Answer · from the federal loan record
What is the average SBA 7(a) loan interest rate?
Across 235,484 SBA 7(a) loans funded in FY2022–2026, the median interest rate was 10.0%, and the middle half of borrowers paid between 8.25% and 11.25%. Most 7(a) loans carry a variable rate — about 85% float with the Wall Street Journal prime rate — and cluster around prime + 2.5%.
How an SBA rate is actually built
An SBA 7(a) rate is a base rate plus a lender's markup. For variable loans the base is the WSJ prime rate, and the SBA caps how much a lender may add on top — but within that cap the markup is negotiated, loan by loan. Across recent funded loans the median markup was prime + 2.49%. That spread is the part you can move; the prime rate is not.
A borrower quoted prime + 3.5% and one quoted prime + 1.5% can hold the same loan on paper. On a $500,000 loan over 10 years, that two-point gap is roughly $60,000 in interest. Most borrowers never ask.
Fixed vs. variable
FY22–26 funded 7(a)About 85% of recent 7(a) loans carry a variable rate that resets with prime, usually every quarter. When prime climbed from 3.25% to 8.50% between 2022 and 2024, every one of those payments climbed with it. The remaining ~15% are fixed. Fixed protects you from rate rises; variable usually starts lower.
What moves your rate
Bigger loans and stronger files get thinner markups; smaller loans and SBA Express lines run higher. The lender matters most — the same borrower gets different spreads from different banks, which is exactly why it pays to compare quotes.
Check a rate you have been quoted → See which lenders fund deals like yours → What is the prime rate? →
How we know
so you can check itSource. SBA's 7(a) FOIA release as of 2026-06-30 — US-government public domain. 235,484 funded 7(a) loans approved FY2022–2026 with a valid initial interest rate. Rate is the disbursement rate in the file; the markup over prime is computed against the WSJ prime rate in effect on the approval date. Cancelled and never-disbursed approvals are excluded; leaving them in the denominator is the most common way these figures get published wrong.
Reproducing this. The source file is public and the pipeline is simple arithmetic. Write to corrections@sbadecoded.com if you think we have it wrong.