How much can a small business borrow in Canada?
There's no single cap — the real limit is what your cash flow can service and what you can secure. Here's how to think about your ceiling.
Lenders don't start from "how much do you want." They start from "how much can this business safely repay," then work backward.
Two ceilings
- Repayment ceiling: the loan whose payments your cash flow covers at a healthy DSCR.
- Security ceiling: how much the lender can recover if things go sideways (collateral, guarantees).
Your practical maximum is roughly the lower of the two.
A useful exercise
Estimate your annual cash available for debt, divide by about 1.3 (a coverage cushion), and that tells you the yearly payment you can support. Back into a loan size from there. It won't be exact, but it'll keep your ask in a range a lender takes seriously.
See where your plan stands
Paste the plan you have into the free Scanner. It scores you against the eight criteria Canadian lenders use — in about thirty seconds, no account, nothing leaves your device.
Score my plan — freeLenderReady is an educational service, not a lender, broker, or financial advisor. Lending criteria vary by institution and change over time; treat this as a starting point, not a guarantee.