RSU Calculator: How to Calculate What Your Equity Is Actually Worth

Your offer letter says $200,000 in RSUs. That number is almost meaningless on its own. Before you can evaluate it properly you need to know the vesting schedule, the tax treatment, and what happens to the value if the stock moves up or down over the next four years.

This guide walks through exactly how to calculate the real value of an RSU grant so you can compare it clearly against any other offer on the table.

What is an RSU and why does the grant size mislead you

A restricted stock unit is a promise from your employer to give you shares of company stock at a future date, provided you are still employed when those shares vest. The grant size in your offer letter is the total value of those shares at today's stock price.

The problem is that you do not receive all of those shares at once. They vest over time, typically over four years. So a $200,000 RSU grant does not mean $200,000 in your pocket this year. It means roughly $50,000 per year for four years, assuming the stock price stays flat.

Two things make this calculation more complicated than it looks. First, most RSU grants have a one year cliff. You receive nothing for the first twelve months, then 25% vests at month twelve, then the remainder vests quarterly or annually after that. If you leave before the cliff, you walk away with zero equity regardless of how long you worked there.

Second, RSUs are taxed as ordinary income when they vest, not when you receive the grant. So the $50,000 that vests in year one is taxed at your marginal income tax rate. The actual cash value you receive is meaningfully lower than the headline number.

How to calculate your RSU value step by step

Start with these four numbers from your offer letter. The total RSU grant value, the vesting period in years, your estimated federal tax rate, and your state income tax rate.

Step 1: Calculate the annual vesting value

Divide the total grant by the vesting period. A $200,000 grant over four years vests at $50,000 per year. If the grant uses a cliff plus quarterly vesting, year one still counts as $50,000 total but none of it arrives until month twelve.

Step 2: Apply the tax rate

RSUs are taxed as ordinary income. If your combined federal and state marginal rate is 35%, the $50,000 that vests becomes approximately $32,500 after tax. Over four years the $200,000 grant becomes roughly $130,000 in real after-tax value at a flat stock price.

Step 3: Model the stock price scenarios

The stock price at vesting is what actually determines your real gain. If the company stock rises 40% over four years, your $200,000 grant is worth $280,000 before tax. If it drops 30%, the same grant is worth $140,000. Never evaluate RSU value at today's price alone.

Public company RSUs vs startup stock options

Public company RSUs have a known price. You can calculate their value today because the stock trades on an exchange. Startup equity is a completely different animal. Stock options at a pre-IPO company have a strike price, a preferred share stack, and genuine liquidity uncertainty. You cannot calculate their real value without knowing the company's current 409A valuation, the liquidation preferences, and a realistic exit scenario.

As a general rule, treat startup equity as a potential upside, not a guaranteed component of your compensation. Model your decision on the cash compensation alone and treat the options as a lottery ticket with a real but uncertain value.

The one-year cliff is the most important number in your offer

Before you accept any offer with RSUs, calculate your break-even point on the cliff. If you leave at month eleven, you receive zero equity. If you receive a better offer at month ten, your decision is not just about the new salary. You are also leaving behind 100% of your RSU grant to date.

The cliff calculation is simple. Divide your total RSU grant by 12 to get the monthly accrual rate. Multiply by the number of months until your cliff. That is the amount you are leaving on the table if you leave before it hits.

A $200,000 grant accrues at roughly $16,667 per month of employment. At month ten, leaving means walking away from approximately $166,700 in unvested equity. That number needs to factor into any counter offer or competing offer decision.

How to compare RSUs across two job offers

When you have two offers with different RSU grants, different base salaries, and potentially different cities, the comparison is genuinely complex. The offer with the larger RSU grant is not automatically better. It depends on the vesting schedule, the stock price scenarios, the salary difference, and the cost of living in each location.

The only reliable way to compare them is to calculate the 4-year total compensation for each offer using the same assumptions. Add the base salary times four, the expected bonus times four, the full RSU grant, the signing bonus, and the 401k match times four. Then adjust for cost of living if the cities are different.

That number, calculated the same way for both offers, gives you a real comparison. Everything else is noise.