Car Lease vs. Buy Calculator
Modeled cost comparison
Buying has $7,353.09 lower modeled cost
Over 5 years (60 months), under your assumptions.
$122.55/month average difference in modeled cost.
- Buy · modeled net cost
- $27,588.91
- Lease · modeled paid cost
- $34,942.00
- Calculated monthly loan payment
- $684.82
Buy cash paid is $46,088.91, reduced by $18,500.00 of modeled vehicle equity. Lease cost is cash paid with no owned vehicle equity.
The model assumes equivalent lease terms repeat after each lease ends. Actual future lease offers may differ.
The final lease is still active. This is a cost-to-date comparison, not a quote to exit the lease. Remaining scheduled payments and termination charges are excluded.
Informational modeling, not financial advice or a recommendation. Vehicle value is your assumption, not live market data.
Copies this modeled comparison as plain text. Values leave this calculator only when you choose to copy.
Lease and buy, side by side
| Component | Lease | Buy |
|---|---|---|
| Signing cash / down payment | $6,000.00 | $5,000.00 |
| Periodic payments paid | $28,942.00 | $41,088.91 |
| Buy taxes/fees paid upfront | — | $0.00 |
| Completed-lease mileage charges | $0.00 | — |
| Completed-lease end fees | $0.00 | — |
| Maintenance paid | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Total cash paid | $34,942.00 | $46,088.91 |
| Remaining loan balance | — | $0.00 |
| Estimated owned vehicle value | $0.00 | $18,500.00 |
| Modeled vehicle equity | $0.00 | $18,500.00 |
| Modeled net cost (cash minus equity) | $34,942.00 | $27,588.91 |
Financing interest paid: $6,088.91, already included in loan payments. Amount financed: $35,000.00. Values are rounded only for display, so components can differ by a cent.
1 completed lease cycle; 2 signing payments; 24 months into the unfinished cycle. No new signing payment is charged at the exact endpoint of a completed cycle.
Accrued excess-mileage exposure on the unfinished cycle: $0.00. Excluded from paid cost; it models excess miles driven so far, not the eventual full-cycle bill.
Why this result
- At signing, buying uses $5,000.00 and leasing uses $3,000.00. The lease signing amount includes the first payment.
- Financing adds $6,088.91 in paid interest by month 60. The loan has no remaining principal at this horizon.
- The assumed $18,500.00 vehicle value offsets buy cost. After debt, modeled equity is $18,500.00.
- Repeating the lease requires 2 signing payments totaling $6,000.00.
- Completed leases add $0.00 for excess mileage and $0.00 in entered end fees.
- Entered maintenance contributes $0.00 to buying and $0.00 to leasing.
Modeled cost over time
No modeled cost crossover within 5 years.
The first change in cost ordering is sampled monthly, ignoring differences below half a cent. A crossover does not establish an optimal time to buy or lease. Analysis ends at your selected horizon; it does not extrapolate beyond it.
Vehicle value follows an implied constant monthly retention rate connecting your purchase price and endpoint value. This is a modeling convenience, not a market prediction. Lease steps reflect repeated signing costs and completed-cycle charges.
