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Enter your cash at period start and end to compute monthly cash burn and burn multiple straight from bank balances — no budget guesswork.
Enter start/end cash and months to compute your monthly burn instantly.
Test this in the simulation →Open the runway calculator →Monthly Cash Burn = (Cash at Start − Cash at End) ÷ Months · Burn Multiple = Cash Burned ÷ Net New ARR
Use at least 3 months; a single month is distorted by annual renewals and delayed invoices.
(Cash at start − cash at end) ÷ months. Subtract any funding that landed in the period first.
Burn multiple = cash burned ÷ net new ARR added. Under 1 is exceptional, 1–2 good, above 3 an alarm.
The reliable method reads bank balances: (cash at period start − cash at period end) ÷ number of months. If funding, loans or grants landed in the period, subtract them first — otherwise the inflow hides the real spending trend.
They overlap in practice: burn rate usually refers to the monthly figure, while cash burn is the actual cash lost over a period. Dividing period cash burn by the number of months gives your realized net burn rate.
Net cash burned divided by net new ARR added (monthly MRR growth × 12) in the same period. Under 1 is exceptional, 1–2 is good, 2–3 deserves watching, and above 3 is problematic outside the earliest stage.
A single month of burn can swing up to 40% either way on one-off items like annual renewals or delayed invoices. A three-month average smooths the noise while staying responsive to real changes in the cost base.
In Founder Runway every hire, marketing push and office decision hits burn immediately. Live the double-the-burn-and-growth-never-shows-up scenario without burning real money.