Map out an RSU vesting schedule with cliff and recurring vests.
Total grant value (current price)
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Vesting events (first 8)
| Month | Shares | Value |
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Your breakdown
Updates live as you type| Milestone | Shares | Value at $150 |
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What a four-year schedule really looks like
Most tech and fintech grants follow the same shape. You receive a fixed number of restricted stock units when you join, nothing vests for the first twelve months, then the shares release on a schedule until the grant is fully yours after four years. The twelve-month wall is the cliff. Cross it and a chunk vests all at once, usually a quarter of the grant. After that the remaining shares trickle in monthly or quarterly. This visualizer assumes that standard structure and lets you change the cliff length, the total vesting period, and the post-cliff cadence to match the specific terms in your grant document.
One thing the tool does not do is forecast a moving share price. Every vesting event is valued at the price you enter today, so the projected dollars are a snapshot, not a prediction. That is deliberate. Nobody can tell you what your employer's stock will be worth in three years, and a tool that pretends otherwise would mislead more than it helps.
Reading your grant: 2,000 shares valued today
Take the defaults: a 2,000-share grant, a current price of $150, a four-year vest, a twelve-month cliff, and monthly vesting after that. The full grant is worth $300,000 at today's price. At month twelve the cliff releases a quarter of the shares, which is 500 units worth $75,000 in one event. The remaining 1,500 shares are spread across the 36 months that follow, so each monthly event releases about 42 shares worth roughly $6,300. Notice that 500 plus 36 times 42 comes to 2,012, not exactly 2,000. That is the rounding the calculator applies to each event so it can show whole shares; your real grant will true up to the exact count.
The cliff is the part people underestimate
The chart below shows cumulative vested value climbing from zero. Nothing accrues for a year, then the line jumps to $75,000 at the cliff, then it steps upward smoothly. If you leave before month twelve you walk away with nothing, which is exactly why the cliff exists. It buys the employer a year of your tenure before any equity is yours to keep.
Double-trigger RSUs and what they mean for you
If you work at a private company, your grant may carry a double-trigger condition. The first trigger is the time-based vesting this tool maps. The second is a liquidity event, typically an IPO or acquisition. Shares only become taxable income once both triggers fire, which is why employees at a late-stage startup can be fully time-vested on paper yet hold units they cannot sell or owe tax on. Read the grant agreement carefully for that clause, because it changes when the value in this calculator actually lands in your hands.
A practical tip: as each tranche vests at a public company, the shares are taxed as ordinary income at fair market value on the vesting date, and your employer usually sells a portion to cover withholding. Default withholding is often 22 percent, well below the marginal rate of a high earner, so set aside extra or you will owe at filing. The clock for long-term capital gains starts at vesting, not at grant, so holding a tranche for more than a year after it vests is what unlocks the lower long-term rate on any further appreciation.
Do RSUs expire if I do not sell them?
No. Once a tranche vests and the shares are delivered, they are ordinary stock you own outright with no expiration. That differs from stock options, which carry an expiration date and a strike price. Unvested RSUs, however, are forfeited the day you leave, so timing a departure around an upcoming vest date can be worth real money.
What happens to unvested shares if I change jobs?
Unvested RSUs almost always disappear when you resign. A few firms accelerate vesting on acquisition or for senior hires, and some negotiate a signing grant at the new employer to offset what you are forfeiting. Run both grants through this tool side by side before you decide; the unvested value you are leaving is often larger than the cash signing bonus that replaces it.