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RSU Calculator

Finance & Investment

Calculate your RSU vesting schedule, pre-tax value, estimated withholding tax, and net shares after tax. Model a 4-year vest or a custom schedule.

Reviewed by the thecalcu.com team · Last updated July 1, 2026

🇺🇸This tool is specific to United States
RSUs Granted
Stock Price at Vest
$
Vesting Period
years
Cliff Period
years
Supplemental Tax Rate
%

Total Pre-Tax Value

$0

Tax Withheld

$0

Net Value

$0

Net Shares

0

Total RSUs

4,000

This calculator computes your Total Pre-Tax Value, Estimated Tax Withheld, Total Net Value After Tax, Net Shares After Tax from the values you enter.

Inputs
RSUs GrantedStock Price at VestVesting PeriodCliff PeriodSupplemental Tax Rate
Outputs
Total Pre-Tax ValueEstimated Tax WithheldTotal Net Value After TaxNet Shares After Tax

What is a RSU?

The RSU Calculator projects the value of your Restricted Stock Unit grant across its vesting schedule, showing pre-tax value, estimated tax withheld, and net shares you'll actually receive after tax. RSUs are a standard form of equity compensation at US technology and growth companies, typically granted alongside a base salary offer and vesting over several years as an incentive to stay with the company.

Unlike stock options, RSUs carry real value the moment they vest, there's no strike price to pay, so even a flat or declining stock price still delivers value, just less than originally projected. This calculator models that vesting timeline using your RSUs Granted, Stock Price at Vest, Vesting Period, and Cliff Period inputs, then applies your chosen Supplemental Tax Rate to estimate what actually lands in your account after the mandatory tax withholding that occurs the moment shares vest.

For a fuller picture of equity-heavy compensation, pair this tool with the Capital Gains Tax Calculator to model what happens if you hold shares past vesting before selling, and the 401(k) Calculator to see how your overall retirement and equity compensation fit together.

Why Use an RSU Calculator?

RSU offer letters typically state a total grant value and a vesting schedule, but they rarely show you the actual after-tax cash or share value you'll receive each year, which is what actually affects your budget and net worth. This calculator translates the headline grant number into a realistic year-by-year picture after the mandatory withholding tax that happens automatically at every vesting event.

This matters most in two situations: evaluating a job offer with an equity component, where you need to compare RSU value against a competing offer's higher base salary or different equity structure, and planning your personal cash flow around vesting dates, since a large vest can trigger a meaningful one-time tax withholding that reduces the shares or cash you actually receive that period.

Who Should Use This Calculator?

Job candidates evaluating an offer with an RSU component can use this tool to convert a stated grant value into realistic after-tax terms, making it easier to compare against a competing offer's cash compensation. Current employees tracking their vesting can model upcoming vest dates to plan tax withholding adjustments or anticipate available cash for major purchases. Tax planners and financial advisors working with tech employees can quickly illustrate the gap between the 22% flat supplemental withholding rate and an employee's actual marginal tax rate, helping clients avoid an underpayment surprise at filing time. HR and compensation teams can use it to sanity-check how a proposed grant structure (vesting length, cliff period) plays out in real after-tax terms for candidates.

What Insights Does the RSU Calculator Give You?

Total Pre-Tax Value is the full grant's worth at the stock price you've entered, your RSUs Granted multiplied by Stock Price at Vest, summed across every vesting tranche. Estimated Tax Withheld applies your chosen Supplemental Tax Rate (default 22%, the IRS flat rate for supplemental wages up to $1 million) to that pre-tax value, representing the amount automatically withheld the moment each tranche vests. Total Net Value After Tax is what remains after withholding, the actual dollar value landing in your account or brokerage. Net Shares After Tax converts that net dollar value back into a share-equivalent count at the vesting stock price, approximating the number of shares you'd retain if your employer withholds tax via a sell-to-cover mechanism rather than cash.

How to use this RSU calculator

  1. Enter your RSUs Granted, the total number of units in your grant, as stated in your offer letter or equity agreement.
  2. Enter the Stock Price at Vest, use the current price for a same-day estimate, or a projected future price to model growth scenarios.
  3. Set the Vesting Period in years, the total time over which your full grant vests (commonly 4 years).
  4. Set the Cliff Period in years, the waiting period before any shares vest at all (commonly 1 year, or 0 for no cliff).
  5. Adjust the Supplemental Tax Rate if you want to approximate your combined federal and state withholding, the default 22% reflects only the federal flat rate.
  6. Review the Total Pre-Tax Value, Estimated Tax Withheld, Total Net Value After Tax, and Net Shares After Tax results, and use the step-by-step breakdown to see how each figure was derived.
Show formula & methodology ↓Show less ↑

Formula & Methodology

For a standard cliff-vest schedule, the annual tranche size is:

Annual Tranche = RSUs Granted ÷ Vesting Years

At the cliff year, all tranches accrued up to that point vest simultaneously:

Cliff-Year Vesting = Annual Tranche × Cliff Years

Every subsequent year vests one standard annual tranche. For each vesting year t:

Pre-Tax Value(t) = Shares Vesting(t) × Stock Price
Tax Withheld(t) = Pre-Tax Value(t) × Supplemental Tax Rate
Net Value(t) = Pre-Tax Value(t) − Tax Withheld(t)

Totals across all years sum these per-year figures.

