Burn Rate Calculator

Track your monthly startup expenses across personnel, office, software, marketing and more. See gross burn, net burn, runway and get a red-zone alert before you run out of cash.

Itemized Costs Red Zone Alert Runway Calc NGN Default
Currency & Cash Position
Personnel Costs
Personnel Total
Office & Space
Office Total
Software & Subscriptions
Software Total
Marketing & Growth
Marketing Total
Other Costs
Other Total
GROSS BURN (Total Monthly)
Burn Rate Results
Gross Burn / Month
Net Burn / Month
Runway (months)
Cash Zero Date
Cost Breakdown
Burn-rate workflow

Itemize spend before deciding what to cut

Break monthly spend into personnel, office, software, marketing, and other categories, then calculate gross burn, net burn, runway, cash-zero date, and cost breakdown.

Local burn estimate

Inputs and outputs stay in this browser unless you copy, download, print, save, or share them.

Primary task

  • Enter cash balance, revenue, currency, and line-item costs.
  • Add or remove cost rows for each spend category.
  • Calculate and review the breakdown bars before making cuts.

Result and export

  • Gross burn, net burn, runway months, cash-zero date, planning flag, and category breakdown.
  • Copy and TXT download actions for board, founder, or finance notes; no PDF is generated.
  • Planning note that keeps operational data local.

Before you use it

  • Use actual bank outflows where possible, not only budgeted costs.
  • Check recurring SaaS, contractors, taxes, and FX-linked expenses.
  • Do not treat this as audited financial reporting.

Assumptions and freshness

Spend, FX, payroll, and revenue collection change month by month. Recalculate before investor updates, hiring decisions, or cost-cut plans.

Report tool issue

Planning utility only. It is not an official filing, legal, tax, accounting, security, finance, platform, lender, or live-data service.

FAQ
What is the difference between gross burn and net burn?

Gross burn is total monthly cash outflow. Net burn subtracts cash actually collected in the same month. Booked revenue and unpaid invoices do not extend runway until cash is received.

What burn rate should I compare against?

Compare against your own actual bank outflows, committed obligations, budget and prior months. Team, location, stage, currency and business model make generic city benchmarks unreliable.

What costs should I cut first when burn is too high?

Review unused or duplicative spend, variable commitments and low-return experiments first. Before changing staff pay, contracts, leases or regulated obligations, check the applicable agreement and professional advice.

Cost Evidence Checklist

Reconcile to cash

  • Bank and mobile-money outflows
  • Payroll, tax and benefit obligations
  • Contractor and lease commitments
  • Annual subscriptions converted to monthly cash planning
  • Loan, FX and one-off payments

Use your actual amounts; the tool supplies no market-rate defaults.

Keep categories complete

  • Personnel and statutory costs
  • Space, utilities and connectivity
  • Software and infrastructure
  • Marketing and sales
  • Compliance, insurance and contingency
Disclaimer: Burn rate is an estimate. Actual spend varies month-to-month. Track expenses with an accounting tool and compare monthly.