Is RAP or IBR cheaper?

It depends on your income and balance. RAP applies a percentage to your entire adjusted gross income with no poverty-line deduction and no cap, so low earners usually pay more under RAP and can pay $0 under IBR. High earners with small balances also often pay more under RAP, because IBR is capped at the 10-year standard payment and RAP is not. Borrowers with several dependents may do better under RAP because of its $50-per-dependent monthly reduction.

How is the RAP payment calculated?

Your annual base payment is a percentage of your entire adjusted gross income, ranging from a flat $120 if your AGI is $10,000 or less up to 10% if your AGI exceeds $100,000. Your monthly payment is that base payment divided by 12, minus $50 for each dependent you claim. Unlike IBR, nothing is deducted for the poverty guideline before the percentage is applied.

Do RAP payments count toward IBR forgiveness?

Generally no, and the relationship is asymmetric. Months paid under RAP do not count toward IBR, PAYE or ICR forgiveness unless the RAP payment equaled or exceeded the 10-year standard amount, while IBR months do count toward RAP's 360. Time spent on RAP can therefore burn years off an IBR clock you were already running. Confirm your specific counts with your servicer before switching.

How long until forgiveness under RAP compared to IBR?

RAP forgives the remaining balance after 360 qualifying monthly payments over a period of at least 30 years. IBR forgives after 240 payments over at least 20 years if you are a new borrower, or 300 payments over at least 25 years if you are not. That is a five- to ten-year difference, and any forgiven balance under either plan is now federally taxable.

Can I still choose IBR in 2026?

Only if all of your Direct Loans were made before July 1, 2026. Under 34 CFR 685.209(d)(5), only loans made before that date may be repaid under PAYE, IBR or ICR. If you take any new federal loan or start a new consolidation after that date, RAP becomes your only income-driven option for your entire portfolio. That portfolio-wide effect comes from 34 CFR 685.208, not from 685.209(d)(5) alone: the fixed plans are defined for borrowers who have not received a Direct Loan on or after July 1, 2026, and 685.208(b)(8) creates a Tiered Standard plan specifically for a borrower holding both an older loan and a newer one.

RAP vs. IBR: Which Income-Driven Plan Costs Less?

The two plans compute payments from different starting points, and that single structural difference produces most of the surprises. RAP applies its percentage to your entire adjusted gross income. IBR applies its percentage only to income above 150% of the poverty guideline. Everything else follows from that.

The practical result is counterintuitive: the lower your income, the worse RAP tends to look, which is the opposite of what a plan called the Repayment Assistance Plan sounds like it should do.

First, check whether you have a choice at all. Under 34 CFR 685.209(d)(5), only Direct Loans made before July 1, 2026 may be repaid under PAYE, IBR or ICR. If every loan you hold predates that, both plans are open to you.

If any loan is newer, RAP is your only income-driven option and this comparison is academic. That last point is worth understanding properly, because the provision above is written at the loan level and the consequence is not. Read on its own, 685.209(d)(5) bars the new loan and says nothing about the older ones you already hold. What makes it reach your whole portfolio is 34 CFR 685.208, which defines the fixed plans at the borrower level: Standard, Extended and Graduated are each available only to borrowers “who have not received a Direct Loan on or after July 1, 2026.” The PAYE and ICR eligibility conditions in 685.209(c) carry the same borrower-level test.

The clearest confirmation is 685.208(b)(8), which creates a Tiered Standard repayment plan specifically for a borrower “who received a Direct Loan before July 1, 2026, and also received a Direct Loan that was made on or after July 1, 2026.” The Department wrote a plan for exactly the person who holds both. If you find yourself placed on Tiered Standard, that is the signal this rule has caught you.

See should you consolidate student loans in 2026, because starting a consolidation is the most common way people accidentally forfeit the choice.

The structural comparison

	RAP	IBR
Percentage applied to	Your entire AGI, from the first dollar	Only AGI above 150% of the poverty guideline
Rate	1% to 10%, by income bracket	10% (new borrowers) or 15% (everyone else)
Capped?	No cap	Yes, at the 10-year standard payment
Can it reach $0?	No. Floor is a $120 annual base, or $10/month	Yes, routinely
Dependents	Minus $50/month per dependent	Reflected via family size in the poverty guideline
Forgiveness	360 payments, at least 30 years	240 payments / 20 years (new borrower), else 300 / 25 years

What RAP actually costs, by income

Your annual base payment is a percentage of your whole AGI. Your monthly payment is that figure divided by 12, then reduced by $50 for each dependent you claim.

