease amount here differs from the total above.
- Purchase loan principal
- Monthly purchase loan payment
- Purchase cash paid by the comparison date
- Purchase loan balance at the comparison date
- Expected resale value at the comparison date
- Purchase net cost: cash paid + balance − resale value
- Lease net cost at return, excluding taxes and fees
Buying: vehicle retained, with assumed resale value deducted · Leasing: vehicle returned.
Sources
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — Regulation M, 12 CFR §1013.4: Content of disclosures (eCFR)
Section 1013.4(b) itemizes capitalized cost reduction, advance monthly payments and refundable security deposits separately. Section 1013.4(f)(1)–(9) defines gross capitalized cost, capitalized cost reduction, adjusted capitalized cost, residual value, depreciation and rent charge, and describes how base periodic payments are composed and divided by the number of payment periods; section (s) addresses limitations on lease rate information.
Federal Reserve Board — More Information about the Rent Charge
The second paragraph supports the average monthly rent charge formula; the first explains that a money factor is not a lease rate and cannot be converted into one by moving the decimal point.
Federal Reserve Board — Frequently Asked Questions
Question 3 supports the explanation that the contract discloses rent charge in dollars and that there is no federal requirement to disclose a lease rate or mandatory federal formula for calculating one.
Calculation rules
This calculator computes residual value as MSRP × residual percentage. Adjusted capitalized cost is negotiated price + capitalized fees − down payment. This calculator supports residual value from zero to adjusted cost, lease terms of 1–120 whole months, residual and tax percentages of 0–100%, purchase loan terms of 1–600 whole months and purchase loan annual rates (APR) of 0–100% with at most 3 decimal places for the purchase comparison, and at most 15 digits in each numeric field (commas, decimal points and currency symbols do not count). The down payment cannot exceed the negotiated price plus capitalized fees; the fee-free comparison requires it not to exceed the price alone.
The money factor is zero or positive. Monthly depreciation is (adjusted cost − residual)/months, and the average monthly rent charge is (adjusted cost + residual) × money factor.
Tax choices are no tax or tax applied to each monthly payment. The example 6% is an arbitrary assumption, not a state tax rule. Taxes on the down payment or full vehicle price and other tax methods are not calculated.
The down payment reduces capitalized cost; it is not the first monthly payment or a deposit. This calculator counts the first payment as one of the n monthly payments. Spending at return adds the down payment, upfront fees, all monthly payments including selected tax and return fees. Deposits, excess mileage, damage, early termination, purchase-option costs, insurance and maintenance are excluded.
There is no intermediate rounding. Only displayed amounts are rounded to cents, with exact halves away from zero. Totals use unrounded amounts, so displayed monthly payments multiplied by the term may differ from the total. Contract billing and the final payment may use different rounding.
Buying is compared at the end of the lease period, in USD, with taxes and all fees excluded on both sides. Purchase principal is negotiated price minus the same down payment. Cash paid includes the down payment and min(lease months, loan months) payments; add the remaining loan balance and subtract expected resale value. After loan maturity the balance is zero; at zero APR payment is principal/loan months, and at zero principal payment and balance are zero. Resale value starts at the example residual value but is editable and is not a guaranteed future price. The fee-free lease comparison also requires residual value no greater than negotiated price minus down payment. No recommendation is made.
Lease: S = negotiated price, A = capital-cost reduction, Fc = capitalized fees, Fu = upfront fees, Fr = return fees, v = residual percentage/100, n = lease months, t = tax percentage/100. C = S + Fc − A; R = MSRP × v; D = (C−R)/n; F = (C+R) × MF; M = D+F; G = M with no tax, or M(1+t) with monthly tax; total at return = A + Fu + nG + Fr. Purchase comparison: k=n, P=S−A, a = purchase APR in percent, r=a/1200, N = loan months, V = expected resale value. For P>0 and r>0, Q = P·r/(1−(1+r)^−N); for k<N, B = P(1+r)^k − Q((1+r)^k−1)/r. For k≥N, B=0. For r=0, Q=P/N and B=P−min(k,N)Q; for P=0, Q=B=0. Cash paid = A+min(k,N)Q; purchase net cost = cash paid+B−V. Lease comparison excludes all fees: C₀=S−A, M₀=(C₀−R)/k+(C₀+R)MF, lease net cost=A+kM₀. Calculations retain full precision; displayed amounts round to cents, with exact halves away from zero.
Frequently asked questions
- What makes up the monthly lease payment?
- Depreciation spreads adjusted capitalized cost minus residual value over the lease term. The rent charge is adjusted cost plus residual value multiplied by the money factor. Add the selected monthly tax to obtain the displayed monthly total.
- Why doesn't a lease show an interest rate?
- The lease agreement discloses the rent charge in dollars; there is no federal requirement to disclose a lease rate or mandatory federal formula for calculating one. A money factor is not a lease rate and cannot become one by moving the decimal point. This calculator therefore shows the money factor and average monthly rent charge in dollars without converting to an interest rate.
