The NPer function returns the number of periods for a loan or investment based on known amount, interest rate, and periodic payment amount.

NPer is part of the set of financial functions that Sigma supports.

Syntax

NPER(rate, pmt, pv, [fv], [type])

The NPer function has the following arguments:

rate
Required.
The interest rate per period.
pmt
Required
The payment for each period.
pv
Required
The present value, or total value of all payments made as of the current date.
fv
Optional
The future value, or a cash balance after the last payment.
Defaults to 0.
type
Optional.
Due date of the payment.
0
End of the period
1
Beginning of the period
Default is 0.

Examples

NPer(0.07/12, 1000, 100000)

The number of months it takes to pay off a loan of $100,000 if the interest rate is 7% and the regular payments are $1,000 each month is 79, or 6 years and 7 months.

NPer(0.07/4, 3000, 100000)

The number of quarters it takes to pay off a loan of $100,000 if the interest rate is 7% and the regular payments are $3,000 each quarter is 26.49, or about 6 years and 7.5 months.