Debt-to-Income Ratio Calculator
Calculate your debt-to-income (DTI) ratio from gross monthly income and a breakdown of monthly debt payments. Get your front-end (housing-only) and back-end (all-debt) DTI, a health rating, and how you compare against common mortgage-program DTI guidelines.
Input
Income
Monthly Debt Payments
Used alone for the front-end ratio, and included in the back-end ratio.
Minimum monthly payments across all cards.
Alimony, child support, or any other recurring monthly obligation.
Output
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| No data yet | |
| Loan Program | Guideline Max DTI | Meets Guideline? | Monthly Debt to Cut |
|---|---|---|---|
| No data yet | |||
Guides
What this DTI calculator does
Your debt-to-income ratio (DTI) is the percentage of your gross monthly income that goes toward debt payments. It's one of the first numbers a lender checks when you apply for a mortgage, auto loan, or refinance — a lower DTI means more of your income is free, which lenders read as more room to take on (and repay) new debt. This tool calculates both the front-end ratio (housing costs only) and the back-end ratio (all debts), rates your overall DTI, and shows how you compare against the guideline DTI limits used by common mortgage programs.
How to use it
Enter your gross monthly income (before taxes) and your monthly debt payments — housing, auto loans, student loans, credit cards, personal loans, and anything else recurring. Any field can be left at 0 if it doesn't apply. The result updates as you type: a summary of your front-end and back-end DTI with a health rating, plus a comparison table against five common mortgage-program guidelines.
How DTI is calculated
Front-End DTI = Housing Payment ÷ Gross Monthly Income × 100
Back-End DTI = Total Monthly Debt Payments ÷ Gross Monthly Income × 100
Front-end only counts your rent or mortgage payment. Back-end adds every other debt payment on top — auto loans, student loans, credit card minimums, personal loans, and anything else you're obligated to pay monthly. Lenders generally weigh the back-end ratio more heavily, since it captures your full debt load rather than just housing.
DTI rating scale
- Excellent — 20% or under
- Good — 21% to 36%
- Fair — 37% to 43%
- High — 44% to 50%
- Very High — over 50%
Mortgage-program guidelines
The comparison table shows commonly published maximum back-end DTI figures for Conventional, FHA, VA, USDA, and Jumbo loans, and — if your current DTI exceeds a program's guideline — the exact amount you'd need to cut from your monthly debt payments to meet it.
These are general guidelines, not guarantees. Actual DTI limits vary by lender, loan program, credit score, down payment, and cash reserves — some lenders approve well above these figures for borrowers with strong compensating factors, and some are stricter. Treat the qualification table as a starting point for the conversation with a lender, not a final answer.
Frequently asked questions
Does DTI include the loan I'm currently applying for? No — this tool calculates your current DTI from your existing debts. Lenders will add the new loan's estimated payment on top when they qualify you for that specific loan.
What counts as income? Gross (pre-tax) monthly income from all reliable, verifiable sources — salary, self-employment income, alimony you receive, and similar. Lenders typically don't count income they can't document.
Should I include rent or mortgage insurance and property taxes in housing cost? Lenders usually do (the full "PITI" — principal, interest, taxes, insurance) for a mortgage-qualification DTI. This calculator's Housing field is a single number, so include those if you're estimating a mortgage-specific DTI.
What if I want to see how much loan I could afford, not just my current ratio? Use the Loan Affordability Calculator, which works in the other direction — it takes your income and DTI limits and estimates the maximum loan you could take on. For paying down existing revolving balances, see the Credit Utilization Calculator.
Privacy
Everything runs in your browser. Your income and debt figures are never uploaded or stored.
Use it from code
From 3 credits per callREST API
curl -X POST https://api.iotools.cloud/v1/tool/debt-to-income-ratio-calculator \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"grossMonthlyIncome": "6000",
"housingCost": "1500",
"autoLoans": "350",
"studentLoans": "250",
"creditCardPayments": "100",
"personalLoans": "0",
"otherDebts": "0",
"currency": "USD"
}'Swap in your own key from your account. The tool's fields are the body — no wrapper.
Ask an AI agent
Use the IOTools `debt-to-income-ratio-calculator` tool (Debt-to-Income Ratio Calculator) on this input:
YOUR_INPUT_HEREPaste this at any agent connected to the IOTools MCP server, then add your input.