Startup Runway Calculator
How many months of cash you have left, and what cutting costs or growing revenue does to it.
Runway is the number of months a business can keep paying its bills with the cash it has. It is the single figure that decides how much time there is to reach the revenue that makes the business work.
Enter your cash, your monthly costs and your revenue, and this calculator gives the runway, the burn rate and the month it ends, plus what a cheaper month or a better month would buy you.
At a glance
- What you enter
- Cash available, Monthly costs, Monthly revenue, Cost reduction to test, Revenue growth to test, Runway you want, One-off cost of growing revenue
- What you get
- Runway in months, Monthly burn rate, Runway after the cost reduction, Runway after the revenue growth, Revenue needed for the runway you want, Revenue gap to that runway
- Formula shown
- Yes - every step, right below your results.
- Cost and privacy
- Free, no account needed, and nothing you type is stored.
See worked examples ↓ Read the FAQ ↓ Share this calculator ↓
Results are estimates for general information only - always verify with a professional or official source before acting on them.
How to use the Startup Runway Calculator
- 1 Enter Cash available
- 2 Enter Monthly costs - Everything you pay each month, including salaries.
- 3 Enter Monthly revenue - Revenue you actually collect, not what you invoice.
- 4 Enter Cost reduction to test
- 5 Enter Revenue growth to test
- 6 Enter Runway you want (months)
- 7 Enter One-off cost of growing revenue - Marketing, hiring or equipment needed to reach the growth you entered.
- 8 Press Calculate. You get Runway in months, Monthly burn rate, Runway after the cost reduction, Runway after the revenue growth, Revenue needed for the runway you want, Revenue gap to that runway, and every intermediate step stays visible under “How is this calculated?”
- 9 Change one number at a time to see what moves the result - that is usually the most useful thing a calculator can tell you.
Worked examples
Real numbers run through this calculator. Open any example to load it into the form above and change it.
$180,000 of cash burning $21,000 a month
A funded business testing a 20% cost cut against a 40% revenue increase.
You enter
- Cash available
- $180,000.00
- Monthly costs
- $30,000.00
- Monthly revenue
- $9,000.00
- Cost reduction to test
- 20%
- Revenue growth to test
- 40%
- Runway you want
- 12 months
- One-off cost of growing revenue
- $15,000.00
You get
- Runway in months
- 8.57 months
- Monthly burn rate
- $21,000.00
- Runway after the cost reduction
- 12.00 months
- Runway after the revenue growth
- 9.48 months
- Revenue needed for the runway you want
- $15,000.00
- Revenue gap to that runway
- $6,000.00
The burn is $21,000 a month, so the runway is 8.57 months and the cash is gone in about nine. Cutting costs by 20% takes the burn to $15,000 and extends the runway to 12.00 months. Growing revenue by 40% to $12,600 a month leaves a burn of $17,400, but after paying $15,000 to get there the runway is 9.48 months. A 12 month runway needs a burn of $15,000, which means revenue of $15,000 against the $9,000 coming in now.
$120,000 of cash burning $14,000 a month
A smaller cash balance targeting a longer runway than the business can currently fund.
You enter
- Cash available
- $120,000.00
- Monthly costs
- $20,000.00
- Monthly revenue
- $6,000.00
- Cost reduction to test
- 8%
- Revenue growth to test
- 40%
- Runway you want
- 14 months
- One-off cost of growing revenue
- $20,000.00
You get
- Runway in months
- 8.57 months
- Monthly burn rate
- $14,000.00
- Runway after the cost reduction
- 9.68 months
- Runway after the revenue growth
- 8.62 months
- Revenue needed for the runway you want
- $11,428.57
- Revenue gap to that runway
- $5,428.57
The monthly burn is $14,000, so the runway is 8.57 months. An 8% cost reduction lowers the burn to $12,400 and stretches the runway to 9.68 months. A 40% revenue increase takes revenue to $8,400 and the burn to $11,600, but the $20,000 of growth spending leaves a runway of 8.62 months, barely different from today. A 14 month runway needs a burn of $8,571.43, which is revenue of $11,428.57 a month, a gap of $5,428.57.
Guides that go with it
How Many Months Could You Survive Without an Income?
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Frequently asked questions
Is runway based on revenue I have invoiced or revenue I have collected?
Collected. The calculator subtracts the monthly revenue you enter from the monthly costs to get the burn, and the burn is what the cash actually pays for. Money invoiced in month one and paid in month three does not meet month two payroll.
Enter the average cash that arrives in a month rather than the total you have billed. If you invoice $9,000 but collect $6,000 in the same month, the second figure is the one that decides how long the cash lasts.
Does the cost reduction include cutting staff?
It is just a percentage of whatever monthly costs you entered, so you decide what makes it up. A 20% reduction on $30,000 is $6,000 a month, and whether that comes from salaries, software, office space or marketing is a management decision rather than an arithmetic one.
Use a reduction you can actually deliver inside a month or two. A cut that needs notice periods, contract renegotiation and redundancies takes longer than the runway it is meant to protect, and the page shows the result as if it happened immediately.
What does the one-off cost of growth do to the answer?
It is taken off the cash before the improved burn is worked out, so growth is not free. Spending $15,000 on marketing and then burning $12,600 a month instead of $21,000 gives a runway of 9.48 months against 8.57 now, not the 14.29 months the burn alone would suggest.
That is why a growth plan has to show a return quickly. If the one-off spend is large relative to the cash, the runway can shorten even when the monthly burn improves, and the growth has to arrive before the money it was meant to buy.
What does the revenue needed for the runway I want mean?
It works backwards from your cash and the runway you entered. The burn that would make $180,000 last 12 months is $15,000 a month, and with $30,000 of monthly costs the revenue needed is $15,000. The gap line compares that with the revenue you have.
It assumes costs and revenue stay flat for the whole period, which no business does. Treat it as the monthly target to aim at now rather than a forecast, and recalculate it every time the cost base moves.