Earnest money calculator
On a 400,000 home with a 3% earnest money deposit, you put down 12,000 when the offer is accepted, leaving 388,000 of the price to settle at closing. Enter the price and the percent named in your contract. Free in your browser.
- Free
- Runs in your browser
- No sign-up
- Your data stays on your device
Run — free
Worked example
- Price
- 400,000
- Percent
- 3
- Rate decimal
- 0.03
- Deposit
- 12,000
- Remaining
- 388,000
Earnest money is the good-faith deposit a home buyer delivers when an offer is accepted, showing the seller the purchase is serious and holding the property while inspections, appraisal, and financing proceed. This earnest money calculator takes the home purchase price and the deposit percentage named in the contract, multiplies them, and returns the deposit amount so you can write the figure on an offer, a closing worksheet, or a budget before funds leave the account. Enter a positive purchase price and a deposit percent; receive the deposit in the same currency, the decimal rate, and the remaining price after the deposit. Zero percent is allowed and yields a zero deposit.
How earnest money turns purchase price and a deposit percent into dollars
Earnest money is not a fee the seller pockets on day one. It is a contractual deposit, usually a percent of the purchase price, that sits in escrow and is credited to the buyer at closing if the sale completes. Typical United States offers use one to three percent of the price, sometimes five or ten in a competitive bidding war, and sometimes a round dollar amount that happens to equal a percent.
This calculator models the percent form: deposit equals price times percent divided by one hundred. Price is the home purchase price in one currency; percent is the deposit rate typed the way contracts and listing notes print it, so three means three percent, not three hundred percent. Remaining is the purchase price after subtracting the deposit: it is what is still due at closing before other credits, loans, and prorations.
Zero percent is a legitimate outcome and returns a zero deposit rather than an error: a cash offer that skips earnest money still belongs in a comparison. You supply both numbers; the calculator multiplies them and rounds the deposit half-up to two decimal places so goldens compare byte-for-byte across runtimes. A one-hundred-percent deposit is allowed and then deposit equals price and remaining is zero.
Where an earnest money calculator earns its keep
Buyers writing an offer use an earnest money calculator to turn a list price and a customary percent into one dollar figure before they fill the deposit line. Agents comparing a one-percent opener against a three-percent competitive offer use the same identity so both numbers sit on one scale. Closing coordinators drop the contracted price and the percent named in the executed agreement, then pin deposit so the rest of the cash-to-close worksheet already reflects funds sitting in escrow.
Product teams wire the same contract into offer builders and education pages that must show deposit for a sample home without calling a title company. This is a different search and a different job from a down-payment calculator, from loan-to-value, and from closing-cost estimators: those tools size equity, leverage, and fees. Earnest money prices one purchase against one deposit percent and returns the good-faith amount.
Failed validation does not consume balance. Keep price positive, pin the rounded deposit in tests, and you get a reproducible deposit amount for teasers, offer checks, and edge workers without standing up an escrow ledger of your own. Contingency deadlines, dispute release, and whether the deposit is refundable stay outside this identity on purpose: fold them in your own layer after you have the raw deposit dollars.
What you can do with it
Size the deposit line on a purchase offer
Enter the list price and the percent your market treats as serious, then write the rounded deposit on the offer before you wire funds to escrow.
Compare one-percent and three-percent offers on the same home
Run both percents against the same purchase price so a modest opener and a competitive deposit sit on one dollar scale for the buyer and the listing agent.
Pin escrow funds on a cash-to-close worksheet
Drop the contracted price and the percent named in the executed agreement, then use remaining so the rest of the closing stack already reflects money sitting in escrow.
FAQ
How is earnest money calculated from purchase price and a deposit percent?
Send finite numbers price (strictly positive home purchase price) and percent (non-negative deposit rate, where 3 means 3%).
What happens if the home purchase price is zero or negative?
A price that is not a positive number cannot define a good-faith deposit and is not billed.
Should I enter 3 or 0.03 for a three-percent earnest-money deposit?
Enter 3. percent is a percentage, not a fraction: three means three percent.
Can the deposit percentage be zero?
Yes. A percent of zero is allowed and returns deposit of zero and remaining equal to price. A negative percent is rejected because a deposit percentage cannot be negative.
How much earnest money is typical?
