No email, no account, no checkout. Every other spreadsheet on the first page of Google for this either puts a form in front of the file or charges for it.
Debt snowball spreadsheet, free debt payoff spreadsheet, free debt snowball spreadsheet — three names for the one file on this page. Pick any of the three download buttons above and you get the same 15-row workbook, with live formulas, and nothing to sign up for.
Would rather have it worked out for you? Run the debt snowball calculator — it works the same plan out in your browser, and lets you flip it to avalanche on the same numbers.
What is in the file
Two blocks. The first is where you type. The second works itself out from what you typed — you never edit it.
| Field | Block | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Creditor | 1 — you type | Who you owe. Card, lender, student loan servicer. |
| Balance | 1 — you type | What you owe today. |
| APR % | 1 — you type | The yearly rate on the statement. |
| Min payment | 1 — you type | What they ask for each month. |
| Extra | 1 — you type | One number: what you can pay on top of every minimum, every month. |
| Payoff order | 1 — works itself out | Where the debt sits in the snowball. 1 is the one you clear first. |
| Payoff month | 2 — works itself out | Which month from now that debt hits zero. |
| Interest | 2 — works itself out | What that one debt costs you in interest, start to finish. |
| Cumulative interest | 2 — works itself out | Interest on that debt plus every debt cleared before it. |
Fifteen rows, because the free tier of the best-known template on the first page of Google stops at ten. Add a sixteenth by inserting a row inside the block and copying the formulas down — the block spans rows 6 to 20 on sheet 1.
How to use it
- Open the file. The first four rows already hold an example — see where those numbers come from, below.
- Type over them: one row per debt, with its balance, APR and minimum payment.
- Put the extra you can pay every month in the cell marked Extra you pay every month.
- Read block 2. It is already sorted into snowball order — smallest balance first — and every column in it is a formula.
Nothing else needs touching. Change a balance and the whole of block 2 re-sorts and re-solves.
The formulas, written out
Every formula below is in the file as a live formula. They are here so you can check them rather than trust them.
Payoff order — where each debt sits in the snowball
Count every debt with a smaller balance that is still above zero, then add one. Ties are broken by row order so two debts never share a rank.
=IF(N(B6)<=0,"",SUMPRODUCT((($B$6:$B$20<B6)*($B$6:$B$20>0))*1)+COUNTIF($B$6:B6,B6))
Monthly rate
The APR is a yearly figure. Dividing it by twelve gives the monthly rate.
monthly rate = APR / 12 / 100
Payment a debt gets once it is at the top of the list
Its own minimum, plus your extra, plus the minimum of every debt already cleared. That last part is the snowball.
payment = its minimum + extra + SUMIF(order, "<"&its rank, minimums)
Balance when the debt finally reaches the top of the list
Until its turn comes, the debt only ever gets its minimum. Over n months of that, at monthly rate r, the balance left is:
balance = MAX(0, start × (1 + r)^n − minimum × ((1 + r)^n − 1) / r)
When r is zero this collapses to start − minimum × n, which is what the file uses on a 0% debt.
Months to clear it
Standard amortization, rounded up to a whole month:
months = ROUNDUP(NPER(r, −payment, balance), 0)
Payoff month
payoff month = months already gone + months to clear it
Interest on that debt
Interest accrues in two stretches — while the debt waits its turn paying only the minimum, and while it is being cleared. The file adds them:
interest while waiting = balance at its turn − start + minimum × months waited
interest while clearing = (months − 1) × payment + final payment − balance at its turn
final payment = balance after (months − 1) payments × (1 + r)
How the interest is calculated
Interest is charged before the payment lands, every month. At the start of each month one month of interest goes on to every balance still outstanding; only then is that month's payment taken off. Your payment is always working against a balance that already includes the month's interest, which is why a payment that barely covers the interest makes no progress.
The monthly rate is the simple nominal split, APR / 12, not the compounding conversion (1 + APR)^(1/12) − 1. The nominal split is the more conservative reading and it is how most US consumer disclosures are built.
