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How an amortisation schedule works

By Andrii Kuratov · Last reviewed: 27 July 2026 · ~6 min read

Andrii Kuratov builds EasyEMI and personally reviews every guide — see methodology & sources.

Every EMI you pay is the same fixed amount for the whole tenure — but what that amount is made of changes every single month. An amortisation schedule is the table that shows exactly how much of each instalment goes to interest and how much reduces your principal, until the outstanding balance hits zero. Here is how the maths behind it works, with a full worked example.

What an amortisation schedule actually shows

For every month of the loan, an amortisation schedule lists the opening balance, the fixed EMI, how much of that EMI is interest, how much is principal, and the closing balance carried into the next month. Add up every month's principal column and it equals the original loan amount; add up every month's interest column and it equals the total interest you'll pay over the tenure. It is the same reducing-balance formula behind every EMI calculation — the schedule simply shows its month-by-month effect rather than just the final EMI number.

Why the split moves even though the EMI doesn't

Interest for any given month is charged only on that month's opening balance: interest = balance × monthly rate. Whatever is left of the EMI after paying that interest goes to principal, and principal repaid shrinks the balance the next month's interest gets charged on. Because the balance is highest at the very start of the loan, the interest portion is highest then too — and because the EMI never changes, the principal portion has to start out small. As the balance falls, month after month, interest falls and principal rises to fill the gap, right up to the final instalment. (This reducing-balance logic is also why a quoted "flat rate" loan is so much costlier than it sounds — see flat vs reducing balance interest rate.)

Worked example: ₹50 lakh, 20 years, 9%

Take our running example: a ₹50 lakh loan over 20 years (240 months) at 9%, which works out to a fixed EMI of ₹44,986. Here is how that same EMI splits at six points across the tenure:

The EMI is identical on every row — ₹44,986 — but the first instalment is 83% interest while the last is 99% principal. That is the entire idea of an amortisation schedule in one table.

The crossover point — when principal finally overtakes interest

Because the balance falls slowly at first, it takes a surprisingly long time before more of your EMI goes to principal than to interest. On our ₹50 lakh, 9% example, that crossover lands around month 149 — roughly 12 years into a 20-year loan — where the principal portion (about ₹22,622) first edges past the interest portion (about ₹22,364). A higher rate or a longer tenure pushes the crossover even later; a shorter tenure or lower rate pulls it earlier.

Why the front-loaded interest matters for prepayment

Halfway through the 20-year tenure (month 120), you would expect to have repaid roughly half the loan. You haven't. The outstanding balance is still about ₹35.51 lakh — only around 29% of the ₹50 lakh principal has actually been repaid — while cumulative interest paid by that point is about ₹39.50 lakh, which is already 68% of the ₹57.97 lakh of interest the loan will ever cost. Interest is front-loaded that heavily because the balance it's charged on is front-loaded too. That is exactly why a prepayment made early, while the balance is largest, removes far more future interest than the same rupee amount prepaid later — the trade-offs between prepaying to shrink the EMI versus shrinking the tenure are worked through in home loan prepayment: reduce EMI or tenure?

How to see your own schedule

You don't need a spreadsheet to build one of these. Enter your loan amount, interest rate and tenure into any of EasyEMI's calculators and it generates the complete month-by-month amortisation schedule in your browser, with a CSV download if you want to keep or share it. Running your real numbers takes under a minute and shows you exactly where your own crossover point and halfway balance land.

Frequently asked questions

What is an amortisation schedule?

An amortisation schedule is a month-by-month table showing how each EMI splits between principal and interest, and how the outstanding loan balance falls to zero by the end of the tenure. On a ₹50 lakh, 20-year loan at 9%, the EMI stays fixed at ₹44,986 every month, but the very first instalment is ₹37,500 interest and only ₹7,486 principal — the split shifts steadily until the final instalment is almost entirely principal.

Why is the interest portion so high in the early EMIs?

Interest is charged only on the balance still outstanding that month, and early in the loan that balance is close to the full amount borrowed. So although the EMI itself never changes, most of each early instalment goes to interest. On our ₹50 lakh, 9% example, the principal portion doesn't overtake the interest portion until around month 149 — about 12 years into a 20-year loan.

How much of my loan is left after half the tenure has passed?

More than most borrowers expect. Halfway through our ₹50 lakh, 20-year loan at 9% (month 120), the outstanding balance is still about ₹35.51 lakh — only around 29% of the principal has been repaid, even though you have already paid roughly ₹39.50 lakh in cumulative interest, about 68% of all the interest the loan will ever cost. This is why prepaying early, while the balance is largest, saves far more than prepaying the same amount later.

EasyEMI is an estimator for information only and is not financial advice. Figures are illustrative as of July 2026 and computed with the reducing-balance formula; actual rates, fees and lender criteria vary — confirm current terms with your lender before acting. See our About page for methodology.