Calculate your gross burn, net burn, and runway instantly. Know exactly how many months your startup has before cash runs out. Free, no sign-up required.
Your total cash and cash equivalents right now
All monthly cash outflows: salaries, rent, software, marketing
Monthly recurring or average revenue. Leave blank for pre-revenue startups.
Non-recurring costs this period. Deducted from cash balance before calculating runway.
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Use Tool \u2192How It Works
No account needed, no sign-up required. Completely free. Enter your cash balance and monthly expenses to instantly see your burn rate, runway months, and the estimated date your cash runs out.
Input your current total cash in the bank and your total monthly cash outflows. Monthly expenses should include all recurring costs: salaries, rent, software, marketing, and services.
Optionally enter your monthly revenue to calculate net burn instead of gross burn. Add one-time costs like equipment purchases or legal fees to adjust your effective cash balance for this period.
Your gross burn, net burn, runway in months, and estimated runway date appear instantly. A status indicator shows whether you are in the healthy, caution, or critical zone based on investor benchmarks.
The Formula
This free burn rate calculator uses standard startup finance formulas to compute gross burn, net burn, and runway from your inputs.
Core Formulas
Net Burn = Monthly Expenses - Monthly Revenue
Runway: Cash Balance / Net Burn Rate = Months of Runway
Gross burn is your total monthly cash outflow with no revenue subtracted. It represents the worst case scenario and is the relevant metric for pre-revenue startups. Net burn subtracts your monthly revenue and shows how fast your actual cash balance is declining.
Runway is the number of months before you run out of cash at the current burn rate. To calculate it, divide your current cash balance by your net burn rate. If your net burn is zero or negative, you are cash-flow neutral or positive and have indefinite runway at the current trajectory.
One-time costs are deducted from your cash balance before calculating runway because they represent immediate cash outflows that reduce your effective starting balance. Examples include equipment purchases, office security deposits, legal fees, and recruiting costs.
Always model both conservative and optimistic scenarios. Conservative runway assumes current revenue stays flat and expenses stay constant. Optimistic runway assumes revenue grows but expenses stay the same. Plan for the conservative case and celebrate when you beat it.
Burn Rate by Stage
Use these benchmarks to calibrate your burn expectations. The right burn level depends on your stage, team size, market, and growth objectives.
| Stage | Typical Monthly Burn | Target Runway | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-Seed | $5K - $30K/mo | 12-18 months | Usually pre-revenue. Burn driven by founder salaries, basic infrastructure, and early development. |
| Seed | $20K - $100K/mo | 18-24 months | Small team, early product. Burn increases with first hires and initial marketing experiments. |
| Series A | $100K - $500K/mo | 18-24 months | Scaling team and go-to-market. Revenue begins to partially offset burn. Efficiency matters more. |
| Series B | $500K - $2M+/mo | 18-24 months | Aggressive growth phase. Burn rises fast but should be matched by accelerating revenue growth. |
| Growth / Late Stage | Varies | Path to profitability | Focus shifts to burn efficiency and path to positive cash flow rather than absolute runway. |
Benchmarks based on YC, Sequoia, and a16z portfolio guidance and public startup finance data, 2026.
Runway Guidelines
Use this table to interpret your runway result and decide on the right course of action based on where you stand.
| Runway | Status | Recommended Action |
|---|---|---|
| Under 3 months | Emergency | Immediate cost cuts, bridge round, or wind-down planning required |
| 3 - 6 months | Critical | Act immediately on fundraising, cost reduction, and revenue acceleration |
| 6 - 12 months | Concerning | Begin fundraising conversations now, reduce burn where possible |
| 12 - 18 months | Acceptable | Solid buffer but start next raise preparations within 6 months |
| 18 - 24 months | Healthy | Good position to focus on milestones and execute the growth plan |
| 24+ months | Comfortable | Prioritize efficient growth over frugality. Do not leave capital idle. |
Guidelines based on investor best practices and startup finance benchmarks, 2026.
Burn Rate Mistakes
Most startup cash crises are predictable and preventable. These six mistakes are the most common causes of unexpected runway problems.
Checking burn rate quarterly is not enough for most early-stage startups. Expenses change monthly, revenue fluctuates, and small cost additions compound quickly. Review your burn rate every month without exception. Surprises in burn are almost always avoidable with consistent monitoring.
