Enter your total monthly debt payments and gross monthly income to calculate your debt-to-income (DTI) ratio.
How to Use the Debt-to-Income Ratio Calculator
Two fields — monthly debt and gross monthly income — are all the ratio needs; the band underneath shows where that percentage falls against common lending thresholds.
Lenders lean on debt-to-income ratio to gauge how much of a borrower's paycheck is already spoken for before a new loan even enters the picture. It's one number, but it carries a lot of weight in mortgage and auto-loan underwriting.
DTI = Total Monthly Debt Payments ÷ Gross Monthly Income
"Debt payments" here means recurring obligations — credit cards, student loans, car payments, existing mortgage or rent — not day-to-day spending like groceries or utilities. Gross income is before tax, not take-home pay, which trips people up since it makes the ratio look better than the cash actually available each month feels.
36% and 43% show up constantly in lending guidance as rough cutoffs — under 36% reads as healthy, past 43% starts closing doors with some lenders — but they're conventions, not a rule mortgage underwriting is required to follow everywhere.