1. Set the shared details below — the vehicle's price/type/efficiency (same car either way), your annual miles, fuel prices, state, and the term length (how many years you'd own it, or how long the lease runs). 2. Fill in the Buy panel — financing, insurance, maintenance, and depreciation assumptions for owning it. 3. Fill in the Lease panel — your quoted monthly payment, drive-off amount, included miles, and end-of-lease fees. 4. Read the results below — total cost, annual cost, and cost per mile for both paths, updating live.
This is a rough planning estimate, not a quote. Real lease pricing depends on the money factor, residual value, and dealer markups you're actually quoted, and real ownership costs depend on your specific vehicle, credit, and market conditions. Use this to compare structures and sanity-check a dealer's numbers — then verify with the actual lease contract or purchase agreement before deciding.
Compare Buying vs Leasing
A same-car buy-vs-lease calculator. Enter one vehicle, then compare the real total cost of buying it outright against leasing it — including every fee dealers tuck into a lease (acquisition fee, disposition fee, mileage overage) alongside the ownership costs buying carries (depreciation, financing, tax, registration).
Shared vehicle & assumptions (same car, either path)
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Depreciation: using the default front-loaded curve, calibrated to KBB/iSeeCars data (~13%/9.5%/5% for gas).
How much value the car loses each year during its first 2 years — usually the steepest drop.
Value lost per year from year 2 to year 5, once the steepest drop has passed.
Value lost per year after 5 years, once depreciation has mostly leveled off.
Why cash gets "invested" here: if you finance instead of paying cash, the money you would have spent upfront can stay invested and keep earning a return while you pay off the loan out of income — drawn down monthly until the loan is paid off. If your investment return beats the loan APR, financing wins; otherwise cash would have been cheaper.
The interest rate your lender charges — this is what makes financing cost more than the sticker price.
What your extra money could earn if invested instead of spent on the car.
Other costs (buy side)
Lease
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No resale value is credited here — you return the car at lease end and own no equity. See the "Lease Buyout Check" section below if you're considering buying it out instead.
Other costs (lease side)
Lease Buyout Check
At lease end, you can walk away, or buy the car at its predetermined residual/buyout price. This is worth it when the car's real market value exceeds that price — you're buying built-in equity.
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This only checks whether today's buyout price is a good deal relative to market value — it doesn't project years of future ownership after buying out. To see the fuller picture of keeping the car afterward (financing, depreciation, insurance, etc.), set the Buy panel above to Used with an age equal to your lease term, and its price to this buyout price — that reuses the full ownership-cost model for exactly this scenario.
True Total Cost, Buy vs Lease
What each path actually costs you in lost value — not the same as the monthly payment.
This total is the true economic cost of each path — net of resale value for Buy, with no resale credit for Lease since you return the car. Loan principal isn't counted as a cost for Buy (it builds equity you get back at resale); only interest, fees, depreciation, and running costs are. See "Monthly Pocket Expense" below for the separate, budget-focused view of what actually leaves your wallet each month.
Monthly Pocket Expense, Buy vs Lease
What actually leaves your bank account each month — a different question from the True Total Cost above.
Not "which costs more in the end," but "which one hits my monthly budget harder." The Buy loan payment includes principal (which the total above doesn't count as a cost, since it builds equity) — that's why these two views can disagree on which option "feels" cheaper day to day.
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Full cost breakdown
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Cost breakdown as % of total
Tax is applied to the full purchase price for Buy, and approximated as the same rate applied to (drive-off + all monthly lease payments) for Lease — actual state lease-tax rules vary, some tax the full cap cost upfront instead, so check your specific state's method. Depreciation for Buy uses a front-loaded model calibrated to KBB's published schedule and iSeeCars' 2026 study (44% average 5-year loss for gas, 57.2% for EVs). Lease excess-mileage and disposition fees follow typical 2026 market ranges ($0.15-0.30/mile overage, $300-500 disposition, $600-1,000 acquisition) — your actual contract may differ.
Opens your browser's print dialog — choose "Save as PDF" as the destination.