Debt & Loans

Debt-to-Income (DTI) Calculator

The percentage lenders check before anything else — yours, against the bands they actually use.

Run your numbers Gross income, minimum payments — the way lenders count

Gross monthly income $

Rent or mortgage $

Car payment $

Credit card minimums $

Student loans $

Other debt payments $

Debt-to-income41.5% Front-end (housing)27.7% Total debt payments$2,700 △ Stretched — near the 43% qualified-mortgage line

Housing — the front-end ratio
Other debt payments
Rest of gross income

The lines lenders watch: 36% of gross income is the classic healthy ceiling; 43% is the qualified-mortgage line. Arithmetic, not underwriting.

How it works

Debt-to-income is the bluntest number in lending: your monthly debt payments divided by your gross monthly income. Not your savings, not your credit score, not how responsible you feel — just how much of each pre-tax dollar is already promised to someone else. Lenders compute it from the minimum payments on your credit report, which is why this calculator asks for minimums too, not what you actually pay.

The defaults land on a realistic squeeze. On $6,500 of gross monthly income, $1,800 of rent plus a $450 car payment, $200 of card minimums, and $250 of student loans totals $2,700 in monthly obligations — a back-end DTI of 41.5%. The housing share alone, $1,800 ÷ $6,500, is the front-end ratio: 27.7%. That back-end number sits in the stretched band: past the 36% mark where conventional guidelines start frowning, but still under the 43% qualified-mortgage line.

The bands most lenders work from: 36% and under is healthy — debt fits inside the income with room to live. 37–43% is stretched; 43% matters because it's the qualified-mortgage line. 44–50% is strained, where options thin out fast. Above 50%, most lenders stop — more than half of gross income is spoken for before taxes even come out. ClariFi watches the ingredients of this ratio automatically: every card minimum, loan payment, and paycheck, logged as they happen, so you know your number before a lender tells you.

The formula

back-end DTI  = all monthly debt payments ÷ gross monthly income
front-end DTI = housing payment ÷ gross monthly income
Bands: ≤36% healthy · 37–43% stretched (the QM line) · 44–50% strained · >50% over-extended
Example: $1,800 + $450 + $200 + $250 + $0 = $2,700 in debt payments
         $2,700 ÷ $6,500 = 41.5% back-end · $1,800 ÷ $6,500 = 27.7% front-end

Honest assumptions

Lenders use gross income — before tax — and the minimum payments on your credit report, not what you actually send each month. This page follows that convention and doesn't model taxes anywhere.
Utilities, groceries, phone plans, insurance, and subscriptions don't count as debt here, because they don't count in a lender's DTI either — no matter how mandatory they feel.
Rent stands in as your housing payment; when you buy, an underwriter swaps in the full projected mortgage payment — principal, interest, taxes, insurance — which is usually a different number.
The 36/43/50 bands are common conventional-mortgage thresholds, not any lender's promise — programs differ, and some go higher with compensating factors.
This page is arithmetic, not underwriting.

Questions people ask

What counts as debt in DTI?

Your housing payment (rent or mortgage — lenders take it from your application), plus anything with a required monthly payment on a credit report: car loans and leases, credit card minimums, student loans, personal loans, and court-ordered obligations like child support. What doesn't count surprises people — utilities, groceries, phone bills, insurance premiums, and subscriptions are all invisible to DTI, no matter how fixed they feel. That's also why DTI understates how tight a budget actually is.

What's the difference between front-end and back-end DTI?

Front-end is housing alone divided by gross income — here, $1,800 ÷ $6,500 = 27.7%. Back-end adds every other debt payment on top and is the number people mean when they just say "DTI" — here, 41.5%. Mortgage guidelines historically wanted front-end near 28% and back-end near 36%, which is where the classic "28/36 rule" comes from.

Why does 43% matter?

43% back-end DTI is the line written into the federal qualified-mortgage definition — the standard that gives mortgages their legal safe harbor. The rule has since evolved toward pricing-based tests, but 43% survives in practice as the ceiling many lenders still underwrite around for conventional loans. Some programs go higher with strong compensating factors; the point of the band is that above 43%, the conversation changes.

What's the fastest way to lower my DTI?

Attack payments, not balances. DTI counts monthly minimums, so paying a card halfway down barely moves it — but paying any single debt to zero deletes its entire payment from the numerator. Finishing a $450 car loan drops this page's default DTI by 6.9 points overnight; the same dollars spread across five balances would move it barely at all. The other lever is the denominator: documented gross income from a raise or second job lowers every ratio at once. The credit card payoff calculator shows how fast a fixed plan clears a card completely.

Related calculators

ClariFi makes tools, not advice. Nothing on this page is a recommendation to buy, sell, or sign anything.

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