Student Loan Refinance Rates This Month: Federal Benchmarks, Lender Ranges and What Moved

Rates on this page were read on November 11, 2026. This page is updated by the fifth of each month; the next update is due by December 5, 2026.

Student loan refinance rates in November 2026: the lowest advertised fixed rates from the large refinance lenders sit between 4.49 and 4.74 percent APR with auto pay, and the published ranges run to roughly 9.75 to 11.5 percent for borrowers who barely qualify. Against that, federal Direct Loans first disbursed in 2026-27 carry 6.52 percent for undergraduates, 8.07 percent for graduate students and 9.07 percent for PLUS loans, and any Direct Loan on auto pay is one full point lower than that through June 30, 2028. The Federal Reserve held its policy rate at 3.75 to 4.00 percent on October 28, so variable refinance rates have not moved much since the summer. This page gives the numbers, where each one comes from, and how to compare them to the loan you already have.

Federal student loan rates, by the year the loan was made

Federal rates are set once a year by a formula in federal law tied to the 10-year Treasury note, and the rate a loan gets is fixed for its life. Your rate depends on the year your loan was first disbursed, not on anything that happens afterward. These are the figures from Federal Student Aid's rate history:

Two adjustments matter before you compare. Direct Loan borrowers on auto pay get a 1 percentage point reduction from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2028 (it was 0.25 before), and the Department of Education extended the enrollment deadline to December 31, 2026. An 8.07 percent graduate loan on auto pay costs 7.07 percent, and that is the number a refinance offer has to beat. And a loan from 2020-21 or 2021-22, at 2.75 or 3.73 percent for undergraduates and 4.30 or 5.28 percent for graduate students, is below every refinance floor published this month.

What refinance lenders published this month

These are the ranges the lenders themselves showed on their refinance pages on November 11, 2026. They are advertised ranges, not offers: the floor goes to applicants with excellent credit, steady income, the shortest term and auto pay, and each lender prices your application on its own criteria. Where a lender publishes only a starting rate, the table says so.

Read the table as a market, not a menu. The floors cluster between 4.49 and 4.74 percent for fixed and 4.74 and 5.88 percent for variable, which tells you where the strongest applicants land. The ceilings, where published, run from 9.75 percent at KeyBank to 11.45 percent at Citizens on fixed and a little higher on variable, which tells you where a thin file or a long term lands. Most applicants fall somewhere between, and the only way to know where is to prequalify, which most lenders do with a soft credit check that does not affect your score.

What moved this month

• The Federal Reserve held. The FOMC kept its target range at 3.75 to 4.00 percent on October 28, 2026, with two members preferring a quarter-point increase. Variable refinance rates track benchmarks that follow the policy rate, chiefly SOFR, so they have been steady. Fixed refinance rates follow longer Treasury yields more closely and can move even when the Fed does not.
• Federal rates did not move and will not until July. The 2026-27 rates apply to loans first disbursed through June 30, 2027. The 2027-28 rates are set after the May 2027 Treasury auction and take effect July 1, 2027. Nothing changes for loans already made.
• The auto pay deadline is December 31, 2026. Direct Loan borrowers not yet on auto pay have until then to enroll for the 1 point reduction; borrowers already enrolled receive it automatically.

How to read a refinance rate range

• The floor assumes everything in your favor. Excellent credit, steady income, the shortest term the lender offers (usually five years), and auto pay. Change any one and the rate moves up.
• Term changes the rate and the total. KeyBank's table shows the pattern plainly: the fixed floor rises from 4.74 percent at five years to 5.50 percent at twenty. A longer term lowers the payment and raises both the rate and the total interest.
• Variable starts lower and can end higher. Variable floors sit above fixed floors at some lenders this month, which is unusual and reflects where short-term rates are. Our guide to fixed versus variable rates covers the trade.
• APR includes fees; most refinance lenders charge none. Where a lender charges an origination fee, the APR will sit above the interest rate. Read the disclosure, not the headline.

The comparison that matters

A refinance rate only means something next to the rate you have. For a private loan, compare the offer with your current rate; refinancing a private loan gives up nothing but the old rate. For a federal loan, compare the offer with your federal rate after the 1 point auto pay reduction, and then weigh what the private loan does not have: the Repayment Assistance Plan, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, federal deferment and forbearance, and death and disability discharge. Our refinance calculator runs the payment, total interest and break-even for any offer against your current loan, and our guide to refinancing federal student loans works through who should and should not.

For most borrowers in November 2026 the picture is this: a 2023 or later federal loan at 7 to 9 percent, held by someone with strong credit and no public service plans, can usually be refinanced a point or more below the federal rate after auto pay; a 2020-21 or 2021-22 federal loan cannot be beaten by any published floor; and a private loan from the same years is worth re-pricing whenever your credit has improved. The refinance hub gathers the calculator and every guide, and when refinancing helps and when it hurts covers the full list of trade-offs.

How this page is maintained

CollegeLens reads each lender's own refinance page and Federal Student Aid's rate tables and records the figures with the date they were read; nothing on this page comes from a third-party roundup. The page is updated by the fifth of each month, and sooner when a federal rule changes, the Federal Reserve moves, or a lender changes its published range. When CollegeLens carries refinance offers, partner lenders' figures will come from their written disclosures and will be marked as such.

Sravani at CollegeLens