Free · Startup calculator

Startup Runway Calculator

Work out how many months of cash you have left, the month you run out, and what revenue growth does to both. Free, instant, and nothing to sign up for.

Free·No signup·Runs in your browser

Calculated

9 months, 1 week

Runway

Position Tight

Cash in the bank $250,000 · Monthly revenue $8,000

Price
Free
Inputs
4
Account needed
No
Last updated
20 September 2026

Use the startup runway calculator

This free calculator runs in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server, and no account or email is required. Enter:

  • Cash in the bank — Everything you could actually spend today, across all accounts.
  • Monthly revenue — Cash collected per month, not bookings or ARR.
  • Monthly expenses — Total cash out: salaries, contractors, infra, tools, rent.
  • Monthly revenue growth — Leave at 0% for a flat-burn answer. Negative models shrinking revenue.

How it works

  1. 1

    Enter your numbers

    Fill in cash in the bank, monthly revenue, monthly expenses and monthly revenue growth. Nothing is sent anywhere — the maths runs in your browser.

  2. 2

    Press calculate runway

    One button. Change any input afterwards and the answer updates as you type.

  3. 3

    Read the result

    You get runway, plus net monthly burn, zero-cash date.

How runway is calculated

Runway is how many months you can keep operating before cash reaches zero. The basic formula is cash divided by net monthly burn, where net burn is monthly expenses minus monthly revenue.

If you have $250,000 in the bank, spend $35,000 a month and collect $8,000 a month, your net burn is $27,000 and your runway is about nine months.

That formula quietly assumes revenue never changes. Once you add a growth rate, burn shrinks every month and the simple division understates how long you have — sometimes by a wide margin. This calculator switches to a month-by-month projection as soon as you enter a growth rate, and tells you the month revenue overtakes expenses.

More on runway

What counts as burn

Use cash actually leaving the bank, not accounting expense. The two diverge in ways that matter: annual software billed upfront, contractor invoices paid in arrears, and payroll taxes remitted quarterly all hit cash on a different schedule than they hit your P&L.

  • Include salaries, contractors, payroll taxes, infrastructure, software, rent and marketing spend.
  • Include founder salaries if you are paying them — a model that assumes unpaid founders forever is not a model.
  • Exclude depreciation, amortisation and other non-cash entries.
  • Exclude one-off outflows you will not repeat, or model them separately.
Gross burn vs net burn

Gross burn is everything going out. Net burn is what goes out after revenue comes in. Runway is always calculated on net burn, but investors will ask for both, because a company with $200k gross burn and $190k revenue is in a very different position from one with $10k gross burn and no revenue, even though both net to $10k.

How much runway you should hold

The common guidance is 18 to 24 months after a raise, and never letting the balance fall below six months without a live plan to change it. The reason is timing: a seed or Series A process typically takes three to six months from first meeting to cash in the bank, and it goes slower precisely when the market is bad.

Raising with three months left means negotiating from a position where you cannot walk away, and sophisticated investors can see that in your bank statements. Start the conversation while the number on this page still looks comfortable.

Default alive or default dead

Paul Graham's framing is the most useful test here: if your current growth rate and current costs carry you to profitability before the cash runs out, you are default alive. If not, you are default dead and are relying on a future raise you do not yet have.

Enter your real monthly growth rate above. If the break-even month arrives before the zero-cash date, you are default alive — which is the single strongest position you can negotiate a round from, because you no longer have to.

Accuracy and limitations

  • Holds monthly expenses flat. Most startups add cost as they grow, so a growth projection is an optimistic ceiling rather than a forecast.
  • Assumes cash goes out evenly. Annual software, tax bills and hiring all land in lumps, and a lumpy month can end the runway earlier than the average suggests.
  • Does not know about money you have not received. Signed contracts, invoices in arrears and a pending raise all change the picture.

Frequently asked questions

How do you calculate startup runway?
Divide your current cash by your net monthly burn, where net burn is monthly expenses minus monthly revenue. With $250,000 in cash and $27,000 of net burn, runway is roughly nine months. If revenue is growing, a month-by-month projection gives a more accurate answer than the simple division.
What is a good amount of runway for a startup?
Most investors expect 18 to 24 months of runway immediately after a round, and treat under six months as a warning sign. Because fundraising usually takes three to six months, you want to open the process while you still have roughly nine to twelve months left.
What is the difference between gross burn and net burn?
Gross burn is total cash leaving the business each month. Net burn subtracts revenue from that figure. Runway is calculated on net burn, but investors normally want to see both, since revenue quality changes how the same net number should be read.
Should founder salaries be included in burn?
Yes, if you are paying them. Excluding founder pay produces a runway figure you cannot actually operate against, and any investor doing diligence will add it back. If founders are currently unpaid but plan to start, model the month that begins.
What does default alive mean?
A company is default alive if its current growth rate and cost base reach profitability before it runs out of money, without needing another round. If it does not, it is default dead and depends on a raise that has not happened yet. Entering a monthly growth rate above will show you which side you are on.
Is this runway calculator free?
Yes. It is completely free, runs entirely in your browser, and needs no account or email. Nothing you type is sent to a server or stored.

More ways to run the numbers.

  • LTV:CAC Calculator Whether a customer earns back what they cost, and how long that takes. CAC on its own cannot tell you either. Open →
  • CAC Calculator What it actually costs to win one customer. The input that lifetime value, payback and every paid channel decision depend on. Open →
  • 30-day launch playbook The other side of runway: what to actually do with the months you have, week by week. Open →
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