In the United States offers commonly use 1% to 3% of the price, sometimes 5% or 10% in a competitive bidding war. Use the percent your contract actually names; the calculator does not look up local custom.
Related tools
For developers — API access
Everything on this page is available programmatically. This section is for teams who want to wire it into their own systems; everyone else can just use the tool above.
API endpoint
Prefer to automate it? One authenticated POST creates the task; the result comes back by webhook or a signed link. The same capability also runs here on the web, by email and from Telegram — and soon from our app too.
Call it from your stack
curl -X POST https://api.kit.forhosting.com/fin/earnest-money \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $KIT_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"price":400000,"percent":3}'const res = await fetch("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/fin/earnest-money", {
method: "POST",
headers: {
"Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.KIT_KEY}`,
"Content-Type": "application/json"
},
body: JSON.stringify({
"price": 400000,
"percent": 3
})
});
const { task_id } = await res.json();import os, requests
res = requests.post(
"https://api.kit.forhosting.com/fin/earnest-money",
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['KIT_KEY']}"},
json={
"price": 400000,
"percent": 3
},
)
task_id = res.json()["task_id"]<?php
$res = file_get_contents("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/fin/earnest-money", false, stream_context_create([
"http" => [
"method" => "POST",
"header" => "Authorization: Bearer " . getenv("KIT_KEY") . "\r\nContent-Type: application/json",
"content" => '{"price":400000,"percent":3}',
],
]));
$task = json_decode($res, true);body := bytes.NewBufferString(`{"price":400000,"percent":3}`)
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.kit.forhosting.com/fin/earnest-money", body)
req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("KIT_KEY"))
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)Example request
{
"price": 400000,
"percent": 3
}Example response
{
"task_id": "tsk_a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6",
"type": "fin.earnest_money",
"status": "queued",
"_links": {
"result": "/tasks/tsk_…/result"
}
}The API is asynchronous: the call returns a task_id immediately and the result arrives by webhook. Polling is capped at 1 req/s per task.
Pricing
Published price — no tokens, no invented credits. A failed task is never charged.
Errors
| HTTP | Code | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
401 | unauthorized | Missing or invalid API key. |
402 | insufficient_balance | Your balance doesn't cover the task price. |
404 | unknown_type | That task type doesn't exist. |
429 | rate_limited | Too many requests. Use the webhook instead of polling. |
Technical notes
A price that is not a positive number is rejected as invalid_input and is not billed.
How earnest money turns purchase price and a deposit percent into dollars
The decimal form of that rate is also returned as rate_decimal so a spreadsheet can keep a fraction next to the percent people type. A purchase price that is not a positive number is not a home sale in this contract and is rejected as invalid_input, because a zero or negative list price cannot define a good-faith deposit. This endpoint does not look up local custom, does not convert currencies, does not model inspection contingencies or liquidated damages, and does not time when escrow releases funds.
Input contract, response shape, and error behaviour
Zero percent is valid and returns deposit of zero. Example: a four-hundred-thousand purchase price at three percent yields deposit of twelve thousand and remaining of three hundred eighty-eight thousand. Keep requests small, pin the rounded deposit in tests, and you get a reproducible earnest-money figure for worksheets, offer builders, and edge workers without standing up an escrow engine of your own. POST a JSON body with two required finite numbers. price is the home purchase price in one currency unit; aliases purchase_price, home_price, amount, and purchase map to the same field so a listing export can keep its column names. percent is the deposit rate as a percentage, not a fraction: three means three percent, one means one percent; aliases deposit_percent, rate, percentage, and deposit_percentage are accepted. Each numeric field may arrive as a JSON number or a numeric string. Missing fields, empty strings, and non-finite values fail with invalid_input naming the field. On success the body echoes price rounded to two decimal places and percent, then reports rate_decimal as percent divided by one hundred, deposit as the earnest money amount rounded to two decimal places, remaining as price minus deposit, and a formula string restating the identity. Pair the JSON with your own rule for whether the contract uses a percent or a flat dollar figure—this endpoint multiplies the two numbers you send; it does not read a purchase-and-sale form or apply a local floor such as one thousand dollars.
Technical questions
What does the earnest money calculator cost?
The browser tool is free. API requests use prepaid balance at $0.002 per successful call; invalid input is not billed.