- Should I include the first payment in the down payment?
- No. Enter only the amount that reduces capitalized cost in the down payment field. This calculator counts the first monthly payment as one of the term’s payments; enter upfront fees separately and do not add that first payment again.
- Does the tax setting apply my state’s rules?
- No. It applies your entered rate to monthly payments or applies no tax. The example 6% does not represent a state rule, and taxes on upfront amounts or the full vehicle price are outside this model.
- Why add a loan balance and subtract resale value when comparing buying?
- At the lease end date a longer purchase loan still has debt, while buying leaves you with a vehicle. Net cost therefore equals cash paid plus remaining debt minus your assumed resale value. A loan already paid off has zero balance and no payments after maturity. The resale assumption is editable, not a price guarantee.
- Is this a lease offer or a separate auto loan calculator?
- No. It models lease costs and an optional purchase comparison over the same period, without deciding approval or recommending a choice. Taxes, fees, rounding and contract terms may differ; check the lessor’s disclosures before signing. Use the linked loan payment tool for standalone payments and the amortization tool for a repayment schedule.
Loan payment calculator — Calculate a standalone loan payment or payoff time.
Loan amortization calculator — View principal, interest and balance in a repayment schedule.
Privacy on this page
Calculations run in your browser. Vehicle prices, down payment, residual percentage, money factor, purchase loan annual rate (APR), terms, tax rate, fees, resale value, calculation and comparison results, and copied text are not sent to the server or saved in cookies or browser storage. Input settings are kept after # in the URL and restored when that URL is reopened; sharing it passes those settings to the recipient, and the URL may remain in browser history. The fragment is not part of the request sent to the hosting server. Copying sends the report to your clipboard only when you request it; undo state exists only in page memory.
To understand how the page is used and to improve the service, this page sends semku’s own usage statistics and automatic error reports. They go only to the dedicated endpoint under semku.com/api/telemetry/v1/. They are not used for advertising or third-party tracking.
The usage statistics include stages of use (such as starting an operation or requesting a copy), the times they occur and fixed identifiers that distinguish the page and feature. They do not include vehicle prices, down payment, residual percentage, money factor, purchase loan annual rate (APR), terms, tax rate, fees, resale value, calculation and comparison results, or copied text. Inputs are not sent as hashes or as size categories either. The full URL and search terms are not sent.
Operations and sessions are distinguished by randomly generated identifiers. In the browser, these identifiers exist only in temporary memory and are not written to cookies or browser storage. No identification based on cookies or combined device characteristics is used.
Error reports contain the error type, code and time, and, where available, a registered program-source identifier with line and column numbers. The error message text and stack traces are not sent. Usage statistics and error reports also carry the site identifier, the deployment version and a random record identifier. For access records such as IP addresses, browser signals (User-Agent Client Hints), region and language, see the paragraph below.
The feedback form sends the rating you chose and the text you typed in the free-text field when you press the send button. The form also sends a random ID that distinguishes the submission, along with the page, site, deployment version and type of request. There are no fields for your name, email address or phone number, and vehicle prices, down payment, residual percentage, money factor, purchase loan annual rate (APR), terms, tax rate, fees, resale value, calculation and comparison results, and copied text are not attached automatically. Before sending your text, the widget removes leading and trailing whitespace and, if you selected a rating, adds [+1] or [-1] at the start; it makes no other changes to your text. After receipt, the collector standardizes line endings and removes leading and trailing whitespace. Please do not enter personal data, passwords, authentication keys or payment details.
To improve the service, we record the country and state/province-level region at the time of your visit (an estimate based on the connecting network), which site you came from including the page path, and one display-language setting announced by your browser (for example, en-US). Location is kept to country and region only; no city or precise position is recorded. When you use the service, connection records, including your IP address, are automatically generated and retained to maintain service security and identify abnormal access. Cloudflare is the data processor for this site. Collection of this item is enabled only after this notice is published; we do not collect it retrospectively for use before collection is enabled. Query strings such as search terms are not recorded, and neither is the full list of preferred languages or the raw request headers. Collection of this information is currently disabled and will only be enabled after this notice is published. If we enable collection, we will collect and use signals your browser reports about its type and version, along with an indication of whether automation tools are being used, to identify bots. These browser signals are estimates and do not conclusively identify your browser's type or version or whether automation tools are being used. We do not collect it retrospectively for use before collection is enabled. The raw User-Agent request header is not recorded. These records are per visit only and use no identifier that links one visit to another. Recording starts only with visits after this notice is published and is not applied retroactively to earlier visits. The region and the referring site have been recorded since 2026-09-20; the display language since 2026-09-24. Browser signals are not recorded yet.
Separately, when you visit the site, the hosting provider records your IP address, the time of the request and user-agent information about your browser and device in Cloudflare Pages’ standard access logs.
For details, see the privacy policy.
Calculations run in your browser without sending your calculation inputs or results to the server. See “Privacy on this page” for information about access data.