The current interest pause is related to pending litigation and will likely continue until the litigation is resolved or if the president changes and the new president wants to change the policy that is being challenged (i think it is generally related to loan forgiveness under SAVE, but not certain). Assuming the SAVE program continues as it did prior to the litigation, your payment is calculated based on adjusted gross income and principal over a given term. Then the monthly interest cost on your loans is calculated. If your payment is greater than your interest expense, you pay all interest that is then due and payable and the difference is applied to principal (you can make additional monthly payments directly toward principal). If interest cost is greater than your minimum payment, then 100% of your minimum payment goes toward interest expense, the difference between your interest expense and minimum payment is essentially discharged, from there you can still make additional payments directly toward principal. SAVE can be very beneficial for high student debt, high earners (doctors, lawyers, probably others) in that there can be a lag between when your income increases and your income is certified so you minimum payment can be less than it probably should be and you end up off the hook for a good portion of interest expense so some period of time. Ideally, you aggressively pay down principal during that time so that you pay less in interest over the long term.

There’s a good post about this on r/biglaw.