Excel NPER Function
The NPER function returns the total number of periods for an investment or loan based on a constant interest rate and equal periodic payments (negative values).
Syntax
=NPER(rate, pmt, pv, [fv], [type])
Arguments
- rate (required): The interest rate for each period.
- pmt (required): The amount paid each period, which remains the same throughout the annuity period. Normally, pmt includes principal and interest, but no other fees or taxes.
- pv (required): The present value of the loan or investment.
- fv (optional): The future value of the loan or investment after the last payment (default = 0).
- type (optional): The number 0 or 1 specifying when payments are due (default = 0):
- type = 0 or omitted, at the end of the period;
- type = 1, at the beginning of the period.
Return Value
The NPER function returns a numeric value.
Function Notes
- pmt should be a negative number because it is outgoing cash.
- If necessary, convert the annual interest rate to other periodic rates according to your actual payment scheme.
- Rate for monthly payments = annual interest rate / 12;
- Rate for quarterly payments = annual interest rate / 4;
- Rate for semiannual payments = annual interest rate / 2.
- NPER will return the #NUM! error if a loan can never be paid off with the given payment (pmt) value that is too low.
- NPER will return the #VALUE! error if any argument is non-numeric.
Example
As the information shown in the below table, to get the period number for a loan with a value of $10,000, an annual interest rate of 6%, and a monthly payment of $1,000, please copy or enter the formula below in a blank cell, and press Enter to get the result:
=NPER(C3/12,C4,C5)
√ Note: The annual rate was divided by 12 to get the monthly rate.
If a loan has the same information above except that its monthly interest rate is 6% but not the annual rate, then you should remove the snippet /12 from the formula above:
=NPER(C3,C4,C5)
If a loan has the same information as shown in the picture above except that its payments are due at the beginning of the period, you should add the type argument and set it as 1. Note that in this formula, since the fv argument is already omitted, if you just add the type argument, the formula will treat it as the fv argument. Therefore, you should add one more comma and leave the type argument empty, or add both the type and fv arguments:
=NPER(C3/12,C4,C5,,1)
=NPER(C3/12,C4,C5,0,1)
Related functions
The FV function is a financial function in Excel, and it will figure out the future value of an investment, installment, or scheduled payments based on periodic, constant payments with fixed interest rate. And this FV function can also calculate the future values for a lump sum payment in Excel.
The Excel IPMT function to figure out the interest payment of a given period in an investment or loan, based on periodic, constant payments and constant interest rate in Excel.
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