━ Buy net cost┄ Lease paid cost
View every monthly chart value
| Month | Lease cost | Buy net cost | Vehicle value | Loan balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | $3,000.00 | $0.00 | $40,000.00 | $35,000.00 |
| 1 | $3,000.00 | $700.37 | $39,489.22 | $34,504.77 |
| 2 | $3,499.00 | $1,391.53 | $38,984.96 | $34,006.85 |
| 3 | $3,998.00 | $2,073.55 | $38,487.13 | $33,506.24 |
| 4 | $4,497.00 | $2,746.51 | $37,995.67 | $33,002.92 |
| 5 | $4,996.00 | $3,410.46 | $37,510.48 | $32,496.87 |
| 6 | $5,495.00 | $4,065.48 | $37,031.49 | $31,988.08 |
| 7 | $5,994.00 | $4,711.63 | $36,558.61 | $31,476.53 |
| 8 | $6,493.00 | $5,348.96 | $36,091.77 | $30,962.22 |
| 9 | $6,992.00 | $5,977.55 | $35,630.90 | $30,445.11 |
| 10 | $7,491.00 | $6,597.46 | $35,175.91 | $29,925.21 |
| 11 | $7,990.00 | $7,208.73 | $34,726.72 | $29,402.49 |
| 12 | $8,489.00 | $7,811.44 | $34,283.28 | $28,876.94 |
| 13 | $8,988.00 | $8,405.64 | $33,845.49 | $28,348.54 |
| 14 | $9,487.00 | $8,991.39 | $33,413.30 | $27,817.28 |
| 15 | $9,986.00 | $9,568.74 | $32,986.63 | $27,283.14 |
| 16 | $10,485.00 | $10,137.75 | $32,565.40 | $26,746.11 |
| 17 | $10,984.00 | $10,698.47 | $32,149.56 | $26,206.17 |
| 18 | $11,483.00 | $11,250.96 | $31,739.02 | $25,663.30 |
| 19 | $11,982.00 | $11,795.26 | $31,333.73 | $25,117.50 |
| 20 | $12,481.00 | $12,331.43 | $30,933.61 | $24,568.73 |
| 21 | $12,980.00 | $12,859.52 | $30,538.60 | $24,017.00 |
| 22 | $13,479.00 | $13,379.58 | $30,148.63 | $23,462.28 |
| 23 | $13,978.00 | $13,891.65 | $29,763.65 | $22,904.55 |
| 24 | $14,477.00 | $14,395.79 | $29,383.58 | $22,343.80 |
| 25 | $14,976.00 | $14,892.03 | $29,008.36 | $21,780.01 |
| 26 | $15,475.00 | $15,380.43 | $28,637.94 | $21,213.17 |
| 27 | $15,974.00 | $15,861.03 | $28,272.24 | $20,643.26 |
| 28 | $16,473.00 | $16,333.87 | $27,911.22 | $20,070.27 |
| 29 | $16,972.00 | $16,799.00 | $27,554.80 | $19,494.16 |
| 30 | $17,471.00 | $17,256.46 | $27,202.94 | $18,914.94 |
| 31 | $17,970.00 | $17,706.28 | $26,855.57 | $18,332.58 |
| 32 | $18,469.00 | $18,148.52 | $26,512.64 | $17,747.07 |
| 33 | $18,968.00 | $18,583.20 | $26,174.08 | $17,158.38 |
| 34 | $19,467.00 | $19,010.38 | $25,839.85 | $16,566.51 |
| 35 | $19,966.00 | $19,430.08 | $25,509.89 | $15,971.43 |
| 36 | $20,465.00 | $19,842.34 | $25,184.13 | $15,373.13 |
| 37 | $23,465.00 | $20,247.20 | $24,862.54 | $14,771.58 |
| 38 | $23,964.00 | $20,644.70 | $24,545.06 | $14,166.78 |
| 39 | $24,463.00 | $21,034.86 | $24,231.63 | $13,558.70 |
| 40 | $24,962.00 | $21,417.74 | $23,922.20 | $12,947.33 |
| 41 | $25,461.00 | $21,793.34 | $23,616.73 | $12,332.65 |
| 42 | $25,960.00 | $22,161.72 | $23,315.15 | $11,714.63 |
| 43 | $26,459.00 | $22,522.90 | $23,017.42 | $11,093.27 |
| 44 | $26,958.00 | $22,876.91 | $22,723.50 | $10,468.55 |
| 45 | $27,457.00 | $23,223.79 | $22,433.33 | $9,840.43 |
| 46 | $27,956.00 | $23,563.55 | $22,146.87 | $9,208.92 |
| 47 | $28,455.00 | $23,896.24 | $21,864.06 | $8,573.99 |
| 48 | $28,954.00 | $24,221.88 | $21,584.87 | $7,935.62 |
| 49 | $29,453.00 | $24,540.49 | $21,309.24 | $7,293.78 |
| 50 | $29,952.00 | $24,852.11 | $21,037.13 | $6,648.48 |
| 51 | $30,451.00 | $25,156.76 | $20,768.49 | $5,999.68 |
| 52 | $30,950.00 | $25,454.46 | $20,503.29 | $5,347.36 |
| 53 | $31,449.00 | $25,745.24 | $20,241.47 | $4,691.51 |
| 54 | $31,948.00 | $26,029.13 | $19,982.99 | $4,032.11 |
| 55 | $32,447.00 | $26,306.15 | $19,727.82 | $3,369.13 |
| 56 | $32,946.00 | $26,576.31 | $19,475.90 | $2,702.56 |
| 57 | $33,445.00 | $26,839.65 | $19,227.20 | $2,032.39 |
| 58 | $33,944.00 | $27,096.18 | $18,981.68 | $1,358.58 |
| 59 | $34,443.00 | $27,345.93 | $18,739.29 | $681.13 |
| 60 | $34,942.00 | $27,588.91 | $18,500.00 | $0.00 |
Dealer Offer Checker
Spread advertised base cash over the lease term. This checker is separate from the main comparison.
