Burn Rate Calculator — Track Your Monthly Cash Consumption
Calculate your startup's gross and net burn rate. Know exactly how fast you're spending and what's left after revenue offsets costs.
Burn rate is the heartbeat of a startup's finances. Every month your burn is either under control or quietly eating your future. The CalcHub Burn Rate Calculator helps you separate gross burn from net burn, and gives you a clear monthly picture before surprises show up on your bank statement.
Gross Burn vs Net Burn
These two numbers tell different stories:
Gross Burn = Total monthly expenses (ignoring revenue) Tells you: what does it cost to keep the lights on? Net Burn = Monthly expenses − Monthly revenue Tells you: how much are we actually depleting cash each month?A startup spending ₹18L/month with ₹6L in revenue has:
- Gross burn: ₹18L
- Net burn: ₹12L
Both matter. Gross burn reveals cost structure. Net burn drives your runway calculation.
How to Use the Calculator
- Enter all monthly expense categories — payroll, infra, rent, software, marketing
- Enter monthly revenue (actual cash received, not invoiced)
- Get gross burn, net burn, and an annualized cost figure
- Optionally enter cash balance to see runway automatically
Breaking Down Typical Startup Burn
| Category | Early-Stage (~10 people) | Growth-Stage (~50 people) |
|---|---|---|
| Salaries | 60–70% of burn | 55–65% of burn |
| Cloud infra | 5–10% | 10–15% |
| Marketing | 5–15% | 10–20% |
| Office/rent | 5–10% | 5–8% |
| Software/tools | 3–5% | 3–5% |
| Other | 5–10% | 5–10% |
A Real Example
A 12-person SaaS startup in Bengaluru:
- Salaries (loaded): ₹22L/month
- AWS + Cloudflare + Datadog: ₹3.5L/month
- Office + internet: ₹1.2L/month
- Marketing (Google Ads + content): ₹2L/month
- SaaS tools: ₹0.8L/month
- Legal/accounting retainer: ₹0.5L/month
Gross burn: ₹30L/month
They're billing ₹9L/month in SaaS revenue.
Net burn: ₹21L/monthWith ₹1.5Cr in the bank: runway = 7.1 months. That's not a lot of cushion for a Series A process.
Month-over-Month Burn Tracking
Burn isn't static. If your burn increased from ₹18L to ₹24L in 3 months without proportional revenue growth, you have a problem that no runway calculator can hide. Track burn monthly and compare:
- Is headcount the main driver of increases?
- Are infrastructure costs scaling faster than users?
- Are there one-time costs that inflated a specific month?
What's a healthy burn multiple?
Burn multiple = net burn / net new ARR. A burn multiple of 1x means you're spending ₹1 for every ₹1 of ARR added — considered reasonable. Above 2x is concerning. Below 0.5x is exceptional. VCs use this to judge capital efficiency.
Should founders pay themselves and include it in burn?
Yes, always. Founder salaries should be included in burn, even if they're below-market. Excluding them creates a misleading picture of what the business actually costs to run. Investors will ask about it anyway.
How often should I recalculate burn rate?
Monthly, minimum. In high-growth phases, weekly burn tracking helps you catch unexpected spikes early — a surprise cloud bill or an unanticipated contractor invoice can shift your runway by weeks.