the total number of periods in excel
Or the NPER function. If we make monthly payments of $1,074.65 on a 20-year loan, with an annual interest rate of 6%, it takes 240 months to pay off this loan. We already knew this, but we can change the monthly payment now to see how this affects the total number of periods.e make monthly payments, so we use 6%/12 = 0.5% for Rate and 20*12 = 240 for Nper (total number of periods). If we make annual payments on the same loan, we use 6% for Rate and 20 for Nper.