Review burn rate every month, not every quarterGross burn is your total cash outflow. Net burn accounts for revenue. A founder who says their burn is $50K/mo when they mean gross burn, but actually have $30K in revenue, is miscommunicating a $20K net burn to investors. Always specify which metric you are reporting.
Always distinguish gross vs. net burn in investor communicationsFundraising takes longer than most founders expect. A typical seed round takes 3 to 6 months from first pitch to cash in the bank. If you wait until you have 6 months of runway, you will be fundraising from a position of desperation. Start when you have 12 to 18 months remaining.
Start fundraising with 12-18 months of runway remainingOne-time costs like equipment purchases, legal fees, recruiting fees, and office setup can devastate monthly burn projections that assumed flat expenses. Always include upcoming one-time costs in your runway model as planned deductions from cash before calculating monthly runway.
Model one-time costs in monthly runway projectionsNew funding creates pressure to scale. But aggressive hiring immediately after a raise inflates burn before the new team members produce results. Hire for proven bottlenecks, not anticipated needs. A 20-person team burning $300K/mo is not inherently better than a 10-person team burning $150K/mo.
Hire for proven bottlenecks, not anticipated growthRunway calculations based on projected future revenue rather than current actual revenue are dangerous. If your revenue is $10K/mo today but you model $50K/mo in 3 months and miss, your runway may be half what you expected. Model runway conservatively using current revenue, not forecasts.
Use current actual revenue, not projections, for runwayExtend Your Runway
These strategies help you get more time from your current cash position. CommonNinja widgets mentioned below are free to start.
A Charts widget on your internal dashboard or investor update page lets you track gross and net burn over time without building custom tools. Trends in burn acceleration are far easier to spot visually than in a spreadsheet.
Try Charts widget →Limited-time offers with countdown timers create urgency that converts browsers into buyers. Every incremental revenue dollar reduces your net burn and extends your runway directly. Countdown widget is free to add to any page.
Try Countdown widget →Exit-intent and scroll-triggered popups capture leads from existing traffic without increasing ad spend. A lead captured today is revenue extended runway tomorrow. Popup Builder widget is free to start and works on any website.
Try Popup Builder →A clear, well-structured pricing page removes friction from the upgrade decision. Pricing Tables widget helps you present plans that convert. Reducing time-to-upgrade directly improves MRR and extends runway.
Try Pricing Tables widget →Tool sprawl is one of the most common sources of hidden burn for early-stage startups. Audit every software subscription monthly and cancel anything not actively used or not delivering clear ROI. Even $5K/mo in tool savings adds weeks of runway.
A simple month-by-month spreadsheet projecting cash in and cash out with planned hiring and costs gives you early warning of runway problems 6 to 9 months in advance. Update it monthly with actuals. A model that is mostly right and updated regularly beats a perfect model reviewed quarterly.
Revenue-based financing, government grants, SBIR awards, startup credits from AWS, Google, and Stripe, and venture debt can all extend runway without diluting equity. Explore these options early rather than only when you need them urgently.
Paying annual contracts monthly, extending net payment terms from 30 to 60 or 90 days, and negotiating startup discounts with key vendors can materially reduce monthly cash outflows without cutting functionality. Most vendors will negotiate if asked early enough.
Startup Finance Glossary
Burn rate and runway are just two pieces of the startup finance picture. Here are the key metrics every founder should know cold.
| Metric | Definition | Formula | When to Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross Burn Rate | Your total monthly cash outflow from all expenses before any revenue is accounted for. The most conservative measure of how fast you are spending cash. | Total Monthly Expenses | Pre-revenue startups, worst-case runway modeling, investor reporting |
| Net Burn Rate | Monthly cash outflow minus monthly revenue. Represents the actual pace at which your cash reserves are declining. | Monthly Expenses - Monthly Revenue | Any startup with revenue. The primary metric for runway calculations once revenue begins. |
| Runway | The number of months your startup can operate before exhausting its cash reserves at the current burn rate. | Cash Balance / Net Burn Rate | Fundraising planning, board reporting, strategic decision-making on hiring and spend |
| Default Alive | A term coined by Paul Graham. A startup is default alive if it can reach profitability on its current growth trajectory without raising more money. | Qualitative / scenario analysis | Strategic planning, investor conversations about path to profitability |
| ARR / MRR | Annual Recurring Revenue and Monthly Recurring Revenue. For SaaS startups, MRR is the most important revenue metric because it directly offsets monthly burn. | Monthly subscription revenue x 12 = ARR | SaaS and subscription businesses tracking revenue offset to burn rate |