About this calculator
Compare modeled lease and buy costs over the same period, including loan balance, vehicle equity and repeated leases.
How to use the Car Lease vs. Buy Calculator
Choose 3, 5, 7 or 10 years. Enter the same vehicle’s price and buy financing terms, then a lease offer and estimated vehicle value at the comparison end. Set annual mileage. All amounts are USD; enter dot decimals without commas. Valid edits update the comparison immediately; Check comparison announces the results or focuses an invalid field.
Open Advanced costs and lease terms to change whether signing cash includes the first payment, add buy taxes/fees paid upfront, monthly maintenance, mileage allowance and completed-lease fees. Do not enter a charge twice. Zero omits a cost.
Try another keep duration with the comparison selector. Changing it recalculates vehicle value along the current implied curve, rounds the new input to cents and announces the change. A positive endpoint uses the implied constant retention rate; a zero endpoint uses linear loss, floored at zero. Review or replace the new value. Changing annual mileage does not change resale value. Changing price preserves the entered endpoint for your review.
The separate Dealer Offer Checker shows effective base monthly cash outlay. Not sure displays both first-payment cases. Use this offer explicitly copies only its payment, signing cash, term and confirmed first-payment treatment into the main comparison.
Methodology and formulas
Buy financing and net cost
Amount financed P = vehicle price − down payment. Buy taxes/fees are paid upfront, never financed. With monthly rate r = annual interest percentage ÷ 100 ÷ 12 and n installments, payment = P × r ÷ (1 − (1 + r)−n). At zero interest, payment = P ÷ n. A full-price down payment gives a zero loan payment.
At month m, only min(m, n) installments have been paid. For remaining installments k = max(0, n − m), remaining balance = payment × (1 − (1 + r)−k) ÷ r; at zero rate it is P × k ÷ n. At payoff the balance is zero. Paid interest = loan payments made − principal repaid. The model uses a nominal fixed annual interest rate; a disclosed APR can include finance charges and may differ from that rate. It does not reconstruct a lender’s APR disclosure.
Buy cash paid = down payment + buy taxes/fees + loan payments made + entered monthly buy maintenance × elapsed months. Equity = estimated vehicle value − remaining loan balance. Buy modeled net cost = cash paid − equity, equivalently cash paid + remaining balance − vehicle value. Negative equity raises net cost. Vehicle value is an asset offset, not cash already received.
Lease cycles and cash timing
Each complete cycle costs signing cash + monthly payment × (lease months − 1 if the first payment is included, otherwise lease months) + entered end fees + excess-mileage charge. The same offer repeats without inflation or price changes. The bought vehicle is kept; subsequent leases represent replacement vehicles on equivalent terms, not the same aging vehicle.
Month zero includes initial signing cash, the buy down payment and buy fees, before monthly installments. At each monthly checkpoint, one payment per elapsed lease month is counted, except the first when already included in signing cash. This is a monthly convention, not an exact contract payment calendar. A new signing payment appears in the first month of each new cycle. At an exact lease-term endpoint, end fees apply but the next lease has not yet begun.
