Free Maker Tools
Startup Runway Calculator
Enter your cash, costs and revenue to see how many months you have left, when the money runs out, and whether you're default alive: on track to profitability before it does.
Free, no sign-up. Everything runs in your browser; nothing you type is sent to us.
Your numbers
Everything you can spend, today.
Salaries (yours too), tools, hosting, everything.
What actually comes in each month.
Average month-over-month growth.
How fast costs creep up each month.
Your runway
10 months
At this rate the money runs out around August 2027.
Default dead
At 8% a month, the money runs out before revenue catches up. You'd need about 11.2% monthly revenue growth to reach profitability first, or lower costs.
- Net burn today
- $2,600/mo
- Runway at today's numbers
- 9 months
- Lowest cash
- $0
Cash over time
How Runway Is Worked Out
The simple version is one division: cash ÷ net burn. With $25,000 in the bank and $2,600 a month more going out than coming in, you have a little under ten months.
Growth changes the picture. If revenue grows every month, each month burns a little less, and you may reach profitability before the cash runs out. This calculator works month by month: each month's revenue and costs grow by the rates you enter, and the cash goes up or down by the difference.
Default Alive or Default Dead
In his essay Default Alive or Default Dead?, Paul Graham suggests every founder should know the answer to one question: if nothing changes, does the company reach profitability on the money it has? The calculator answers it for you, and if the answer is no, it shows the monthly revenue growth you'd need to make it.
Ways to Extend Your Runway
- Raise prices. For most small SaaS products, it's the fastest lever. See our micro-SaaS pricing playbook.
- Sell annual plans. A year paid upfront brings cash in now, without debt.
- Cut the costs nobody would miss: unused tools, oversized hosting, subscriptions on autopilot.
- Grow revenue: the MRR calculator shows how growth and churn add up over a year, and our guide to your first 100 users covers getting there without ads.
Common questions
- What's the difference between gross burn and net burn?
- Gross burn is everything you spend in a month. Net burn is what you spend minus what you earn. Runway uses net burn: cash in the bank divided by net burn is how many months you have at today's numbers.
- What does "default alive" mean?
- It's Paul Graham's term. A startup is default alive if, with its current costs and revenue growth, it reaches profitability before the money runs out, without raising more. If not, it's default dead, and something has to change.
- How much runway should I have?
- There's no single answer, but a common rule of thumb is to start fixing things, by raising money or cutting costs, while you still have six months or more. Changes take longer than you expect.
- How accurate is the projection?
- It assumes steady growth every month, which real businesses rarely have. Use it to see the shape of things, not to predict a date, and update it with real numbers every month.
- Are my numbers saved or sent anywhere?
- No. The calculator runs entirely in your browser, and nothing you type is sent to us or stored.
More free tools
- SaaS Pricing CalculatorWork back from a revenue goal to the customers and traffic you'd need.
- MRR, ARR & LTV CalculatorProject 12 months of recurring revenue from your price, growth and churn.
- Launch Post GeneratorDraft your launch posts for X, Show HN, Reddit, Indie Hackers and LinkedIn, with each platform's limits.
Ready to launch? Put it on Hauntboard.
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