Free Cash Flow (FCF) Calculator
Calculate free cash flow from operating cash flow minus capital expenditures, plus FCF yield against market cap. Educational. Runs in your browser.
From the cash-flow statement.
CapEx — spending on property/equipment.
For the FCF yield.
Free cash flow = operating cash flow − capital expenditures. It is the cash a business generates after paying to maintain and grow its asset base — money genuinely available to pay down debt, return to shareholders, or reinvest. Unlike earnings, FCF is harder to massage with accounting choices, which is why investors prize it. FCF yield (FCF ÷ market capitalization) is the cash-flow analogue of an earnings yield: higher can mean better value. Educational; everything runs in your browser.
About this tool
Free cash flow (FCF) is the cash a business has left over after paying for the investments needed to maintain and grow its operations — the truest measure of the cash it can actually hand to investors, use to pay down debt, or reinvest at its discretion. The standard calculation is straightforward: operating cash flow (the cash generated by the core business, taken from the cash-flow statement) minus capital expenditures (CapEx, the money spent on property, plant, and equipment). What makes FCF so valued by analysts is that it is harder to manipulate than reported earnings: net income is shaped by non-cash items and accounting judgment, whereas cash either moved or it did not. A company can post healthy profits yet generate little or negative free cash flow if it is plowing money into capital investment or struggling to collect from customers — and the reverse can also be true. Positive and growing FCF gives a business options: dividends, buybacks, debt reduction, acquisitions. Negative FCF is not automatically bad — fast-growing or highly capital-intensive companies often run negative for years while building out — but it means the company depends on outside financing in the meantime. FCF yield (free cash flow divided by market capitalization) restates FCF as a return on the company's market value, making it the cash-flow counterpart of an earnings yield and a quick relative-value gauge. This is educational, not investment advice. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
How to use it
- Enter operating cash flow from the cash-flow statement.
- Enter capital expenditures (CapEx) — investment in property and equipment.
- Enter market capitalization to compute FCF yield.
- Read free cash flow and the FCF yield.
Frequently asked questions
- How is free cash flow calculated?
- The common formula is FCF = operating cash flow − capital expenditures. For $500,000 operating cash flow and $150,000 CapEx, free cash flow is $350,000 — the cash left after maintaining and growing the asset base.
- Why is FCF considered more reliable than earnings?
- Net income includes non-cash items (like depreciation) and is shaped by accounting choices. Free cash flow tracks actual cash movement, so it is harder to manage and gives a clearer view of the cash a business truly generates.
- What is FCF yield?
- FCF yield = free cash flow ÷ market capitalization × 100. It expresses free cash flow as a percentage of the company's market value, serving as a cash-flow version of earnings yield for relative-value comparison.
- Is negative free cash flow bad?
- Not necessarily. Fast-growing or capital-intensive companies often run negative FCF while investing heavily. It becomes a concern when it persists without a clear path to turning positive, since the company must rely on outside financing.
- What is the difference between FCF and operating cash flow?
- Operating cash flow is the cash from core operations before investment. Free cash flow subtracts capital expenditures, leaving the cash actually available to investors and creditors after necessary reinvestment.
- Is anything uploaded?
- No. All calculations run entirely in your browser.