Buy vs Lease Car Calculator

About this calculator

This calculator compares the total cost of financing a car with a loan against leasing it over the same term, factoring in the piece that a simple monthly-payment comparison usually misses: the resale (residual) value you get back at the end of a loan versus the fact that a lease returns nothing because you never owned the car.

With a loan, your true cost is the interest paid on the principal minus what you recover by selling or trading in the car at the end; with a lease, your cost is simply the monthly payments (based on the vehicle's depreciation over the lease term plus a lease finance charge, or 'money factor') with no equity to recover afterward, though also no resale-value risk.

Car buyers use this comparison to see which option is genuinely cheaper over their specific ownership term, since leasing often looks cheaper month-to-month but can cost more over several years once the loan's resale value is factored back in — the right answer depends heavily on how long you plan to keep the car and how well it's expected to hold its value.