AGI	Rate	Annual base	Monthly (no dependents)
$10,000 or less	flat $120	$120	$10
$20,000	1%	$200	$16.67
$30,000	2%	$600	$50
$40,000	3%	$1,200	$100
$50,000	4%	$2,000	$166.67
$60,000	5%	$3,000	$250
$70,000	6%	$4,200	$350
$80,000	7%	$5,600	$466.67
$90,000	8%	$7,200	$600
$100,000	9%	$9,000	$750
Over $100,000	10%	10% of AGI	AGI ÷ 120

The brackets are cliffs, and they are steep

Because each rate applies to your entire income rather than only the portion inside the bracket, crossing a line by a single dollar re-prices everything below it. This is not how marginal tax brackets work and it catches people out.

$30,000 of AGI is 2%, a $50 monthly payment. $30,001 is 3%, a $75 monthly payment. One dollar of income costs $25 a month, about $300 a year.
$100,000 is 9%, or $750 a month. $100,001 is 10%, or $833 a month. One dollar costs roughly $83 a month, near $1,000 a year.

If your income lands within a few hundred dollars above a bracket boundary, legitimate reductions to AGI (pre-tax retirement contributions, HSA contributions) can be worth far more than their face value. Run the numbers before you file.

When IBR wins

You have a low income. This is the big one. IBR subtracts 150% of the poverty guideline before applying its percentage, so a borrower whose income sits near or below that threshold has little or no discretionary income and an IBR payment at or near $0. RAP has no such deduction and cannot go below its floor. A borrower earning $20,000 might pay $0 under IBR and $16.67 under RAP, and at $30,000 the gap widens rather than closes.

You have a high income and a small balance. IBR is the lesser of the percentage calculation or what you would have paid on a 10-year standard plan. RAP has no ceiling at all. A borrower earning $150,000 with $20,000 of debt pays $1,250 a month under RAP, while IBR caps them at the 10-year standard figure on a $20,000 balance, which is far lower.

You want forgiveness sooner. Twenty or twenty-five years beats thirty. On a balance you never expect to clear, that difference is the whole point of the plan.

When RAP wins

You have several dependents. The flat $50 per dependent per month is a direct subtraction from the payment. Three dependents is $150 a month off, and for a moderate earner that can more than close the gap with IBR.

You are pursuing PSLF and hold a post-July-2026 loan. RAP qualifies for PSLF. The Tiered Standard Plan, which is what you are auto-assigned to if you do nothing, does not. In that situation RAP is not competing with IBR, it is competing with a plan that earns you nothing, and it wins decisively.

IBR is closed to you. If any loan was made on or after July 1, 2026, RAP is the only income-driven plan available for your whole portfolio.

The switching trap

Moving between plans is not free, and the accounting runs one way.

Months paid under RAP generally do not count toward IBR, PAYE or ICR forgiveness unless the RAP payment equaled or exceeded the 10-year standard amount. Months paid under IBR do count toward RAP’s 360.

So a borrower part-way through an IBR clock who moves to RAP “to try it” can spend two years making payments that advance nothing on the clock they actually care about. The asymmetry means IBR-first is the safer sequence when you are genuinely unsure, and it means you should confirm your counts with your servicer in writing before switching rather than after.

Do this before you choose

Log in at studentaid.gov and open My Aid. Confirm the first disbursement date of every loan. That determines whether IBR is even available.
Find your AGI on your most recent return, and check how close it is to a RAP bracket boundary.
Compute the RAP figure from the table above, subtracting $50 per dependent.
Get your IBR estimate from the Loan Simulator at studentaid.gov, which applies the current poverty guideline for your family size and state.
If you are pursuing PSLF, confirm the plan qualifies before enrolling, and remember that a forgiven balance under RAP or IBR is now federally taxable while PSLF is not.

This guide is informational and is not legal or financial advice. Payment amounts depend on your family size, state, filing status, and loan balances, and the figures here illustrate the regulation’s formula rather than predicting your bill. Confirm your options with your servicer. Verified August 2026 against the current eCFR text of 34 CFR 685.209.