Rocket Loans vs Upstart

The short version

Rocket Loans and Upstart both check your rate with a soft pull, deduct an origination fee from your proceeds rather than charging it out of pocket, and write loans only at 36 or 60 months. Past that, they diverge on who gets approved and at what price. Rocket Loans caps every offer at 29.99% APR, lower than the 35.99% ceiling Upstart and most other online personal lenders use, which means a borrower Rocket Loans approves at all is quoted in a narrower, cheaper band — but it also means Rocket Loans has less room to price a weaker file, so damaged credit is more likely to draw a decline than a high rate. Upstart runs the opposite way: its underwriting model reads education, employment history, and even a confirmed job offer alongside credit history, and it has approved applicants with scores as low as 300.

APRs, as of October 2026, run 7.99% to 29.99% at Rocket Loans and about 6.3% to 35.99% at Upstart. Upstart’s floor is lower, but its ceiling is higher too. Loan size is close: Rocket Loans lends $2,000 to $75,000, Upstart $1,000 to $75,000, and both are fixed at 36 or 60 months rather than a continuous range. Rocket Loans publishes a firm same-day funding cutoff; Upstart targets one business day without naming a specific hour.

Rates and fees

Rocket Loans’ published range is 7.99% to 29.99% APR as of October 2026; the floor requires the autopay discount, and the ceiling is the rate without it. Rocket Loans says your rate depends on credit score, monthly income, debt-to-income ratio, home ownership, recent credit inquiries, and the term you choose. Its origination fee runs up to 9.99% of the loan, deducted from the proceeds, with no published floor. Other fees: $15 if a payment is more than 10 calendar days late, $15 for a returned payment, and no prepayment penalty listed on its fee page.

Upstart’s APR runs about 6.3% to 35.99%. Its origination fee is never optional — it’s deducted from your proceeds before the money is sent — and Upstart doesn’t publish the range that fee can span. The one figure Upstart discloses publicly comes from its own representative example: an 8.15% fee ($815) on a $10,000, 60-month loan at a 19.08% note rate, for a 23.37% APR.

Take a $10,000 loan over 36 months at the midpoint of each lender’s range to compare them on equal footing.

Rocket Loans, 18.99% APR (midpoint of 7.99%-29.99%), using the 6.95% fee from Rocket Loans’ own representative example — Rocket Loans publishes only an “up to 9.99%” ceiling, not a fee range. The fee is $695, so you’d receive about $9,305 in cash. An APR already includes the origination fee by definition, so we amortize the cash you actually receive at the APR rather than counting the fee a second time: a payment of about $341.04 a month, total payments of about $12,277.34, and a total cost of roughly $2,972.34 over the $9,305 you actually received. These are our own amortization figures, not a lender quote. At Rocket Loans’ 9.99% fee ceiling instead of the 6.95% example rate, the fee would be $999 and the cash received $9,001.

Upstart, 21.15% APR (midpoint of 6.3%-35.99%), using the 8.15% fee from Upstart’s own representative example. The fee is $815, so you’d receive about $9,185 in cash. Amortizing the cash you actually receive at the APR: a payment of about $346.75 a month, total payments of about $12,483.00, and a total cost of roughly $3,298.00 over the $9,185 you actually received. These are our own amortization figures, not a lender quote.

On this $10,000, 36-month comparison, Rocket Loans’ lower midpoint APR and smaller example fee produce both a lower monthly payment and a lower total cost than Upstart’s figures — the direct result of Rocket Loans’ 29.99% ceiling sitting well below Upstart’s 35.99%. Neither lender’s example fee is a published range, so a different offer moves either number; treat this as a same-terms comparison, not a quote either lender would actually give you. Neither lender’s published fees include a prepayment penalty — Rocket Loans’ fee page simply lists none — though Upstart’s origination fee doesn’t shrink proportionally if you pay early.

Who qualifies

Rocket Loans does not publish a minimum credit score or a minimum income. Its stated requirements are being at least 18 and a US citizen or permanent US resident, plus a bank account that accepts ACH transfers for funding and payments. Applications are individual — a married applicant may apply for a separate account, not a joint one. Because Rocket Loans caps every offer at 29.99% APR, it has less room than a 35.99%-ceiling lender to price a weak file, so a borrower with damaged credit is more likely to be declined than quoted a high rate.

Upstart also has no fixed minimum credit score — it states it has approved scores as low as 300 — and asks for a valid bank account, verifiable income or a confirmed job offer starting within six months, and that you be at least 18 (19 in some states). Both lenders check your rate with a soft inquiry that leaves your score untouched; a hard pull follows only if you move forward — after you accept an offer, at either lender.

Rocket Loans restricts four states: Iowa, Maryland, Nevada, and West Virginia. Upstart restricts two: Iowa and West Virginia. Listing both sets shows Upstart’s restrictions are fully contained in Rocket Loans’: both skip Iowa and West Virginia, and Rocket Loans alone also skips Maryland and Nevada — so anywhere Upstart lends outside those two states, Rocket Loans either also lends or excludes it for a reason of its own (Maryland, Nevada). Both lenders also set higher minimum loan amounts in some states: Rocket Loans in Georgia ($3,001), Ohio ($5,001), and Massachusetts ($7,000); Upstart in Georgia ($3,100), Hawaii ($1,500), and Massachusetts ($7,000).

Speed and funding

Rocket Loans offers same-day funding when you complete the loan process and sign the promissory note by 4 p.m. ET on a business day: the transfer is submitted that same day, and your bank’s own rules decide when it posts. Loans finalized after the cutoff, on a weekend, or on a holiday go out the next business day. Upstart says most borrowers who accept an offer receive funds within one business day, with one exception: loans for education or tuition expenses are held three business days under federal Truth in Lending rules, not anything specific to Upstart’s own process. Upstart doesn’t name a specific cutoff hour the way Rocket Loans does.

Where each one wins

• Rocket Loans — a 29.99% APR ceiling, lower than Upstart’s 35.99%, so a borrower it approves at all is quoted in a narrower, cheaper band.
• Rocket Loans — a published same-day funding cutoff (4 p.m. ET), rather than Upstart’s one-business-day target with no stated hour.
• Upstart — no fixed minimum credit score, with approved scores as low as 300, reading education and employment history for thinner credit files.
• Upstart — a lower minimum loan amount ($1,000 versus Rocket Loans’ $2,000) for a smaller need.
• Upstart — a lower APR floor (about 6.3% versus Rocket Loans’ 7.99%) for a borrower who qualifies for Upstart’s strongest pricing.

Bottom line

If your credit file is thin, your score is on the lower end, or you have a confirmed job offer but not much credit history yet, Upstart’s underwriting is built to read past a score alone, and its lower floor gives strong-credit borrowers a shot at a cheaper rate than Rocket Loans’ 7.99% floor. If your credit already clears Rocket Loans’ bar and you’d rather be quoted inside a narrower, lower-ceiling band with a firm same-day funding deadline, Rocket Loans is the better fit — just know a weak file is more likely to be declined there than quoted a high rate the way Upstart might quote one. Personal loan credit score requirements is worth reading before you apply to either one. Read the full Rocket Loans review and Upstart review, then start a loan request to see what you might actually qualify for.