Personal loans in Canada are fixed amounts from $300 to $50,000, repaid in equal monthly payments over 6 to 60 months at a rate that cannot exceed the federal 35% APR ceiling. This page shows the payment at every amount and term, where the rates come from, who qualifies, and how one application compares several lenders.
The short answer
A personal loan is an unsecured instalment loan: the lender deposits a fixed amount into your chequing account, and you repay it in equal payments on a set schedule until the balance is zero. The rate is fixed for the term, so the payment never moves, and the payoff date is written in the agreement on the day you sign. Nothing is pledged as security.
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Two things make personal loans different from the other ways Canadians borrow. A credit card or line of credit is revolving: you draw, repay and draw again at a rate that can change. A payday loan is $1,500 or less, due in one payment on your next pay date, and priced at a flat $14 per $100. Personal loans sit between the two: a known amount, a known cost, a known end date. Our personal loan vs line of credit guide covers the first comparison in detail.
Loanspot is a matching service, not a lender. One application goes to licensed lenders across Canada, each one prices it to your file, and you see the offers side by side. Most applicants on this site borrow between $300 and $1,500; the tables below run all the way to $50,000 because the lane head should show the whole range, and because the arithmetic is the same at every amount.
At 29.99% APR, the rate online instalment lenders typically quote to fair and rebuilding credit, a personal loan costs $17 a month on $300 over 24 months and $1,617 a month on $50,000 over 60 months. The two tables show the monthly payment with the total repaid underneath it, computed with standard amortization and rounded to the dollar. Small amounts run on short terms; large amounts run on long ones.
Small amounts ($300 to $1,500), 6 to 24 months at 29.99% APR
| Amount | 6 months | 12 months | 24 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| $300 | $54 a month $327 repaid | $29 a month $351 repaid | $17 a month $403 repaid |
| $500 | $91 a month $545 repaid | $49 a month $585 repaid | $28 a month $671 repaid |
| $1,000 | $182 a month $1,089 repaid | $97 a month $1,170 repaid | $56 a month $1,342 repaid |
| $1,500 | $272 a month $1,634 repaid | $146 a month $1,755 repaid | $84 a month $2,013 repaid |
Larger amounts ($3,000 to $50,000), 12 to 60 months at 29.99% APR
| Amount | 12 months | 24 months | 36 months | 48 months | 60 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $3,000 | $292 $3,509 | $168 $4,025 | $127 $4,584 | $108 $5,184 | $97 $5,823 |
| $5,000 | $487 $5,849 | $280 $6,709 | $212 $7,640 | $180 $8,640 | $162 $9,704 |
| $10,000 | $975 $11,698 | $559 $13,418 | $424 $15,281 | $360 $17,280 | $323 $19,408 |
| $20,000 | $1,950 $23,396 | $1,118 $26,836 | $849 $30,561 | $720 $34,560 | $647 $38,817 |
| $50,000 | $4,874 $58,489 | $2,795 $67,089 | $2,122 $76,403 | $1,800 $86,400 | $1,617 $97,042 |
Payment first, total repaid second. Illustrative APR: your lender shows your exact rate, payment and total cost of borrowing in writing before you sign, and every offer must sit under the federal 35% APR ceiling in force since January 1, 2025.
The $20,000 and $50,000 rows are shown at the same rate for comparison only. In practice nobody should sign a $50,000 personal loan at 29.99%: amounts that size are bank and credit union territory, priced to a strong file. The same loans at bank-style rates look like this.
Large personal loans at bank-style rates, 60 months
| Amount | 9.99% APR | 14.99% APR | 19.99% APR |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10,000 | $212 a month $12,745 repaid | $238 a month $14,271 repaid | $265 a month $15,893 repaid |
| $20,000 | $425 a month $25,491 repaid | $476 a month $28,542 repaid | $530 a month $31,786 repaid |
| $50,000 | $1,062 a month $63,726 repaid | $1,189 a month $71,354 repaid | $1,324 a month $79,465 repaid |
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One comparison worth keeping in mind at the small end. A $300 payday loan costs $42 for two weeks at the $14 per $100 cap, which is 365% APR. The same $300 as a personal loan over 3 months at 34.99% APR costs $17.66 in total interest, and over 6 months $31.35. The payday loan is easier to get at a storefront; the personal loan is a fraction of the price. The $500 loan page runs the same comparison at $500.
