When does ICR end?
Income-Contingent Repayment is retired no later than July 1, 2028. The Department stated it directly in its 2026 rulemaking notice for the plan's own formula — 91 FR 34815, which publishes the income percentage factors used through June 30, 2027 and notes that the plan sunsets on July 1, 2028.
Two earlier dates matter more than the sunset itself, and they are the reason this page exists.
Why ICR's 25-year forgiveness is out of reach if you start now
Forgiveness needs 300 qualifying payments, and only payments made on or before the sunset count. A borrower entering ICR in 2026 can accumulate roughly two years of them before the plan retires — nowhere near 300. ICR's 25-year forgiveness is therefore unreachable for anyone starting now, which makes ICR a bridge to another plan rather than a destination.
That is not a reason to avoid it — a low payment for two years is a real thing to want, and prior ICR payments made before the sunset are among those that carry into RAP's 360-payment count under 34 CFR 685.209(k)(8)(i)(C). It is a reason not to choose ICR for its forgiveness timeline, which is how the plan is usually described.
The PSLF cutoff comes even earlier
ICR payments count toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness only if made on or before June 30, 2028 — a day before the plan itself retires. If you are working toward PSLF's 120 qualifying payments on ICR, that is the date your credit stops accruing on this plan, and the point by which you would need to be on a plan that still qualifies. RAP payments do count toward PSLF; Tiered Standard payments do not.
PSLF forgiveness, unlike income-driven forgiveness, is not federally taxed. The difference is explained in is student loan forgiveness taxable in 2026?
What happens at the sunset if you do nothing?
You are placed into RAP if you are eligible, and into IBR if you are not — 34 CFR 685.209(c)(7)(iii). ICR and PAYE borrowers who have not elected a plan by the retirement date are moved automatically, into an income-driven plan rather than a fixed one.
That default is more forgiving than the one facing former SAVE borrowers, who land in a fixed Standard payment if they miss their window. It is still assigned by rule rather than by cost, and because ICR's formula is unlike either destination's, the payment can move noticeably in either direction. The comparison on the homepage prices RAP and IBR against your ICR situation now, so the 2028 hand-off is not a surprise.
How is the ICR payment calculated?
ICR is the most unusual formula of the six plans. Your payment is the lesser of two figures, recomputed each year:
- what you would pay on a 12-year fixed amortization of your balance, multiplied by an income percentage factor published annually by the Department (the 2026 table runs from about 55% at the lowest incomes to 200% at the highest); or
- 20% of your discretionary income, where discretionary income here means AGI minus 100% of the poverty guideline — not the 150% that IBR and PAYE use, which is why ICR's payment is usually the higher of the income-driven options.
Two consequences follow. ICR has no cap at the 10-year Standard amount, so unlike IBR and PAYE it can bill more than the Standard plan would. And because the first branch amortizes each loan at its own interest rate, ICR is the one plan where entering your loans individually rather than as one lumped balance changes the answer — the methodology page explains the convention. A calculated payment above $0 but no more than $5 bills at $5.
Can you still enroll in ICR?
As with PAYE, the regulation and the application disagree, and this site follows the regulation while saying so. 34 CFR 685.209(c)(5)(i)(B) limits ICR to borrowers who were repaying under it on July 1, 2024 and have not left and re-enrolled since; the official IDR application has been observed offering it more broadly. If you were not continuously enrolled, the comparison on the homepage marks ICR ineligible and gives that reason, rather than showing you a payment for a plan you may not be able to join.
Any new federal loan or consolidation on or after July 1, 2026 removes ICR along with every other legacy plan, permanently, for all of your loans. One narrow exception runs the other way: Parent PLUS loans are excluded from ICR unless they were consolidated into a Direct Consolidation Loan before July 1, 2026, which historically made ICR the only income-driven path available to Parent PLUS borrowers. RepayCompass does not yet compute Parent PLUS scenarios and will tell you so rather than showing numbers from the wrong rules.
For the plan retiring on the very same day, see what happens when PAYE ends . For the full menu, start with the six plans that replaced SAVE.