Interest on the National Debt · Monthly Treasury Statement

Net Interest on the National Debt by Month

Monthly Treasury data with the full history and fiscal-year comparisons.

Data through: · 139 months since March 2015

Latest month: September 2026

Net Interest, Sep 2026

$34.8B

−5.7% vs Sep 2025

Trailing Twelve Months

$1.05T

through Sep 2026

Fiscal Year to Date, FY2026

$1.05T

12 of 12 months · +8.4% on a year earlier

Highest Month

$107B

May 2026

In September 2026 net interest cost $34.8 billion, against $89.0 billion for national defense and $558 billion of receipts. Over the twelve months through September 2026 it cost $1.05 trillion, 109% of defense spending and 19.5% of receipts.

Net interest every month

Each month's net interest outlay, with the trailing-twelve-month total divided by twelve as the line to read the trend from.

● net interest, month · ● trailing twelve months ÷ 12

September dips are a bookkeeping date: federal loan programs pay Treasury a year of interest at fiscal year-end, and that receipt is subtracted from net interest.

By fiscal year

Net interest in US dollars, October through September fiscal-year totals; incomplete years show fiscal year to date.
Fiscal yearNet interestChange vs prior year
FY2026$1.05T+8.4%
FY2025$970B+10.1%
FY2024$882B+33.7%
FY2023$659B+38.7%
FY2022$475B+34.9%
FY2021$352B+2.2%
FY2020$345B−8.2%
FY2019$376B+15.7%
FY2018$325B+23.6%
FY2017$263B+9.2%
FY2016$241B+7.8%
FY2015$223B−1.8%
FY2014$228Bn/a

Change compares the same fiscal-year months. FY2014 comes from the prior-year column of the September 2015 statement.

