Enter take-home pay and monthly costs to find a rent ceiling, then check a listing and estimate move-in cash.
Monthly take-home and costs
Use amounts after taxes. Leave a cost at $0 only if you do not expect to pay it.
What reaches your account each month after taxes and deductions.
Groceries, transportation, childcare, phone, and other regular costs. Exclude rent, utilities, debt, and savings below.
Monthly minimums for cards, loans, and other debts.
Money you want to set aside each month.
Utilities you expect to pay outside the rent.
Estimated monthly premium.
Extra room in your budget; 10% of take-home pay by default.
Apartment to check
Optional. Leave at $0 to calculate a rent ceiling on its own.
Monthly rent in the listing, before utilities and renters insurance.
Move-in costs
The estimate uses asking rent when entered, or your calculated rent ceiling otherwise.
Automatically tracks one month of rent.
Total expected fees for all applicants.
Truck, movers, boxes, and travel.
One-time connection fees or deposits.
Is last month’s rent due up front?
Enter monthly take-home pay above to estimate a rent ceiling and move-in cash. Costs alone cannot produce a result.
Start with monthly take-home pay. Subtract non-housing living costs, debt payments, savings, utilities, renters insurance, and your chosen cash cushion. What remains is the most monthly rent your entered budget supports. A blank living-cost budget can make that ceiling look too high.
Enter an apartment’s asking rent to see the cash left after all those costs. Move-in cash adds first month’s rent, the security deposit, optional last month’s rent, application fees, moving costs, and utility setup. The deposit follows one month’s rent until you enter a different amount.
Use this as a planning estimate, not a prediction of landlord approval. Lease terms, deposit rules, and local rents vary, while irregular bills can reduce the cash you actually have available.
Use take-home pay: the money that reaches your account after taxes and deductions. This calculator uses that amount for the rent ceiling.
Include recurring non-housing expenses such as groceries, transportation, childcare, phone service, and medical costs. Enter debt payments, utilities, renters insurance, and savings in their own fields so they are not counted twice.
A lease may require a security deposit, last month’s rent, fees, and setup costs in addition to the first month’s rent. Enter the amounts from the listing or lease for a better estimate.
No. The result depends on the costs you enter, and a landlord may use different qualification rules. Review irregular expenses and actual lease terms before deciding.