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RSU and equity calculator

What a grant vests to, year by year, under assumptions you control. Cliff, schedule, and stock movement all yours to set.

Average equity value per year

$50,000

Assumes the stock stays at its grant-date value.

Year 1vests at month 12$50,000
Year 2$50,000
Year 3$50,000
Year 4$50,000
Total vested value$200,000

A public-company RSU model. Options and private-company equity carry more risk than this shows. Vested shares are taxed as ordinary income at vest, and withholding often under-covers the bill. Not financial advice.

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How RSU grants and vesting actually work

An RSU grant is a promise of shares delivered on a schedule, usually four years with a one-year cliff. The grant value in your offer letter is not money you have; it is money you earn by staying, at whatever the stock is worth when each slice vests.

RSUs vs stock options, in plain terms

RSUs are shares given to you as they vest: they are worth something as long as the stock is above zero. Options are the right to buy shares at a fixed strike price: they are worth something only if the stock rises above that strike. RSUs are the safer of the two, which is why public companies favor them.

What a cliff is

A one-year cliff means nothing vests until your first anniversary, when the first year’s worth (typically 25% of a four-year grant) vests all at once. Leave at month 11 and you walk away with none of it. After the cliff, vesting usually continues quarterly or monthly.

RSUs are taxed as ordinary income at vest

The market value of shares on each vest date is taxed like salary, and the shares your employer withholds for taxes often cover less than you actually owe (a common flat withholding is 22% federal, while your marginal rate may be higher). Plan for a bill at tax time, not a refund.

Annualize equity for offer comparison

A $200,000 grant over four years is $50,000 a year of expected compensation, before any stock movement. That per-year figure, not the headline grant value, is the number to put next to base salary when comparing offers.

Golden handcuffs are the point

Unvested equity is the cost of leaving. If you are two years into a grant that has appreciated, the remaining unvested value is exactly what a competing offer has to beat. Knowing your year-by-year vest schedule keeps that trade-off honest.

RSU and equity vesting, the honest answers

  • Nothing vests for the first 12 months. At month 12, 25% of the grant vests at once. The remaining 75% then vests in equal slices, most commonly every quarter, until the four years are up. Monthly and annual schedules work the same way with different slice sizes.

  • Divide the total grant value by the vesting period: a $200,000 grant over four years is $50,000 a year at the grant-date price. The actual value at vest depends on the stock price on each vest date, which this calculator lets you model with your own growth assumption.

  • The full market value of vested shares is taxed as ordinary income in the year they vest, just like salary. Employers typically withhold shares to cover taxes, but the default withholding rate is often lower than a tech salary’s marginal rate, so many people owe more at filing time.

  • Unvested RSUs are forfeited when you leave, with rare exceptions spelled out in your grant agreement. Vested shares are yours. This is why people time departures around vest dates and why unvested value is the real cost of switching jobs.

  • Count the annualized value (grant value divided by vesting years) as part of total compensation, with an honest discount for risk: public-company RSUs are close to cash, private-company equity may never be liquid. The job offer comparison tool has a line for exactly this.

  • No. The math runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter on this page is sent to a server or stored.

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