Example: 4,000 RSUs granted, 4-year vest with a 1-year cliff, stock price $50 at each vest, 22% supplemental tax rate. Annual tranche = 4,000 ÷ 4 = 1,000 shares. At Year 1 (the cliff), 1,000 shares vest (pre-tax value $50,000; tax withheld $11,000; net value $39,000). Years 2 through 4 each vest another 1,000 shares under the same math. Total pre-tax value across all four years: $200,000. Total tax withheld: $44,000. Total net value after tax: $156,000.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an RSU?
A Restricted Stock Unit (RSU) is a promise from your employer to give you company stock once a vesting schedule is satisfied, rather than stock you own outright on day one. Unlike stock options, RSUs have value as soon as they vest regardless of the stock price, since you're not paying a strike price, you simply receive the shares (or their cash equivalent) at vest.
What is a vesting cliff?
A cliff is a waiting period before any shares vest at all, commonly one year on a four-year grant. No shares vest during the cliff period, but once it passes, the shares that would have vested during that time vest all at once, and the remaining shares typically vest in regular installments (monthly or annually) afterward.
How is RSU income taxed when it vests?
RSUs are taxed as ordinary income at vest, based on the fair market value of the shares on the vesting date, this is true whether or not you sell the shares immediately. Employers typically withhold tax automatically using the IRS supplemental wage rate (22% federal flat rate for amounts up to $1 million in a calendar year, 37% above that), which this calculator uses as its default assumption.
Does the 22% supplemental withholding rate cover my full tax liability?
Not necessarily, the 22% flat rate is a withholding mechanism, not your actual marginal tax rate, and if your total income places you in a higher bracket (32%, 35%, or 37%), you'll likely owe additional tax when you file. Many RSU recipients are under-withheld and should set aside extra cash or adjust their W-4 to avoid a surprise tax bill.
What happens if I sell my RSU shares immediately after they vest?
If you sell immediately at the same price used to calculate your vest-date income, there's typically little to no additional capital gain or loss, since your cost basis is set to the fair market value at vest. If the stock price moves between vesting and selling, that difference is taxed separately as a short-term or long-term capital gain or loss depending on how long you hold the shares after vesting.
Should I sell my RSUs as soon as they vest, or hold them?
Many financial advisors recommend selling RSUs at vest to diversify away from concentration risk in a single company's stock, especially if you already have a meaningful portion of your net worth tied to your employer through salary and equity. Holding shares longer only makes sense if you have strong conviction in the company and are comfortable with the added risk, there's no tax advantage to holding, since the income tax is already due at vest regardless.
How does a non-standard vesting schedule change my calculation?
This calculator lets you set both the total vesting period and the cliff length independently, for example, a 3-year vest with no cliff, or a 4-year vest with a 1-year cliff. Adjusting these inputs reshapes when each tranche of shares vests and is taxed, which changes the year-by-year value even though the total number of RSUs and total tax rate stay the same.
Why does my net shares after tax not equal a clean percentage of my granted shares?
Net shares after tax is calculated by converting your after-tax dollar value back into share-equivalent terms at the vesting stock price, which can produce a slightly uneven percentage depending on rounding at each vesting tranche. Most employers actually withhold tax by selling a portion of your vesting shares directly ('sell-to-cover'), which produces a similar but not always identical result to this dollar-based estimate.
Does this calculator account for state income tax on RSUs?
No, this calculator uses only the federal supplemental wage withholding rate as its tax input. If you live in a state with income tax (California and New York have particularly high rates for tech employees), your actual total withholding and tax liability will be higher than shown here; adjust the Supplemental Tax Rate input upward to approximate your combined federal and state burden.
Can I use this calculator for stock options instead of RSUs?
Not directly, stock options have a strike price and different tax treatment (ordinary income on the spread for non-qualified options, or potential AMT exposure for incentive stock options), neither of which this calculator models. This tool assumes RSUs, where the full fair market value at vest is taxed as ordinary income with no strike price involved.
How do I estimate my total compensation including RSUs for a job offer comparison?
Divide your total pre-tax RSU value by the number of vesting years to get an average annual equity value, then add that to your base salary and any cash bonus for a rough total comp figure, keep in mind that vesting is usually back-loaded after a cliff, so early years will show less equity income than later years. Use the [401(k) Calculator](/us/401k-calculator/) and [Capital Gains Tax Calculator](/capital-gains-tax-calculator/) alongside this tool to model the fuller picture of an equity-heavy compensation package.
Also known as
RSU calculatorstock options calculatorrestricted stock unit calculatorRSU vesting calculatorRSU tax calculatorequity compensation calculator