There is no single average rate for personal loans in Canada, because three kinds of lender price three kinds of file. Banks and credit unions price off their prime rate, which the Bank of Canada lists at 4.45% as of October 7, 2026; a strong file borrows at prime plus a few points. Online instalment lenders price fair and rebuilding credit between roughly 19.99% and 34.99%. Every lender stops at the 35% ceiling, because above it the loan is a criminal offence.
Two dated anchors explain where the whole market sits. The Bank of Canada held its policy rate at 2.25% on September 2, 2026, with the next decision due October 28, 2026 (Bank of Canada, key interest rate). Chartered bank prime followed to 4.45% (Bank of Canada daily digest). When those move, bank personal loan rates move the same week; online lender rates barely move, because they price the risk of the file, not the cost of money.
What the rate does to one loan is easier to see than any average. The table takes $5,000 over 36 months and changes only the APR.
| APR on $5,000 over 36 months | Monthly payment | Total repaid | Interest paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9.99% (strong file at a bank) | $161 | $5,807 | $807 |
| 14.99% | $173 | $6,239 | $1,239 |
| 19.99% | $186 | $6,689 | $1,689 |
| 24.99% | $199 | $7,156 | $2,156 |
| 29.99% (typical fair credit online) | $212 | $7,640 | $2,640 |
| 34.99% (the legal ceiling) | $226 | $8,141 | $3,141 |
Every five points of APR adds about $13 to the monthly payment and about $450 to the total on this loan. That is why a soft-check comparison is worth doing before any hard inquiry: the spread between the best and worst offer a fair-credit file receives is often ten points, which is $900 on $5,000. The federal ceiling itself is set in section 347 of the Criminal Code, and the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada requires every lender to disclose the APR and the total cost of borrowing in writing before you sign.
Fees count too. A lender who quotes 23.9% and adds a $300 "administration fee" on a $3,000 loan is charging well over 30% once the fee is spread across the term. Compare offers on the total repaid, never on the headline rate or the monthly payment alone. Our guide to how loan interest is calculated shows the arithmetic.
Enter the amount, the APR on your offer and the number of months, and the calculator shows the monthly payment, the total repaid and the interest. The APR field stops at 35% because no legal personal loan in Canada goes above it.
$5,000 at 29.99% APR over 36 months: $212 a month, $7,640 repaid, $2,640 in interest.
Illustrative only: standard amortization, no fees. Your lender's written offer shows the exact figures.
Take the shortest term whose payment your budget carries without strain, because the term is the real price of a personal loan. Stretching $5,000 from 12 to 60 months at 29.99% cuts the payment from $487 to $162 but raises the interest from $849 to $4,704. On $1,500 the same move from 12 to 24 months cuts the payment from $146 to $84 and adds $258 of interest.
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Online instalment lenders offer 6 to 60 months. Terms of 7 to 10 years exist only at banks and credit unions, usually on larger amounts or loans secured against a vehicle or savings, and a 10-year personal loan rate is quoted to a strong file at a bank, not online. For most borrowers the useful range is 12 to 36 months.
The safety net is prepayment. Licensed lenders in Canada cannot charge a penalty for paying a personal loan off early, so a longer term with early payoff keeps the required payment low without locking in the interest. A borrower who signs 60 months at 29.99% on $5,000 and clears the balance after 24 payments owes about $3,810 at that point, has paid $3,882, and avoids roughly $2,000 of the interest still ahead. Check the prepayment clause before signing; it is in every agreement.
Five routes offer personal loans in Canada, and each one is built for a different file: your own bank, a credit union, an online instalment lender, a peer-to-peer platform, and a matching service that sends one application to several lenders. The table says who each route fits, how long it takes, and what to watch.
| Route | Who it fits | Time to a decision | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your own bank | Strong credit, steady history, existing customer | 2 to 5 business days | A decline still costs a hard inquiry; branch hours |
| Credit union | Fair to good credit, members in the province | 1 to 5 business days | Membership share required; pricing a little above the bank |
| Online instalment lender | Fair or rebuilding credit with job income | Same business day, often minutes | Rates near the ceiling; compare more than one offer |
| Peer-to-peer platform | Good credit, $5,000 and up | 1 to 7 days while the loan funds | Origination fee, listing can go unfunded |
| Loanspot matching | Anyone who wants several offers before a hard check | Minutes to match, lender decides within the business day | Read the total repaid on each offer, not the payment |
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The order to try them is the order of the table. Ask your own bank first if your file is strong, because its rate will be the lowest you see. If the bank says no, or you would rather not spend a hard inquiry on a maybe, a soft-check comparison shows what the online market offers before anything touches your report. Our lender reviews cover the individual online lenders, and the guides to direct private lenders and peer-to-peer loans cover the two routes most people have not tried.
