Business Loan Calculator: How Much Can I Borrow?

How much can I borrow for a business loan?

Most small businesses can borrow between $25,000 and $500,000. The full range runs from $500 for a microloan to $5.5 million for an SBA 504 loan, and where a business lands inside it comes down to four inputs: monthly revenue, credit score, time in business, and the lender type applied to. Online lenders generally lend 1 to 1.5 times monthly revenue. Banks and SBA lenders work from annual revenue, typically 2 to 5 times it for well-qualified borrowers.

The calculator above applies those multipliers and then caps the result by what your cash flow can service, which is why its number is often lower than a revenue multiple alone would suggest. That cap is the part most revenue-based calculators leave out.

How do lenders calculate the maximum?

Lenders size the loan from cash flow, not revenue, in three steps. They calculate net operating income, divide it by 1.25 to leave a safety margin, subtract existing monthly debt payments, and size a loan against the monthly payment that remains across the term. Running the same math yourself tells you what to expect before anyone pulls your file.

• Step 1 — Net operating income: monthly revenue minus monthly operating expenses.
• Step 2 — Available debt service: net operating income divided by 1.25, minus existing monthly debt payments.
• Step 3 — Maximum loan: the principal that the remaining monthly payment supports over the term, typically 36 months.

Worked example

The number that surprises most owners is how much the existing $3,000 costs them. Clearing it would raise available debt service to $16,000 a month and lift the maximum by roughly $100,000 on the same revenue. Those are the default values in the calculator above. Change the existing debt payment to zero and watch the range move.

What is DSCR and why does it limit my loan?

DSCR is debt service coverage ratio: how much income a business generates for every dollar of debt payment it owes. Most lenders want 1.25 or better, meaning $1.25 of net operating income for every $1.00 of payment. It limits the loan because it caps the monthly payment you can carry, and the loan size is derived from the payment.

This is why two businesses with identical revenue can be offered very different amounts. A business doing $75,000 a month with $40,000 of expenses has far more borrowing capacity than one doing $75,000 a month with $65,000 of expenses, even though a revenue multiple would treat them the same.

Why does my credit score change the amount?

Credit score is the only forward-looking input a lender has, so it scales the offer rather than only deciding approval. A 15% to 30% reduction is typical between 640 and 679, and 30% to 50% between 600 and 639. Below 580, merchant cash advances and microloans are generally the only products available.

Revenue tells a lender what already happened. The score is their estimate of what happens with a new obligation, which is why paying revolving balances below 30% utilization tends to move an offer faster than almost anything else a business owner can do in a short window.

How much can I borrow with under a year in business?

Generally $5,000 to $25,000 under six months, and $10,000 to $150,000 between six and twelve months. Most lenders require at least six months of bank history, and the ones that lend earlier do so at smaller amounts. This is a ceiling revenue cannot lift on its own.

The calculator removes bank and SBA rows entirely below twelve months rather than showing them at zero, because zero would suggest a rejection. Those lender types are not declining the business. They are not yet reachable, and they open up as bank history builds.

How accurate is this calculator?

It is an estimate built from published lender criteria, and it produces ranges rather than a single figure because that is what the underlying data supports. It does not know your industry, your cash flow consistency, your documentation quality, or any recent negative events on your file, and every one of those moves a real offer. Treat the output as the band to expect, not as a number a lender has agreed to.

This is an estimate based on typical lender criteria, not an offer or a credit decision. TopFunders.ai is not a lender and not a loan broker. Actual amounts, rates and terms are set by the lending partner you are matched with.

How do I find out what a lender would actually offer?

A soft-check match shows a real number for your specific profile in about two minutes, without a hard credit inquiry. Approval criteria differ sharply between lenders and are mostly unpublished: one needs two years in business, another funds at six months; one wants a 680 score, another underwrites primarily from revenue. Applying broadly to find out means collecting rejections and handing your details to a dozen sales teams.

TopFunders.ai matches you with one vetted lending partner positioned to approve your profile. It is free to you, needs no SSN or Tax ID to match, and has no impact on your credit score. TopFunders.ai is not a lender and not a loan broker: the matched lending partner makes every credit decision.