PPP Loan Calculator for Payroll and Forgiveness

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was a U.S. emergency lending program that sized many first-draw loans at about two and a half months of average payroll, with later forgiveness if funds were used for eligible payroll and certain other costs. The PPP loan calculator recreates that simplified arithmetic for education and historical comparison. It multiplies average monthly payroll costs by 2.5 and adds any owner compensation you enter, then applies the payroll-use percentage to that loan as an illustrative forgiveness target. Covered weeks, employee count, and business-type code are planning references. They do not change the 2.5-times payroll formula used here, because official loan sizing for most borrowers was based on average monthly payroll rather than the length of the covered period. The covered period mattered for how proceeds were spent and documented for forgiveness, not for the basic 2.5-month multiplier shown in this estimate. Actual PPP rules were detailed and changed over time. Eligible payroll, owner-compensation caps, seasonal-employer methods, affiliation rules, first-draw versus second-draw limits, the 60% payroll safe harbor, reductions for headcount or wage cuts, and lender documentation all could alter both the loan and forgiveness. The program is no longer generally open to new applications. Figures produced here are not an SBA determination, a remaining balance, a tax filing, or professional advice. Use the PPP loan calculator to understand a historical term sheet, to reconstruct why a 2.5-times payroll figure appeared on an application, or to teach the difference between loan size and a forgiveness target. Do not treat the result as a current government benefit or as a remaining balance on an existing note. Confirm any live question about an existing PPP loan, forgiveness decision, or tax treatment with the lender, the Small Business Administration, or a qualified adviser using the rules that applied to that loan.