Burn rate calculator
What your business actually costs to run each month, net of what it brings in — and how long your cash covers it.
Net burn rate
€8,000 / month
- Gross burn
- €20,000 / month
- Net burn
- €8,000 / month
- Runway
- 7.5 months
Calculated in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere.
The number
Gross burn and net burn
Gross burn is everything that leaves the account in a month. Net burn subtracts what comes in, and it is the honest number: it says how much of your own cash a month of trading costs you.
Net burn = monthly costs − monthly income
Getting it right
- Take an average across three months if your costs are lumpy — one big invoice distorts a single month.
- Include the founder salary. A burn rate that only works because nobody is paid is not a burn rate.
- Payments that come once a year still burn cash every month: divide them by twelve.
Templates that go further
Calculate runway
Three fields is an average. Connect your accounting data and the same number updates itself, on the dates the money actually moves.
Questions
Burn rate calculator — What people ask about it
What is a good burn rate?
There is no absolute number — a burn is only good or bad against what it buys and how long your cash covers it. The useful test is the ratio: what the burn produces in growth, and how many months of runway it leaves you.
What is the difference between burn rate and cash flow?
Burn rate is one number for a whole month. Cash flow is the movement behind it — the same month can end flat and still dip below zero mid-month when a supplier invoice lands before a payout does.
One number is an average. Your cash moves day by day.
Connect your accounting data and Foreqast keeps this calculation live — with every committed cost on the date it actually lands.