Where the example numbers come from
The four rows filled in are the balances, minimum payments and APRs published on Calculator.net's debt payoff calculator page. They are there so the file is not empty on arrival — they are not a recommendation and they are not typical. Overwrite them.
| Creditor | Balance | APR % | Min payment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Credit card 2 | $3,000 | 16.99 | $60 |
| Credit card 1 | $6,000 | 18.99 | $150 |
| Auto loan | $25,000 | 4.9 | $519 |
| Home mortgage | $250,000 | 4.0 | $1,800 |
With $200 a month of extra on top, the file returns: credit card 2 gone in month 13, credit card 1 in month 28, the auto loan in month 43, the mortgage in month 130, and $68,968 of interest all in. Those are the numbers the file produces — I opened the file and read them off, they are not typed in by hand.
Against the calculator on the home page, run on the same four debts and the same $200: the calculator says month 130 and $68,479 of interest. The gap is $489, about 0.7%, and one month on the auto loan. It is there because the spreadsheet rounds each debt up to a whole month before the next one starts, while the calculator lets whatever is left over spill into the next debt inside the same month. The spreadsheet is the slightly cautious one of the two.
Limits worth knowing
- Minimums are a fixed dollar amount. Real card minimums are usually a percentage of the balance with a floor. The file does not model that.
- Rates are held constant. A promotional rate that expires part-way through will change the real outcome.
- Whole months. Each debt is rounded up to a whole month, so the plan runs a shade long compared with a day-accurate model.
- A debt cleared by its own minimum, early. If a balance is small enough that its minimum would clear it before its turn arrives, the file still waits its turn. Rare, and it makes the file cautious rather than wrong.
- No fees. Late fees, annual fees and over-limit fees are not in it.
- One currency. U.S. dollars, no FX.
- If a row shows 600 months in Months to clear, the payment on that debt does not cover its monthly interest. Raise the extra.
FAQ
Is this really free?
Yes. There is no form, no email field and no checkout on this page. The three links above are direct file links.
Can I use it in Google Sheets?
Two ways. The .xlsx opens in Google Sheets once you drop it into Drive — the formulas carry over. Or take the Google Sheets .tsv: open a blank sheet, click cell A1, paste. Everything comes across as formulas, not as dead numbers.
Do I need Excel?
No. The .xlsx opens in LibreOffice, Numbers, and Google Sheets. The .tsv opens anywhere, including a plain text editor. The PDF needs no software at all — print it and use a pen.
How is this different from a debt payoff spreadsheet?
A plain debt payoff spreadsheet usually works out one loan at a time. This one orders all of them for you and rolls each freed-up minimum into the next debt, which is the part that makes it a snowball rather than a list of amortization tables.
Is a debt snowball template the same thing?
Same idea, different word. "Debt snowball template," "debt payoff spreadsheet" and "free debt snowball spreadsheet" are all names for the same file: your debts in one place, sorted, with a payoff month attached to each. This one is a spreadsheet with the formulas live, not a picture of one.
Can I get a free debt payoff spreadsheet that does avalanche instead?
Not from this file — it is sorted by balance, which is the snowball. For highest-rate-first, use the calculator on the home page and press Avalanche; it runs both methods on the same numbers and shows the difference.
There is also a dedicated debt avalanche calculator on this site: enter your debts and one extra payment, and it returns the highest-rate-first order, the month each debt clears, your total interest and your total months.
How many debts does it hold?
Fifteen rows as shipped. The best-known free template on the first page of Google for this stops at ten and charges $9.95 to go further, so this starts above its ceiling rather than at it.
Does it save or send anything I type?
No. The files are static downloads. Nothing you type into your copy leaves your machine, because nothing on this page collects it in the first place.
Will it work on a phone?
The download links work, and the PDF is readable. Filling in fifteen rows is a desktop job — use Excel or Google Sheets for that.