Calculator Tools
Startup Runway Calculator
Calculate startup runway from cash on hand, monthly revenue, and expenses. Get gross burn, net burn, zero-cash date, and a 12-month forecast.
Quick start
Load a preset
The currency only affects how amounts are formatted. All math is unit-agnostic.
Current scenario
Today
Total liquid cash, including bank balances and short-term equivalents. Exclude restricted accounts.
Growth is applied at the end of each month. Set both to 0 for a flat-burn projection.
Gross burn
$180,000.00
per month
Net burn
$155,000.00
per month
Runway
9.3 months
Zero-cash date: March 17, 2027
Target scenario
Useful for modelling a fresh raise or a cash injection.
Model a hiring freeze, a price increase, or a churn-reduction effort and see how the answer moves.
Gross burn
$150,000.00
per month
Net burn
$125,000.00
per month
Runway
14.6 months
Zero-cash date: August 26, 2027
Scenario comparison
Target extends runway by 5.3 months.
12-month forecast: current scenario
Month-by-month cash, revenue, expenses, and net burn over the next year. Growth is compounded month over month.
| Month | Cash start | Revenue | Expenses | Net burn | Cash end |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,000,000.00 | $25,000.00 | $180,000.00 | $155,000.00 | $1,845,000.00 |
| 2 | $1,845,000.00 | $27,500.00 | $194,400.00 | $166,900.00 | $1,678,100.00 |
| 3 | $1,678,100.00 | $30,250.00 | $209,952.00 | $179,702.00 | $1,498,398.00 |
| 4 | $1,498,398.00 | $33,275.00 | $226,748.16 | $193,473.16 | $1,304,924.84 |
| 5 | $1,304,924.84 | $36,602.50 | $244,888.01 | $208,285.51 | $1,096,639.33 |
| 6 | $1,096,639.33 | $40,262.75 | $264,479.05 | $224,216.30 | $872,423.02 |
| 7 | $872,423.02 | $44,289.03 | $285,637.38 | $241,348.35 | $631,074.67 |
| 8 | $631,074.67 | $48,717.93 | $308,488.37 | $259,770.44 | $371,304.23 |
| 9 | $371,304.23 | $53,589.72 | $333,167.44 | $279,577.72 | $91,726.51 |
| 10 | $91,726.51 | $58,948.69 | $359,820.83 | $300,872.14 | -$209,145.63 |
| 11 | -$209,145.63 | $64,843.56 | $388,606.50 | $323,762.94 | -$532,908.57 |
| 12 | -$532,908.57 | $71,327.92 | $419,695.02 | $348,367.10 | -$881,275.67 |
Projected cash at month 12: -$881,275.67. Rows turn red once the projected ending cash drops below zero.
What runway means
Gross burn
Total operating cash leaving the company each month, before counting any revenue. Salaries, software, rent, contractors, and every other recurring cash cost.
Net burn
Gross burn minus monthly revenue. The actual rate cash leaves the bank. A negative net burn means the company is cash flow positive.
Runway
The number of months the company can operate before the cash balance hits zero. With flat numbers, runway = cash / net burn. With growth, the tool simulates month by month.
Zero-cash date
Today plus the runway, projected forward. Used as a forcing function when planning a fundraise, a hiring freeze, or a price change.
This is a planning model, not financial advice. Real cash flow varies with billing cycles, taxes, payroll timing, accrual versus cash accounting, and customer payment behaviour. Treat the answer as a guide and pressure-test it against your bank statements.
How to use
- Pick a preset (pre-seed, seed SaaS, Series A, or bootstrapped) for a realistic starting point, or click Reset to restore the default.
- Enter your cash on hand, monthly revenue, and monthly expenses. Use whole-month numbers (not annualized) so the math lines up.
- Add monthly growth rates if revenue is climbing or expenses are scaling with headcount. Leave both at 0 for a flat-burn projection.
- Read the Current scenario card for gross burn, net burn, runway in months, and your projected zero-cash date.
- Open the Target scenario to model a fundraise, a hiring freeze, a price increase, or a churn-reduction effort. Compare the runway delta below.
- Scroll to the 12-month forecast to see month-by-month cash, revenue, and expenses. Rows turn red once projected cash drops below zero.
- Click Copy summary to capture every input, output, and forecast row into a single text block ready to paste into a board update or a co-founder note.
About this tool
Startup Runway Calculator answers the question every founder asks before a fundraise: how long can the company operate with the cash it has on hand? Enter your bank balance, monthly revenue, and monthly operating expenses, and the tool computes gross burn (cash leaving per month before counting revenue), net burn (cash actually consumed per month), the runway in months, and the projected zero-cash date. Optional monthly growth rates for revenue and expenses switch the calculation from the flat closed-form formula (cash divided by net burn) to a month-by-month simulation that compounds growth as it goes, so a company adding 10 percent revenue per month while expenses grow 5 percent gets a realistic answer instead of a static one. A side-by-side target scenario lets you compare your current numbers against a fresh raise, a hiring freeze, a price increase, a churn-reduction effort, or any other change to cash, revenue, expenses, or growth, with a clear delta showing how much runway the change adds or removes. A 12-month forecast table prints starting cash, revenue, expenses, net burn, and ending cash for each month, with rows turning red the moment projected cash drops below zero. Built-in presets cover the four canonical company stages (pre-seed pre-revenue, seed SaaS, Series A growth, bootstrapped profitable) so you can sanity-check the tool against shapes you already recognize. Useful for founders preparing a fundraise deck, finance leads writing a board update, operators stress-testing a hiring plan, accelerators reviewing a portfolio company, or anyone trying to answer the basic question how many months of runway do I have left without booting up a spreadsheet. All numbers stay in your browser; nothing you type is uploaded.
Free to use. Works in your browser. No signup, no login.
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