For an unfinished cycle, count signing cash and only payments for elapsed months, without end fees or a paid mileage bill. Lease cost equals cash paid, including entered monthly lease maintenance. The vehicle is not owned, so owned value and equity are zero. Refundable deposits, noncash rebates/trade-ins, lease buyouts, wear charges and early termination are not modeled. Remaining obligations on an active lease are excluded; the comparison is not a cost-to-exit calculation.
Mileage and modeled cost crossover
Completed-cycle excess miles = max(0, annual driving − annual allowance) × lease months ÷ 12. Multiply by the entered per-mile charge. For the unfinished cycle, the same formula uses elapsed months and shows accrued exposure separately from paid cost. Zero excess-mile rate adds no charge.
For positive endpoint value V and reference price P, value at month m = P × (V ÷ P)m ÷ H, where H is the selected horizon in months. If V is zero, value = P × max(0, 1 − m ÷ H). These project assumptions connect the user’s endpoints; they do not forecast resale prices.
The chart, monthly table and crossover use one series from month zero to H, at most 120 months. A crossover is the first sampled reversal in buy-versus-lease cost ordering, ignoring differences below half a cent. Merely touching equality is not a reversal. Multiple reversals are possible at lease boundaries. Analysis is bounded to the selected horizon, with no extrapolation beyond it.
Dealer offer arithmetic
Total scheduled base cash = signing cash + monthly payment × (term − 1) when signing cash includes the first payment; otherwise use monthly payment × term. Effective base monthly cash outlay = that total ÷ term. Not sure reports the included-first-payment case as the low end and the separate-payment case as the high end. This is an arithmetic spread of base cash, not an APR or a complete cost of leasing.
Worked example: five years with a 36-month lease
The default vehicle price is $40,000 with $5,000 down, a 6.5% nominal annual loan rate and 60 installments. Amount financed is $35,000.00, with a calculated monthly payment of $684.82. At 60 months, buy cash paid is $46,088.91, including $6,088.91 of interest. Remaining principal is zero; assumed vehicle value and equity are $18,500. Buy modeled net cost is $27,588.91.
The lease is $499/month with $3,000 due at signing, including the first payment, over 36 months. One complete cycle plus 24 months of a second cycle requires two signing payments and 58 additional monthly payments: $6,000 + $499 × 58 = $34,942.00. Driving and allowance are both 12,000 miles/year, so mileage charges are zero. End fees, buy taxes/fees and both maintenance assumptions default to zero.
Buying has $7,353.09 lower modeled cost in this example, or $122.55 per comparison month. This is a result of the entered assumptions, not promised savings. The second lease is still active and future payments are excluded.
Assumptions, limits and privacy
This is an informational financial model, not financial advice. It does not recommend a dealer, lender, loan or lease. No guaranteed savings or exact resale value is claimed. There is no live market valuation, rate lookup, jurisdiction-specific tax engine, inflation, discounting or opportunity-cost calculation. Insurance, fuel, unentered fees, wear charges, selling costs and tax deductions are excluded. Actual loan timing, rounding and contracts can differ.
Optional maintenance is a user-entered constant monthly cash cost on each side. Zero means excluded. The purchase is a standard fixed-rate fully amortizing loan with no balloon, variable rates, extra repayments, rolled-in negative equity or financed taxes/fees. The lease assumes scheduled return at cycle end, without purchase or early exit. Signing cash must cover an included first payment.
Arithmetic bounds are project safeguards, not recommended terms: price $1–$10 million; down payment and endpoint value $0–vehicle price; annual interest 0–50%; loan and lease terms 1–120 whole months; driving and allowance 0–100,000 miles/year; lease payment $0–$100,000; signing cash $0–$10 million; excess rate $0–$10/mile; each end fee $0–$100,000; buy fees $0–$1 million; each maintenance assumption $0–$10,000/month. The public comparison selector offers 36, 60, 84 or 120 months. Appreciation is not modeled.
