Mortgage amortization calculator.
See exactly how your mortgage is paid down — the principal-versus-interest split every year, the total interest over the life of the loan, and how the balance falls. Built on Canadian semi-annual compounding.
Your inputs
Lender-ready summary, your assumptions baked in, and a personalized note from an advisor at Mortgage Squad Advisors.
Amortization schedule
How your balance falls — and how the interest/principal split shifts — over 25 years.
| Year | Principal paid | Interest paid | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $12,103 | $24,757 | $537,897 |
| 2 | $12,665 | $24,195 | $525,231 |
| 3 | $13,253 | $23,607 | $511,978 |
| 4 | $13,869 | $22,992 | $498,109 |
| 5 | $14,513 | $22,348 | $483,597 |
| 6 | $15,186 | $21,674 | $468,411 |
| 7 | $15,891 | $20,969 | $452,519 |
| 8 | $16,629 | $20,231 | $435,890 |
| 9 | $17,401 | $19,459 | $418,489 |
| 10 | $18,209 | $18,651 | $400,280 |
Reading your amortization schedule
Amortization is the total time it takes to pay your mortgage to zero — usually 25 years in Canada, up to 30 for some insured first-time-buyer and new-build files. It’s different from your term (1-5 years), which is how long your current rate lasts before renewal. The amortization sets the size of your payment; the term sets the rate you pay during it.
Why your early payments barely touch the balance
Interest is charged on the whole outstanding balance, which is largest at the very start. So your first payments are mostly interest with only a thin slice of principal — on a $550,000 mortgage at a mid-single-digit rate, the first payment can be roughly 80% interest, 20% principal. As the balance falls, that split steadily flips: principal accelerates and interest shrinks, until in the final years almost the entire payment is principal. The schedule above shows exactly where that crossover happens for your numbers.
A worked example: 25 vs 20 years
Take that $550,000 mortgage at 4.59%. Over a 25-year amortization the payment is about $3,070 a month and you pay roughly $370,000 in total interest. Shorten the amortization to 20 years and the payment rises to about $3,460 — only ~$390 more — but total interest drops by roughly $90,000. That’s the leverage of amortization: a modest payment increase early removes a large amount of compounding interest later. Slide the amortization above to see your own trade-off.
Three ways to pay less interest
You have three levers, and they stack. A shorter amortization cuts the years interest compounds. Accelerated payments sneak in an extra payment a year — see the biweekly calculator. And annual prepayments (most mortgages allow 15-20% of the original balance penalty-free) go straight to principal. Even small extra principal early, while the balance is large, saves outsized interest. The fourth lever is the rate itself — we shop yours across 50+ lenders so the whole schedule starts lower.