Every month since March 2015

Net interest, defense and receipts, the 24 most recent months
MonthNet interestvs year agoFiscal YTDTrailing 12MDefenseReceipts% of receipts (12M)
$34.8B−5.7%$1.05T$1.05T$89.0B$558B19.5%
$85.6B−7.6%$1.02T$1.05T$72.5B$360B19.6%
$104B+13.2%$931B$1.06T$90.6B$334B19.7%
$104B+23.9%$827B$1.05T$82.2B$496B19.5%
$107B+24.3%$723B$1.03T$73.1B$336B19.0%
$96.6B+8.0%$616B$1.01T$76.8B$837B18.5%
$94.3B+1.6%$519B$1.00T$69.2B$385B18.3%
$78.6B+6.0%$425B$999B$70.6B$313B18.4%
$75.9B−6.0%$346B$995B$74.3B$560B18.3%
$91.5B+11.9%$270B$999B$102B$484B18.6%
$87.9B+10.7%$179B$990B$65.5B$336B18.5%
$90.9B+13.2%$90.9B$981B$99.9B$404B18.5%
$36.9B−3.6%$970B$971B$76.0B$544B18.5%
$92.7B+15.6%$933B$972B$82.6B$344B18.6%
$92.0B+13.9%$841B$960B$75.5B$338B18.5%
$84.3B+4.0%$749B$948B$69.5B$526B18.3%
$86.0B−1.2%$665B$945B$76.6B$371B18.5%
$89.4B+5.5%$579B$946B$70.1B$850B18.7%
$92.9B+17.5%$489B$942B$67.4B$368B18.9%
$74.2B—$396B$928B$64.6B$296B18.7%
$80.8B+19.3%$322B$921B$72.1B$513B18.7%
$81.8B+20.7%$242B$908B$83.0B$454B18.5%
$79.4B+10.5%$160B$894B$75.6B$302B18.4%
$80.3B+5.7%$80.3B$886B$103B$327B18.3%
Show 115 earlier months, back to March 2015+
Earlier months
MonthNet interestDefense
Sep 2024$38.3B$76.2B
Aug 2024$80.2B$83.2B
Jul 2024$80.8B$71.1B
Jun 2024$81.1B$67.5B
May 2024$87.1B$78.4B
Apr 2024$84.7B$64.5B
Mar 2024$79.0B$70.2B
Feb 2024$67.1B$65.0B
Jan 2024$67.7B$59.7B
Dec 2023$67.8B$80.8B
Nov 2023$71.8B$70.2B
Oct 2023$76.0B$87.4B
Sep 2023$29.1B$84.5B
Aug 2023$68.8B$70.3B
Jul 2023$67.0B$56.2B
Jun 2023$69.9B$78.7B
May 2023$60.6B$65.8B
Apr 2023$62.5B$57.7B
Mar 2023$66.5B$83.5B
Feb 2023$40.6B$59.7B
Jan 2023$49.8B$49.6B
Dec 2022$54.0B$76.5B
Nov 2022$47.3B$61.8B
Oct 2022$43.0B$76.5B
Sep 2022$3.6B$81.1B
Aug 2022$62.7B$63.3B
Jul 2022$55.3B$63.0B
Jun 2022$42.3B$63.7B
May 2022$56.0B$57.4B
Apr 2022$43.8B$60.9B
Mar 2022$43.2B$65.1B
Feb 2022$32.2B$58.1B
Jan 2022$34.4B$47.0B
Dec 2021$41.7B$74.3B
Nov 2021$30.1B$63.8B
Oct 2021$29.9B$68.7B
Sep 2021−$5.9B$67.2B
Aug 2021$41.8B$52.0B
Jul 2021$37.9B$66.5B
Jun 2021$38.3B$64.7B
May 2021$36.9B$52.1B
Apr 2021$34.0B$70.6B
Mar 2021$31.3B$70.3B
Feb 2021$25.7B$53.5B
Jan 2021$25.2B$53.6B
Dec 2020$25.6B$70.2B
Nov 2020$29.3B$54.5B
Oct 2020$32.4B$79.7B
Sep 2020−$1.3B$66.2B
Aug 2020$36.5B$51.8B
Jul 2020$29.6B$64.9B
Jun 2020$18.5B$58.1B
May 2020$25.8B$61.1B
Apr 2020$35.9B$58.1B
Mar 2020$37.8B$61.6B
Feb 2020$30.6B$54.8B
Jan 2020$31.7B$53.4B
Dec 2019$34.5B$62.0B
Nov 2019$32.3B$62.9B
Oct 2019$32.5B$71.4B
Sep 2019−$3.5B$55.8B
Aug 2019$35.7B$63.6B
Jul 2019$35.0B$55.7B
Jun 2019$39.7B$51.0B
May 2019$40.5B$64.7B
Apr 2019$38.0B$54.8B
Mar 2019$36.7B$58.1B
Feb 2019$24.8B$57.1B
Jan 2019$29.3B$52.5B
Dec 2018$34.2B$56.9B
Nov 2018$33.4B$62.2B
Oct 2018$32.0B$69.0B
Sep 2018−$7.4B$54.4B
Aug 2018$31.9B$64.6B
Jul 2018$35.3B$48.6B
Jun 2018$32.4B$65.4B
May 2018$31.5B$55.8B
Apr 2018$35.2B$46.8B
Mar 2018$33.2B$58.3B
Feb 2018$23.3B$48.7B
Jan 2018$25.3B$40.1B
Dec 2017$24.0B$59.1B
Nov 2017$31.5B$47.5B
Oct 2017$28.5B$59.6B
Sep 2017−$11.8B$57.2B
Aug 2017$25.3B$52.0B
Jul 2017$25.7B$43.1B
Jun 2017$25.7B$57.8B
May 2017$25.0B$49.0B
Apr 2017$27.4B$40.4B
Mar 2017$29.9B$57.7B
Feb 2017$21.2B$45.9B
Jan 2017$21.7B$40.3B
Dec 2016$24.1B$56.9B
Nov 2016$25.2B$48.0B
Oct 2016$23.4B$52.0B
Sep 2016−$17.0B$60.3B
Aug 2016$26.3B$48.7B
Jul 2016$28.0B$46.9B
Jun 2016$27.1B$48.8B
May 2016$27.9B$42.3B
Apr 2016$22.2B$49.3B
Mar 2016$23.9B$54.4B
Feb 2016$18.8B$44.3B
Jan 2016$20.7B$39.9B
Dec 2015$21.4B$56.6B
Nov 2015$21.4B$43.4B
Oct 2015$20.0B$60.4B
Sep 2015−$11.3B$55.1B
Aug 2015$25.4B$40.4B
Jul 2015$27.5B$51.5B
Jun 2015$22.3B$49.3B
May 2015$27.5B$48.2B
Apr 2015$25.1B$48.2B
Mar 2015$15.7B$49.2B

Earlier months show net interest and defense. Full monthly measures are in the monthly JSON records.

