Burn Rate Calculator
Calculate your company's monthly cash burn rate and estimated runway. Enter your cash balance at the start and end of a period to see how fast you're spending.
Recommended Settings
Pro Tips
- •Burn rate measures how quickly a company is spending its cash reserves, typically expressed as a monthly figure
- •Runway is how many months of operation remain at the current burn rate before cash runs out
- •This calculates gross burn based on cash balance change - it doesn't separately account for any revenue collected during the period
- •A negative burn rate (cash increased) means the company is cash-flow positive for that period, so runway isn't applicable
Most Popular
Most startups calculate burn rate monthly or quarterly to track it alongside their runway
When to Use This Tool
Track how quickly your company is spending cash to plan fundraising timing.
Report burn rate and runway as standard metrics in board meetings or investor updates.
Estimate how many months of operation remain before you need additional funding.
Evaluate whether spending cuts are needed based on current burn rate and available runway.
How It Works
Subtract the ending cash balance from the starting cash balance to find total cash burned over the period
Divide total cash burned by the number of months in the period to get the monthly burn rate
Divide the current (ending) cash balance by the monthly burn rate to estimate how many months of runway remain
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Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between gross burn and net burn?
Gross burn (what this tool calculates) is based purely on the change in cash balance. Net burn specifically separates out operating expenses from revenue collected. If your company has no revenue, gross and net burn are the same.
What does runway mean?
Runway is the number of months a company can continue operating at its current burn rate before running out of cash, assuming spending patterns don't change.
What if my burn rate is negative?
A negative burn rate means your cash balance increased over the period rather than decreased - your company is cash-flow positive, so the runway calculation doesn't apply since you're not depleting cash.
Is my data sent to a server?
No. All calculations happen instantly in your browser using JavaScript. Nothing you enter is transmitted anywhere.
Should I use monthly or quarterly periods?
Either works - just make sure your period (in months) matches the timeframe between your starting and ending cash balances so the monthly rate is calculated correctly.