Cash runway calculator

How long can the business keep going on the cash it has? Enter today's numbers, and optionally how fast revenue and costs are growing.

Reviewed October 2026

Burn rate and runway

• Gross burn is everything you spend in a month.
• Net burn is what you spend minus what comes in: expenses minus revenue. When people say "burn rate," they usually mean net burn.
• Runway is how many months your cash lasts at that net burn: cash on hand ÷ net burn.

With $120,000 in the bank, $30,000 in monthly expenses and $18,000 in monthly revenue, net burn is $12,000 and runway is 10 months.

Adding growth

Runway changes as revenue and costs change. If revenue grows faster than expenses, the monthly burn shrinks, runway stretches, and you may reach break-even before the cash runs out. If costs grow faster, as they often do when hiring, runway shortens quickly.

The calculator steps through month by month, applying your growth rates, and tells you when the cash runs out or when revenue catches up with expenses.

Using runway well

• Use cash, not profit. Runway is about the bank balance. Count payments you're waiting on only when they're likely to arrive, and include loan repayments, taxes and other bills that don't show up as monthly expenses.
• Keep a cushion. Raising money, getting a loan or cutting costs takes months. Many founders start acting when runway drops below 6 to 12 months.
• Revisit it monthly with real numbers, not last quarter's plan.
• Forecast revenue from your own history. The forecast tool can estimate the next 12 months from your past revenue, including seasonal dips.