RATE function

Returns the interest rate per period of an annuity. RATE is calculated by iteration and can have zero or more solutions. If the successive results of RATE do not converge to within 0.0000001 after 20 iterations, RATE returns the #NUM! error value.

Syntax

R ATE(nper,pmt,pv,fv,type,guess)

For a complete description of the arguments nper, pmt, pv, fv, and type, see PV.

Nper     is the total number of payment periods in an annuity.

Pmt     is the payment made each period and cannot change over the life of the annuity. Typically, pmt includes principal and interest but no other fees or taxes. If pmt is omitted, you must include the fv argument.

Pv     is the present value — the total amount that a series of future payments is worth now.

Fv     is the future value, or a cash balance you want to attain after the last payment is made. If fv is omitted, it is assumed to be 0 (the future value of a loan, for example, is 0).

Type     is the number 0 or 1 and indicates when payments are due.

Set type to	If payments are du e
0 or omitted	At the end of the period
1	At the beginning of the period

Guess    is your guess for what the rate will be. If you omit guess, it is assumed to be 10 percent. If RATE does not converge, try different values for guess. RATE usually converges if guess is between 0 and 1.

Remark

Make sure that you are consistent about the units you use for specifying guess and nper. If you make monthly payments on a four-year loan at 12 percent annual interest, use 12%/12 for guess and 4*12 for nper. If you make annual payments on the same loan, use 12% for guess and 4 for nper.

Examples

In this example, the years of the loan is multiplied by 12 to get the number of months.

Nper	Pmt	PV	Formula	Description (Result)
4	-200	8000	=RATE([Nper]*12, [Pmt], [PV])	Monthly rate of the loan with the specified arguments (1%)
4	-200	8000	=RATE([Nper]*12, [Pmt], [PV])*12	Annual rate of the loan with the specified arguments (0.09241767 or 9.24%)