Lenders approve personal loans on four things: age of majority in your province, steady full-time or part-time job income, a Canadian chequing account the pay lands in, and a payment that fits beside your existing debts. Your credit score sets the rate and the amount; on its own it rarely decides yes or no.
The income a personal loan needs follows the payment. A common comfort line is a payment at or under 15% of gross monthly income; the table shows what that means at each amount, using the 29.99% rows from above and bank-style 14.99% for $50,000.
| Loan | Payment | Gross monthly income where the payment is 15% |
|---|---|---|
| $1,500 over 12 months | $146 | about $975 |
| $3,000 over 24 months | $168 | about $1,120 |
| $5,000 over 36 months | $212 | about $1,415 (network floor at $5,000 is about $1,800) |
| $10,000 over 48 months | $360 | about $2,400 |
| $20,000 over 60 months | $647 | about $4,315 |
| $50,000 over 60 months at 14.99% | $1,189 | about $7,930, plus a strong credit file |
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A decline is usually a debt-ratio result, not a score result: a car payment and two card minimums already use the room. The fixes, in order, are asking for a smaller amount, paying one card down for a statement cycle, or waiting until the job passes three months. Our guide on how to get approved for a loan walks through what each lender reads.
Applying for a personal loan online takes about 3 minutes for the form and about 1 minute to confirm income through your bank, and most lenders decide the same business day. Here is the sequence with honest times on it.
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Two settings save time. Turn on Autodeposit in your banking app so the e-Transfer lands without a security question, and apply before noon on a business day so the lender's review and the deposit fall inside one business day. The full document checklist is in how to apply for a personal loan.
Borrow the size of the bill in front of you, not a cushion on top of it. Most Loanspot applicants borrow between $300 and $1,500, and the tables show why that band is cheap to carry: $1,000 over 12 months at 29.99% costs $97 a month and $170 in interest. Borrowing $3,000 for a $1,200 repair means paying interest on $1,800 you did not need, about $600 over 24 months at the same rate.
Approval odds also move with the amount, because the payment gets easier to carry. If a lender declines $5,000, the same file often approves $2,000 or $3,000. Twelve on-time payments on the smaller loan then open the larger amount later at a better rate. The dedicated pages run the full cost table at $500 and at $5,000, and the instalment loans hub covers the rungs between.
Yes, at a higher rate and usually a smaller first amount. Online instalment lenders read current income and the payment you can carry ahead of the score, so a file with a 580 score and a steady job is approved where a bank would decline it. Expect the 29.99% to 34.99% rows of the tables rather than the 9.99% row, and expect a first loan nearer $1,500 than $10,000.
Three things improve the offer more than a few score points: a job past the three-month mark, a chequing account with regular pay deposits and no NSF marks in the last 90 days, and a card balance under half its limit. Our pages on bad credit loans and how to get a loan with bad credit go further, and the second one lists the red flags: any lender asking for a fee before the loan is paid out is not a lender.
There are no restrictions on how you spend a personal loan. The uses that actually show up on applications, in rough order of how often:
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Consolidation deserves one caution: it saves money only when the loan's APR is lower than the cards it replaces and the cards stay paid off afterward. At 29.99% a consolidation loan rarely beats a card at 21.99% unless fees or years of minimum payments were the problem. For a gap smaller than $300, compare short-term loans or an emergency loan instead; for the full map of borrowing options, start at borrowing in Canada.