Calculation retains floating-point precision; display rounds money to cents. The loan payment is not rounded inside the amortization model. Duration changes create a new endpoint input rounded to cents, capped at the entered vehicle price; repeated changes may introduce small rounding differences. Reset comparison restores the documented main example. Reset offer restores $499, $3,000, 36 months and Not sure independently.
Inputs stay in browser-tab memory. There is no input submission, tracking, browser storage, query sharing or external data request. Reloading restores defaults. Sources below are static reading links; no financial information is fetched during calculation.
Car Lease vs. Buy Calculator FAQ
Why compare both options over the same period?
A shorter lease and a longer loan cover different amounts of driving time. This tool evaluates both over your selected keep duration, retaining unpaid loan principal and repeating equivalent leases as needed.
Is net cost the same as money paid?
No. Buy net cost subtracts estimated vehicle equity from cash paid. A car worth $12,000 with $15,000 of remaining debt has −$3,000 of equity, so net cost is $3,000 above cash paid. Lease paid cost has no owned vehicle equity offset.
Does due at signing include the first payment?
The main example assumes Yes. Change the selector in Advanced costs and lease terms to match your offer. Yes removes one separate payment per started cycle; No counts all elapsed monthly payments separately. Do not include refundable deposits or noncash credits in signing cash.
What happens when five years includes part of a second lease?
For a 36-month term, the model counts the first cycle and 24 months of an equivalent second cycle. The second signing payment is included. Its end fee and mileage bill are not yet paid. Remaining contractual payments and termination costs are excluded; you cannot infer that the active lease can be exited for free.
Does higher mileage reduce the car’s value here?
No. Mileage changes completed-lease charges and unfinished-cycle exposure only. Edit estimated vehicle value yourself if you want to represent a different resale assumption. There is no separate mileage-to-resale formula.
Why did estimated value change when I changed the keep duration?
The duration control preserves the current implied retention rate for a positive endpoint, or linear loss to a zero endpoint with a zero floor, then rounds the new value to cents. Its label and change notice show the new period. Review that assumption; it is not a valuation prediction.
What does a modeled cost crossover mean?
It is the first monthly sample where the cost ordering reverses. It can reverse again when another lease starts or end fees occur. It does not identify the best time to switch, and a tie alone is not a reversal. No crossover means none within the selected horizon, not none forever.
Can I use zero interest or pay for the car in cash?
Yes. At zero interest, principal is spread evenly across the loan term. To model an all-cash purchase, set down payment equal to vehicle price. Loan payment and remaining balance become zero; separately entered buy fees are still paid upfront.
Why does the Dealer Offer Checker show a range?
Not sure computes both possible treatments of the first payment. Choose Yes or No before using the offer in the main comparison. Effective base monthly cash outlay can still omit taxes, registration, acquisition and disposition fees, mileage and wear charges, optional products, insurance, maintenance and other lease charges.
Does a lower modeled cost tell me which option to choose?
No. Results depend on the entered terms, uncertain future value and repeated-lease assumptions. They exclude several real-world costs and personal considerations. The tool provides an informational comparison, not financial advice.
Sources and method review
Source and model review date: September 26, 2026. This is a project source/formula review, not professional financial certification.
- CFPB: Auto loan amortization (opens in a new tab) supports the principal/interest distinction and changing allocation of fixed installments.
- CFPB: Leasing versus buying a car (opens in a new tab) explains lease use, ownership, mileage restrictions and potential end/early-termination charges.
- CFPB Regulation M, § 1013.4 (opens in a new tab) distinguishes signing amounts, advance periodic payments, payment schedules and other charges in lease disclosures. This calculator is not a regulatory disclosure generator.
The loan payment equation and accounting identities are mathematics. Prices, rates, mileage, costs and endpoint value are user inputs. Repeated equivalent leases, monthly cash checkpoints, constant maintenance and the implied value curve are BuzCalculator modeling assumptions. Net costs, equity and crossovers are derived results. CFPB does not endorse this custom comparison model or its assumptions.