Sarah Johnson
Every business loan, line of credit, and card you carry is priced off one of the benchmarks below. The table pulls the current Prime Rate, Federal Funds Rate, and 10-Year Treasury yield directly from Federal Reserve data, refreshed monthly. If you have ever wondered why your variable-rate line moved when you did nothing, the answer is almost always a change in one of these three numbers.
What each rate prices
The Federal Funds Rate is the one the Fed sets directly. It is the rate banks charge each other overnight, and it is the lever the Federal Reserve pulls to cool or stimulate the economy. You never borrow at this rate, but everything else keys off it.
The Prime Rate is what most small-business borrowing tracks. It runs a fixed 3 percentage points above the top of the Fed Funds target, and it is the base for most variable-rate business lines of credit, SBA loans, and business credit cards. When you see a loan quoted as “Prime plus 2,” the number above is the Prime half of that equation. If Prime is listed at 6.75 percent, a Prime-plus-2 line costs you 8.75 percent.
The 10-Year Treasury yield drives longer, fixed-rate financing: commercial real estate loans, equipment financing, and fixed-term SBA 504 loans. It moves on market expectations rather than direct Fed action, so it can rise or fall independently of the other two.
How to use these before you borrow
Know which benchmark your financing tracks before you sign. A variable line tied to Prime will move every time the Fed changes the Fed Funds Rate, so if the table shows Prime climbing, a variable line gets more expensive on a schedule you do not control. A fixed-rate term loan priced off the 10-Year Treasury locks your cost, which is worth more in a rising-rate stretch and less in a falling one.
The spread between the Fed Funds Rate and the 10-Year Treasury is also worth a glance. When the short rate sits above the long rate (an inverted curve), lenders often tighten and fixed financing can look cheap relative to variable. When the long rate sits well above the short one, variable financing may cost less up front but carries more risk if rates keep climbing.
Why we publish this
These figures come straight from a public Federal Reserve dataset and refresh on their own, so the page shows the same live benchmark to every reader and links back to the source. Use it to sanity-check any financing offer: if a lender’s “great rate” is several points over the benchmark your loan should track, that gap is the real cost, and it is worth asking about before you sign.
Sarah Johnson is a CPA who writes about small-business financing and cash flow at Small Biz Finance Guide.
Recommended Resources
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- Mastering QuickBooks 2025 (~$32), The most comprehensive QuickBooks 2025 guide, covers bookkeeping, payroll, invoicing, tax prep, and cash flow.
- Accounting for Small Business Owners (~$14), Beginner-friendly accounting guide covering basic bookkeeping, financial statements, and managing business taxes.
