What Rates Do SBA 7(a) Borrowers Actually Pay?
Most published "SBA loan rate" numbers are lender marketing. This page shows what borrowers were actually approved at: every FY2020+ 7(a) loan's note rate and its spread over the WSJ Prime Rate in effect on the approval date. The data runs through Mar 31, 2026 straight from the SBA's loan database.
Median Note Rate
9.25%
Median Margin over Prime (variable)
+2.75
Variable Rate
84%
Fixed Rate
16%
The median note rate blends every fiscal year selected above. With all years selected it averages FY2020 through FY2026, a span when the WSJ Prime Rate ran from 3.25% to 8.50%, so it is not a rate available today. The margin figure covers variable-rate loans only, since a fixed-rate loan has no true spread to Prime. A variable-rate 7(a) borrower currently pays about the current WSJ Prime Rate plus the median margin shown (for example, near 9.50% at a 6.75% Prime, that is Prime + 2.75). Filter to FY2025 or FY2026 above for recent pricing.
Note Rate by Fiscal Year
Rates track the Fed: as Prime climbed in 2022-2023, approved note rates followed.
Loading...
Margin Over Prime: the Number That's Actually Negotiable
Prime moves with the Fed; the margin over Prime is what reflects lender pricing and borrower risk. Among variable-rate loans the median spread is +2.75 points, but it varies sharply by loan size.
Loading...
Rates by Loan Size
Bigger loans price tighter: more competition, stronger sponsors, real estate collateral.
No Results
Loading...
Fixed vs. Variable
No Results
Source: SBA 7(a) FOIA dataset, FY2020-present. "Note rate" is the loan's initial interest rate as reported to SBA. "Margin over Prime" is that rate minus the WSJ Prime Rate in effect on the approval date (computed at data-load time). Loans reported with a 0% rate (87 records) or with no rate at all (7 records), almost certainly missing data, are excluded from rate medians. Margin medians cover variable-rate loans only: the "margin" SBA reports on fixed-rate loans is an encoding artifact, not a spread over Prime. Variable-rate 7(a) loans reprice quarterly with Prime; the margin is the fixed component a borrower negotiates.