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Burn Rate Calculator
Find out how fast you are spending and how long your cash will last. Enter your bank balance, monthly revenue, and monthly expenses to see your net and gross burn rate and your runway in months — the number every investor asks about first.
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→ Your burn & runway
Start planning the next round
You have about 6.7 months of runway. Investors typically want 12–18 months after a raise; below 6 months it's time to cut burn or raise in earnest.
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Calculations run entirely in your browser. Figures are estimates for planning, not financial advice.
How burn rate and runway are calculated
Your burn rate is how much cash leaves the business each month, and your runway is how long the cash in the bank will last at that rate. Together they answer the only question that matters when money is tight: how long do we have? The math is simple, but getting the inputs honest is what makes it useful.
- Gross burn = total monthly expenses
- Net burn = monthly expenses − monthly revenue
- Runway = cash in the bank ÷ net burn
A worked example
With $300,000 in the bank, $20,000 of monthly revenue, and $65,000 of monthly expenses, your net burn is $45,000 a month. Divide $300,000 by $45,000 and you have about 6.7 months of runway. Grow revenue or trim expenses and the runway stretches; let costs creep and it shrinks faster than you expect.
Gross burn vs. net burn
Gross burn is everything you spend in a month, ignoring income. Net burnsubtracts the revenue you bring in, so it reflects the cash you are actually losing. Investors focus on net burn and runway, but gross burn matters too: if revenue dips, your burn jumps back toward the gross figure, so a business that is “barely net-burning” on the back of fragile revenue is riskier than it looks.
What is a good burn rate?
Burn only means something next to runway and the progress it buys — there is no target figure in isolation. What investors actually anchor on is runway: they want to see 12–18 months of runway after a raise, because fundraising takes months and you need to hit real milestones before the next round. A related gauge is the burn multiple (net burn ÷ net new ARR): under 1× is excellent, 1–2× is reasonable for an early-stage company, and much above 2× means you are spending a lot to buy a little growth.
How to extend your runway
You buy more runway by changing what comes in, what goes out, or what's already in the bank. Growing revenue is the healthiest source but the slowest to arrive. Cutting costs — headcount, unused tools, marketing that isn't converting — works immediately, which is why it's the first move when cash gets tight. Raising more resets the clock but hands over equity. The discipline is to reach profitability or a genuinely fundable milestone before the balance runs down, so the next raise happens from strength rather than desperation.
Traps that shorten runway
The dangerous errors all involve mistaking one number for another. Watching gross burn while net burn quietly drains the account. Assuming today's costs will hold as you hire and scale. Counting bookings as cash when the money hasn't landed — runway is measured against the bank balance, not revenue recognized. And the most expensive of all: waiting until runway slips under six months to start raising, which leaves you negotiating from weakness.
Runway is one half of the fundraising picture — the other is your profit margin calculator and the path to cash-flow break-even. For the full story, see our guide to burn rate and runway.
→ Beyond the calculator
Model your runway across every scenario
A single runway number assumes nothing changes. In a raise, investors want to see how runway shifts as you hire, grow revenue, and adjust spend. We build a driver-based financial model with best, base, and worst cases — so you know exactly when you need the next dollar.
Frequently asked questions
- Gross burn rate is your total cash spending per month. Net burn rate is gross burn minus the cash revenue you bring in: Net burn = Monthly expenses − Monthly revenue. If you spend $65,000 and earn $20,000 a month, your net burn is $45,000 — that's the cash leaving the business each month.
- Runway is how many months your cash lasts at the current net burn: Runway = Cash in the bank ÷ Net burn rate. With $300,000 in the bank and a $45,000 net burn, you have about 6.7 months of runway before you run out of cash.
- Gross burn is everything you spend each month, ignoring income. Net burn subtracts your revenue, so it reflects the cash you're actually losing. Investors usually focus on net burn and runway, but gross burn matters too — if your revenue dips, your burn jumps back toward the gross figure.
- A common target is 12 to 18 months of runway immediately after a raise, because fundraising itself takes months and you want to hit meaningful milestones before the next round. Dropping below six months is a warning sign — it's the point to either cut burn or start raising in earnest.
- Yes. It runs in your browser, nothing is stored, and there's no sign-up. You can opt in to have the results emailed as a PDF. When you need burn and runway built into a full driver-based financial model for a raise, that's what our financial modeling service does.