Ramen Profitability Calculator
Enter your living costs, your savings and your SaaS numbers. The calculator finds the MRR that pays your costs after payment fees, tools and tax. It then projects your MRR and shows the earliest month you can quit your job with a 6-month buffer. Everything runs in your browser. Your numbers leave it only if you ask for the emailed plan. We do not store them.
Your numbers
Enter every amount in the same currency. The math works the same in dollars, pounds or euros.
Your ramen MRR
$3,625
121 paying customers at $30 a month
Your MRR is 41% of the target. You have 50 customers today.
- Ramen profitable
- In 12 months (October 2027)
- Runway if you quit today
- 5+ years
- Safe quit date
- December 2026
You can quit in December 2026. From then, your savings cover the remaining gap of $8,486 and a 6-month buffer of $16,200. You need $27,900 in savings to quit today.
How the target adds up
- Living costs
- $2,700
- Tax and contributions (19%)
- $633
- Tools and hosting
- $150
- Payment fees
- $141
- Ramen MRR
- $3,625
MRR against the ramen line
The line shows your projected MRR. The dashed line is the MRR you need.
Month by month
This table assumes you quit today. Each month, your savings change by the gap between your take-home pay and your living costs.
| Month | MRR | Customers | Take-home | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | $1,500 | $1,046 | $23,346 | |
| Nov 2026 | $1,620 | $1,140 | $21,786 | |
| Dec 2026Quit | $1,750 | $1,240 | $20,326 | |
| Jan 2027 | $1,890 | $1,349 | $18,975 | |
| Feb 2027 | $2,041 | $1,467 | $17,742 | |
| Mar 2027 | $2,204 | $1,594 | $16,637 | |
| Apr 2027 | $2,380 | $1,731 | $15,668 | |
| May 2027 | $2,571 | $1,880 | $14,847 | |
| Jun 2027 | $2,776 | $2,040 | $14,187 | |
| Jul 2027 | $2,999 | $2,213 | $13,700 | |
| Aug 2027 | $3,238 | $2,399 | $13,399 | |
| Sep 2027 | $3,497 | $2,601 | $13,300 | |
| Oct 2027Target | $3,777 | $2,819 | $13,419 | |
| Nov 2027 | $4,079 | $3,054 | $13,773 | |
| Dec 2027 | $4,406 | $3,308 | $14,381 | |
| Jan 2028 | $4,758 | $3,582 | $15,263 |
Email me my quit plan
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Apply to Founder VenturesWhat does ramen profitable mean?
"Ramen profitable means a startup makes just enough to pay the founders' living expenses."
Paul Graham made the term popular in a 2008 essay. The business only needs to pay rent, food and other basic costs for the founders. Market salaries and investor returns can come later.
Graham writes that the main importance of ramen profitability is that it buys you time. You no longer depend on the next funding round to survive. For a founder with a day job, it is the point where the side project can replace the salary.
A quick check compares MRR with rent. That check leaves out real costs. Stripe takes a cut of every payment. Hosting and tools cost money each month. Tax and social contributions come off the profit that is left. This calculator adds all of these, so the target is the MRR you actually need.
How the calculator works
The calculator starts from your monthly living costs. It divides them by one minus your tax rate. The result is the profit you need before tax and contributions.
It then adds your tools and hosting. It divides that sum by the share of each payment you keep after fees. With Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 and a $30 ARPU, you keep 96.1% of each payment.
Ramen MRR formula
Ramen MRR = (costs ÷ (1 - tax rate) + tools) ÷ (1 - fee % - fixed fee ÷ ARPU)
The projection adds your growth rate to MRR each month and takes off your churn. Customers are MRR divided by ARPU. The projection runs for 5 years.
Runway assumes you quit today. Each month, your savings pay the gap between take-home pay and living costs. When take-home pay passes your costs, the surplus goes back into savings.
The safe quit date is the earliest month where your savings cover the remaining gap until MRR reaches the target, plus 6 months of living costs as a buffer. Until you quit, the calculator assumes your salary pays your costs and your savings stay flat.