The product is the same across Canada and the 35% APR ceiling is federal, but three things change at the provincial line: the age you can sign at, whether the lender needs a high-cost credit licence, and which regulator you complain to. Every province requires the cost of borrowing to be disclosed in writing before you sign.
| Where you live | Age to sign | Licence rules for personal loans above the threshold |
|---|---|---|
| British Columbia | 19 | High-cost credit licence from Consumer Protection BC for loans over 32% APR |
| Alberta | 18 | High-cost credit licence from Service Alberta at 32% APR or more |
| Saskatchewan | 18 | No high-cost credit regime; the federal 35% cap and written disclosure apply |
| Manitoba | 18 | High-cost credit licence from the Consumer Protection Office over 32% |
| Ontario | 18 | No high-cost credit regime; Consumer Protection Act disclosure and the federal cap |
| Quebec | 18 | Money-lender permit and a high-cost credit permit from the Office de la protection du consommateur |
| New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI | 19, 19, 18 | No high-cost credit regime; the federal 35% cap and written disclosure apply |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 19 | High-cost credit licence from Service NL since June 1, 2024 |
| Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut | 19 | No territorial regime; the federal 35% cap is the only rate rule |
What this means for you: a lender charging under the high-cost threshold needs no special licence in most provinces, so a missing register entry is a reason to ask questions, not proof of a scam. A lender charging more than 35% APR anywhere in Canada, outside a licensed payday loan, is breaking the Criminal Code. Offers on Loanspot are written for your province before you see them, and lenders in the network accept applications from all ten provinces and the three territories.
Call the lender before the due date. Most lenders will move a payment date or split a payment for a borrower who calls before it bounces; a payment that bounces costs a returned-payment fee from the lender and a separate NSF fee from your bank, and a payment 30 days late is reported to Equifax and TransUnion, where it stays for six years.
Never take a second loan to make the payment on the first. If several debts are past what you can carry, a non-profit credit counsellor can set up a plan with your lenders at little or no cost. And watch for the pattern the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre lists on every loan scam: a fee before the money is paid out, a promise that everyone is approved, or a request to pay by gift card, prepaid card or crypto. Report it at the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
Apply once and see real offers from licensed lenders.
Tell us the amount and confirm your job income through the read-only bank verification. The matching check is a soft inquiry; your score is not touched.
Licensed lenders show the APR, the monthly payment, the term and the total repaid side by side. Nothing is signed until you choose.
Pick the offer that fits your budget, e-sign the agreement, and the lender sends the money to your chequing account, usually within one business day.
The questions Canadians ask most before applying.
Lenders on Loanspot offer personal loans from $300 to $50,000. The amount you are offered follows your income and the room left after your rent and other payments, so a $20,000 loan needs a much larger income than a $1,500 one. Most applicants borrow between $300 and $1,500.
At 29.99% APR, $1,000 over 12 months is $97 a month, $3,000 over 24 months is $168, $5,000 over 36 months is $212 and $10,000 over 48 months is $360. A strong file at a bank pays roughly a quarter less on the same loan.
Between about 10% and 34.99% APR depending on the route and your file. Banks price off prime (4.45% as of October 7, 2026) for strong credit; online lenders price fair and rebuilding credit between roughly 19.99% and 34.99%. No legal personal loan in Canada charges more than 35% APR.
Yes, at a higher rate and usually a smaller first amount. Lenders on Loanspot read income and the payment you can carry ahead of the score. A steady job past three months and a chequing account with regular deposits do more for approval than a few score points.
No. The Loanspot matching step uses a soft inquiry that does not appear to other lenders or move your score. A hard inquiry happens only when you accept a specific lender's offer, and only at that lender.
The form takes about 3 minutes and the income check about a minute. Online lenders usually decide the same business day and deposit by Interac e-Transfer within one business day of signing. Banks and credit unions take 2 to 5 business days; larger amounts take longer everywhere.
The age of majority in your province (18 or 19), steady full-time or part-time job income with three or more months at the current job, a Canadian chequing account the pay lands in, and a payment that fits inside 40% to 45% of gross income alongside your other debts.
Yes. Licensed lenders in Canada cannot charge a penalty for prepaying a personal loan, so a longer term with early payoff keeps the required payment low. Paying a 60-month $5,000 loan off after 24 months at 29.99% avoids about $2,000 of the remaining interest.
A personal loan is better for a one-time expense of a known size: fixed rate, fixed payment, fixed end date. A line of credit suits repeated small draws and usually needs stronger credit. Over the same amount and time the line of credit is often cheaper for strong files and harder to get for everyone else.
Yes. Lenders in the network accept applications from all ten provinces and the three territories. Quebec lenders work under the province's own permit rules, and in Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut the federal 35% APR ceiling is the only rate rule, so the offer you see is already written for where you live.
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