Should you lease or buy your next car?
Run the real numbers before you sign the lease. Every calculator here publishes its formulas, its assumptions, and a worked example you can check by hand — no payment-vs-payment hand-waving.
Start with the one question that decides it: how long do you keep a car?
Your holding period moves the answer more than the money factor, the rate, or the down payment. Pick yours and the calculator opens with it already set.
The 30-second answer
Leasing wins if you replace cars every two or three years; buying wins if you keep them. A lease charges you for the steepest part of a car's depreciation and hands the car back, so you never stop paying and never build equity. A loan ends — and every payment-free month after that is money the lease would still be taking.
On this site's documented default scenario, buying overtakes back-to-back leasing at about month 43 (3.6 years of ownership), and by year six it comes out roughly $7,204 cheaper. Shorten the horizon to three years — a single lease term — and leasing is ahead by about $3,406 instead.
Those figures come from editable assumptions, not live market rates, and the honest comparison invests the monthly cash-flow difference so both paths deploy identical money. Your own numbers — your mileage, your money factor, your resale expectation — can move the crossover by years, which is exactly what the lease vs buy calculator is for. Every formula and default is published on the methodology page.
All auto-finance calculators
Lease vs Buy Calculator
The flagship: serial leasing vs buy-and-hold over your real horizon, with invest-the-difference and break-even.
Auto Loan Calculator
Monthly payment, total interest, full amortization schedule, and what extra payments save you.
Lease Payment Calculator
Money factor + residual → monthly payment, with the depreciation and rent-charge breakdown shown.
Car Affordability Calculator
How much car your income and debts actually support, using income-share and DTI guardrails.
Total Cost of Ownership
Depreciation + interest + fuel + insurance + maintenance — the real cost per year and per mile.
Car Depreciation Calculator
What your car will be worth year by year, and why that curve drives every other number.
Guides that show the math
Why trust these numbers?
Every formula is published on our methodology page with a worked example you can verify by hand, every default lists its rationale, and the calculation engine is covered by automated tests against those same examples. We show estimates as estimates — and always tell you to confirm the dealer's actual figures. Read our editorial policy or about page.