Tax presets
Each preset is an effective rate for a single person whose only income is 45,000 a year of business profit, in local currency. Tax rates rise with income in all four countries. Edit the rates if your profit or your situation is different.
- US (2026): self-employment tax is 15.3% on 92.35% of profit, which is 14.1%. Federal income tax after the $16,100 standard deduction, half the self-employment tax and the 20% qualified business income deduction is about 4.9%. State tax is extra. Your health insurance premium goes in the insurance line.
- UK (2026/27): income tax is 20% on profit above the £12,570 Personal Allowance, which is 14.4% of all profit. Class 4 National Insurance is 6% on the same band, which is 4.3%. The NHS needs no extra contribution.
- Germany (2026): voluntary public health insurance costs 14.6% plus an average additional rate of 2.9%. Long-term care insurance adds 3.6%, so contributions total 21.1%. Income tax on the 2026 tariff, after you deduct those contributions, is about 13.1%. People over 23 with no children pay 0.6 points more for care.
- Portugal (2026): under the simplified regime, IRS applies to 75% of service income. The 2026 brackets then give about 16.8%. Social security is 21.4% on 70% of income, which is 15.0%. New self-employed workers pay no social security for their first 12 months.
Limits
The model uses flat tax rates. Real tax rises with income, so a high target pays a higher rate than the preset. The model counts one payment per customer per month, so annual plans pay less in fixed fees. Growth and churn stay constant in the projection, but real months go up and down. Check the plan with an accountant before you resign.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does ramen profitable mean?
Paul Graham defined the term in a 2008 essay. A ramen profitable startup makes just enough to pay the founders' living expenses. Graham writes that its main importance is that it buys you time. You can keep building without the next funding round or a salary from someone else.
How much MRR do I need to quit my job?
You need enough MRR to cover your living costs after payment fees, tools and tax. Divide your monthly costs by one minus your tax rate. Add your tools and hosting. Then divide by the share of each payment you keep after fees. With $2,700 of monthly costs, a 19% tax rate, $150 of tools, a $30 ARPU and Stripe fees, the target is about $3,625 MRR.
How many customers do I need to be ramen profitable?
Divide your ramen MRR by your ARPU and round up. The $3,625 target in the last answer needs 121 customers at $30 a month. At $100 a month, the same costs need 36 customers. A higher price also cuts the fixed fee per dollar, so the target itself falls a little.
How much savings do I need before I quit my job for my startup?
You need enough for the gap plus a buffer. The gap is the total shortfall between your take-home pay and your living costs until MRR reaches the target. The calculator adds 6 months of living costs on top. Personal finance guides often suggest 3 to 6 months of expenses as an emergency fund. Founder income moves more than a salary, so the calculator uses 6.
Should I quit my job before I am ramen profitable?
You can, if your savings cover the gap and a buffer. The safe quit date shows the earliest month where that is true. Quitting early gives you more hours each week to build. Each month you wait, the gap you must fund gets smaller.
Why does the calculator include tax and payment fees?
Tax and fees decide how much of your MRR reaches you. Stripe takes 2.9% + $0.30 of each US card payment. A self-employed founder in the US pays 15.3% self-employment tax on most of their profit. With the default inputs, fees and tax take about a fifth of the target MRR. A target that leaves them out falls short every month.
Are the tax presets right for my country?
The presets are starting points. Each one is the effective rate for a single person with 45,000 a year of business profit and no other income. Your real rate depends on your income, your family and your business structure. The method section shows how each preset is built. Edit both rates to match your own tax return.
Sources
- Paul Graham, Ramen Profitable (July 2008)
- Stripe, Pricing and fees
- IRS, Self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare taxes)
- IRS, Revenue Procedure 2025-32 (2026 tax brackets and standard deduction)
- IRS, Qualified business income deduction
- GOV.UK, Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances
- GOV.UK, Self-employed National Insurance rates
- Gesetze im Internet, § 32a EStG (income tax tariff)
- Haufe, Sozialversicherung: die Beitragssätze für 2026
- Portal das Finanças, Código do IRS, artigo 68.º (taxas gerais)
- Segurança Social, Trabalhadores independentes