Does this account for unfunded committed investment?

No, this uses only your current actually available cash balance, not committed but unfunded capital.

Startup Runway and Burn Rate Calculator

Enter your cash balance, monthly revenue, and monthly expenses to calculate burn rate and runway.

Startup Runway and Burn Rate Calculator

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Current cash balance ($)

Monthly expenses ($)

Monthly revenue ($)

Gross burn rate	$100,000.00/mo
Net burn rate	$75,000.00/mo
Runway	13.3 months
Runway end date (approx.)	-

Assumes constant burn rate - a simplification, since expenses and revenue typically change over time. Recalculate regularly as your numbers change.

The formula

Gross burn rate = Total monthly expenses Net burn rate = Monthly expenses - Monthly revenue Runway (months) = Cash balance / Net burn rate

Example

$1,000,000 cash, $100,000 monthly expenses, $25,000 monthly revenue: gross burn of $100,000/mo, net burn of $75,000/mo - a runway of about 13.3 months before cash runs out.

Step-by-step guide

Enter your current cash balance - cash and cash equivalents actually available, not including undrawn credit lines or committed-but-unfunded investment.
Enter monthly expenses and revenue - use a recent representative month, or an average of the last 3 months for more stability.
Read your runway - and recalculate regularly, since burn rate rarely stays perfectly constant as a company grows or cuts costs.

Why gross burn and net burn tell fundraising investors different things

Gross burn (total spending) shows how much a company is investing in growth and operations, regardless of revenue. Net burn (spending minus revenue) shows the actual rate cash is depleting - the number that determines runway. A company with high gross burn but also high revenue can have a very manageable net burn and long runway, while a company with modest gross burn but little to no revenue can burn through cash quickly. Investors typically care most about net burn and runway when assessing near-term financial health, but look at gross burn alongside revenue growth to understand whether spending is translating into proportional growth.

Common mistakes

Using a single unusually low or high expense month instead of a representative average - a month with a big one-time purchase or an unusually quiet month can distort the runway estimate significantly.

Treating runway as fixed rather than recalculating regularly - as spending or revenue changes (new hires, a big customer win, a cost-cutting round), runway shifts too, and stale numbers can lead to poor fundraising timing decisions.

Frequently asked questions

How much runway should a startup aim to maintain?

A commonly cited guideline is starting a fundraise with at least 6 months of runway remaining, since raising capital often takes 3-6 months from first pitch to funds in the bank - waiting until runway gets critically short leaves little negotiating leverage.

Does this account for money still to be received from a signed but unfunded investment round?

No - this calculator uses only your current, actually available cash balance. Committed but unfunded capital shouldn't be counted until it's actually in the bank, since deals can fall through before closing.

What's the difference between runway and "default alive" status?

Runway measures time until cash runs out at the current burn rate. "Default alive" is a related but distinct concept (popularized by Y Combinator) describing whether a company's current growth trajectory would let it reach profitability before running out of money, without needing to raise again.

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