Net interest = budget function 900, net outlays for the month. vs year ago = against the same month a year earlier. Fiscal YTD = the statement's own fiscal-year-to-date column (October to the month shown). Trailing 12M = the month and the eleven before it, summed. Defense = national defense net outlays for the month. % of receipts (12M) = trailing-twelve-month net interest as a share of trailing-twelve-month receipts.

Free to use

Cite or embed this data

Treasury figures are public domain. TFTC's compilation, calculations and chart are licensed under CC BY 4.0. Credit TFTC with a link to this page when reusing those contributions.

Credit line

Data: TFTC Net Interest on the National Debt by Month (https://www.tftc.io/federal-interest-expense/net-interest), from US Treasury Fiscal Data. Treasury figures are public domain; TFTC's compilation, calculations and chart are CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Embed the chart (updates monthly)

<a href="https://www.tftc.io/federal-interest-expense/net-interest"><img src="https://www.tftc.io/federal-interest-expense/net-interest/email-card" width="600" alt="Net Interest on the National Debt by Month, chart from TFTC" /></a>
<p>Data: <a href="https://www.tftc.io/federal-interest-expense/net-interest">TFTC</a>, from US Treasury Fiscal Data. Treasury figures are public domain; TFTC's compilation, calculations and chart are <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0</a>.</p>
Preview: Net Interest on the National Debt by Month, chart from TFTC

Need the raw series? The full monthly record is open JSON at /federal-interest-expense/data.json and the latest month of each feed, the current and last complete fiscal years, the gross interest split, the average rate, the defense crossover and records are at /federal-interest-expense/latest.json. Sources, formulas and changes are on the methodology page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does net interest drop every September?
Federal credit financing accounts pay annual interest to Treasury at fiscal year-end, and those receipts reduce reported net interest. Gross interest on Treasury debt does not have this September dip from financing-account receipts. Use the 12-month average to read the trend through these annual settlements.
How much did the US pay in net interest in September 2026?
In September 2026 net interest cost $34.8 billion, against $89.0 billion for national defense and $558 billion of receipts. Over the twelve months through September 2026 it cost $1.05 trillion, 109% of defense spending and 19.5% of receipts.
What is net interest?
Net budget interest excludes interest credited to federal trust funds and other government accounts and nets other budget interest receipts. Gross interest expense measures accrual-basis interest across Treasury security types, including interest credited to those accounts. Differences in accounting and other interest receipts mean the gap is more than trust-fund interest. The comparisons with defense and receipts use budget net interest.
What is the most the US has paid in interest in a month?
$107 billion of net interest in May 2026, the highest single month in the record since March 2015. The highest trailing twelve months ran through July 2026, at $1.06 trillion. Monthly net interest swings with payment timing and with the accrual of inflation compensation on TIPS, so fiscal years and trailing twelve months are the comparisons to use; single months are shown as what they are.
Why does monthly net interest jump around?
Monthly net interest swings with payment timing and with the accrual of inflation compensation on TIPS, so fiscal years and trailing twelve months are the comparisons to use; single months are shown as what they are. Treasury publishes the Monthly Treasury Statement at 2:00 pm Eastern on about the eighth business day of the following month, and the interest expense and average rate tables a few business days after each month ends. This page refreshes the day each one posts.

Data: US Department of the Treasury, via Fiscal Data: Monthly Treasury Statement, Table 9. Source figures are public domain; fiscal-year totals are the statements' own year-to-date columns, trailing-twelve-month totals and shares are TFTC's arithmetic. Net versus gross interest is explained on the overview page. Full record as open JSON, the newest month and fiscal year as latest.json (CC BY 4.0). Sources and arithmetic: methodology and changelog. Not investment advice.