How much truck can I afford calculator

By Fernandez · Updated October 2026

Find the payment and price range your expected earnings can carry, before you shop.

Loaded and empty miles per month

Average revenue per mile

Running cost per mile (fuel, tires, repairs)

ASSUMPTION

Fixed costs per month (insurance, plates, phone)

What you need to take home per month

Cushion for slow weeks and dispatch fee

APR (EXAMPLE, not an offer)

Term

Down payment you have

Highest truck payment that fits

$1,940

Price range that payment carries

$88,390 to $98,211

Monthly revenue

$17,600

A planning range, not a loan approval or lending decision. The lower end leaves room for fees and taxes. Not financial advice.

Your plan needs 8,000 miles a month at $2.20. Our dispatchers plan the loads that make it real.

Our dispatchers find and negotiate the loads; you approve each one and sign the rate con. 5% of gross for one truck with an MC 6 months or older, no setup fee.

Start dispatch

How it is calculated

Revenue = miles per month x average revenue per mile.
Room for a payment = revenue x (1 - cushion) - miles x running cost per mile - fixed costs - your pay.
Price the payment carries = the loan amount that payment pays off at your APR and term, plus your down payment.

The range runs from 90% to 100% of that price, because taxes, fees and a first repair usually take part of it.

Worked example

Item	EXAMPLE
Miles per month	8,000
Revenue per mile	$2.20
Running cost per mile	$0.95
Fixed costs	$1,800
Take-home needed	$4,500
Cushion	10%
Highest payment	about $1,940
Price range at 11.5%, 60 months, $10,000 down	about $88,000 to $98,000

EXAMPLE inputs, not market data or an offer.

What the result means

If the payment that fits is well below the quotes you are seeing, the truck is too expensive for the work, or the plan needs more miles at better rates. If it is comfortably above, you have room, but resist the urge to spend all of it. The cushion is what keeps the truck when a month goes wrong.

Be honest about the miles. A plan built on 10,000 loaded miles a month from someone who has never run their own lanes is a guess. If you are not sure, enter a lower number and see whether the truck still works.

Next steps

Get your real running cost from the trucking cost per mile calculator, then check a specific loan with the semi truck payment calculator. The truck financing guide and commercial truck financing rates explain what lenders look at, and buying your first semi truck covers the order of steps.

General information about financing, leasing and tax, not financial, tax or legal advice. RigCaptain is not a lender, broker, dealer or insurer. Read every contract and ask a tax professional or attorney about your own deal.

BOOKED

Plan the loads before you buy the truck

Tell us the rig you are considering. A dispatcher checks your lanes with you.

Check my lanes before I buy

Questions

How much truck can I afford on my income?

Work backward from the truck's earnings. Monthly revenue minus running costs, fixed costs, your own pay and a cushion for slow weeks leaves the most you can put toward a payment. The calculator then turns that payment into a price range using your APR, term and down payment.

How big a cushion should I leave?

Enough to carry the truck through slow weeks, a repair and the dispatch fee if you use one. The default here is 10% of revenue, which you can change. New authorities and owners in seasonal freight often need more, because their months vary more from one to the next.

Should my truck payment be a set share of revenue?

There is no reliable universal rule. A payment that works on a high-mileage dry van may sink a seasonal dump truck. Use your own miles, rates and costs in the calculator rather than a rule of thumb from someone with different lanes, a different rig and different costs.

Does this include financing approval?

No. The result is a planning range, not a loan approval or lending decision. Lenders look at credit, experience, the truck and your down payment, and every approval is subject to their review. Use the result to decide what to shop for, then get real quotes in writing.

What if no payment fits?

Then the numbers you entered do not support a truck payment yet. Check whether the miles and rate are realistic for your lanes, cut fixed costs, raise the down payment or look at a less expensive rig. A truck bought on hope usually becomes a forced sale within a year or two.