How much is PMI, and when does it end?

Private mortgage insurance costs about $30 to $70 a month per $100,000 borrowed. On a $400,000 home with 10% down that is $108 to $252 a month, and at a typical rate it lasts close to ten years unless you ask to drop it sooner. The cost by down payment, the three dates it can stop, and how extra payments bring them forward.

Oct 2, 2026 · By Calcelate Team

Put less than 20% down on a conventional US mortgage and the lender adds private mortgage insurance, or PMI, to your payment. It protects the lender, not you: if you stop paying, the insurer covers part of the lender’s loss. You pay for it every month until the loan is small enough compared with the home’s value.

Two questions decide what it costs you: how much it is each month, and how long you pay it. Both are below for a $400,000 home with a 30-year loan at 7.28%, the US average for the week of October 1, 2026 from Freddie Mac’s rate survey.

How much PMI costs

Freddie Mac puts the cost at roughly $30 to $70 a month for every $100,000 you borrow. As a yearly rate on the loan, that is 0.36% to 0.84%.

With 10% down you borrow $360,000, and PMI adds $108 to $252 a month. The middle of the range, 0.6%, is $180 a month. Freddie Mac names two things that set where you land: your credit score, and your loan-to-value ratio, which is the loan compared with the home’s value. A smaller down payment means a higher loan-to-value.

The dollar amount barely changes between 3% and 15% down in this table, because it uses the same rate for every row. Since the rate depends on the loan-to-value ratio, the real gap between those rows is likely to be wider than shown.

The three dates PMI can stop

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sets out the rules for most conventional loans. They measure your balance against the home’s original value: the sale price or the appraised value when you bought, whichever is lower.

1. 80%: you can ask. When your balance is scheduled to reach 80% of the original value, you can ask your servicer in writing to cancel PMI. You need a good payment history, no second mortgage on the home, and the lender can ask for proof that the home’s value has not fallen.
2. 78%: it ends by itself. When the balance is scheduled to reach 78%, the servicer must end PMI automatically, as long as you are current on your payments.
3. Halfway through the loan. If neither has happened yet, PMI must end the month after the midpoint of the loan term: 15 years into a 30-year loan.

With 10% down, you can ask after 8 years and 8 months and PMI ends by itself after 9 years and 11 months. At $180 a month, waiting for the automatic date costs $21,420 in total, and $2,700 of that is the 15 months between the two dates. Mark the 80% date and ask.

With 5% down the wait is longer: 11 years and 1 month to the 80% line, and $27,550 of PMI by the time it ends on its own.

How to get rid of PMI sooner

Both dates are set by the original payment schedule, but the CFPB confirms you can ask to cancel early if extra payments have brought the balance down to 80% of the original value. With 10% down, an extra $200 a month on top of the regular payment brings the balance to 80% of the original value after 5 years and 8 months, three years earlier. The amortization calculator shows how any extra amount changes the balance year by year. The other conditions still apply: a good payment history, no second mortgage, and evidence, such as an appraisal, that the home’s value has not fallen.

The other way is to avoid PMI at the start by putting 20% down. Compare that with what you would pay in PMI: on a $400,000 home, the difference between 10% and 20% down is $40,000 of cash, against about $21,420 of PMI over ten years at the middle rate.

PMI on the monthly payment

PMI is one line of the full payment, next to principal and interest, property tax and home insurance. With 10% down on a $400,000 home at 7.28%, principal and interest come to $2,463.16 and PMI at 0.6% adds $180. The mortgage calculator adds tax and insurance and shows how long PMI lasts for your own numbers.

FHA and VA loans

Loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration or the Department of Veterans Affairs work differently. FHA loans charge their own mortgage insurance with separate rules, and the CFPB advises asking your servicer about the insurance on those loans. The dates above apply to conventional loans.

In the UK

UK mortgages have no PMI. Instead, lenders charge a higher interest rate when you borrow a larger share of the home’s value. In August 2026 the Bank of England’s quoted rates series put the average two-year fixed rate at 4.79% for a loan of 60% of the home’s value, 4.92% at 75% and 5.16% at 90%. The cost of a small deposit is built into the rate, and it falls when you remortgage at a lower loan-to-value.

The short answer

PMI costs about $30 to $70 a month per $100,000 borrowed, which on a typical loan is a couple of hundred dollars a month. It ends automatically when your scheduled balance reaches 78% of the home’s original value, but you can ask to cancel it at 80%, and extra payments get you there years sooner.