Free Float Calculator

How to use this free float calculator

What this calculator does

This calculator estimates a company's share-count free float: the number of outstanding shares left after you subtract restricted shares and closely held shares. It also expresses that amount as a percentage of outstanding shares. This is useful for understanding the portion of a company's share base that is treated as available for public trading under this simple three-part model. It does not determine whether a stock is liquid enough for a particular trade, predict volatility, value the company, or apply every index provider's detailed investability rules. Index methodologies can use more granular ownership classifications and foreign-investor limits; for example, MSCI's free-float research and methodology overview defines free float in the context of shares deemed available to public-market investors.

When to use it

Use the calculator when you are reconciling a cap table or annual-report share count, comparing the tradable portion of two listed companies, checking the arithmetic behind a stated float percentage, or building a simple screening model that needs both free-float shares and free-float percentage. For U.S. issuers, company filings are a natural place to verify share counts; the SEC's investor education site explains how to research company filings in EDGAR.

How to calculate

1. The calculator opens with a complete demonstration set: 10,000 outstanding shares, 2,000 restricted shares, and 1,000 closely held shares. The matching Excel workbook is immediately available.
2. Replace Outstanding shares with the total issued and outstanding share count you want to analyze. Then enter the portions classified as Restricted shares and Closely held shares.
3. Read Free float for the remaining share count and Free float percentage for that remainder as a share of the outstanding total. The composition chart and breakdown table are generated from the same current model.
4. Select Download Excel to export the current validated inputs and results to a real .xlsx workbook. Select Reset to clear the demonstration and all entered share data; after Reset, Excel export stays disabled until a complete valid set is entered again.

Input guide

Outstanding shares is required and must be a positive whole number of shares. Plain digits or correctly grouped thousands such as 10,000 are accepted; decimal shares, scientific notation, currency symbols, percentages, and ambiguous forms such as 1,5 are rejected. A realistic example is 10,000. Increasing outstanding shares while the excluded categories stay fixed increases free float shares and usually increases the free-float percentage. Do not confuse outstanding shares with authorized shares or a dollar market-cap figure. The SEC's small-business glossary distinguishes issued and outstanding shares and regulatory public float.

Restricted shares is required and must be a whole number at or above zero. Use 2,000, for example, if that many outstanding shares are non-transferable or otherwise classified as restricted for this calculation. Increasing restricted shares reduces free float one-for-one. A common mistake is entering a percentage instead of a share count.

Closely held shares is required and must also be a whole number at or above zero. A sample value is 1,000. Increasing it reduces free float one-for-one. Use a classification that is mutually exclusive from your restricted-share count; otherwise the same shares could be subtracted twice. Restricted plus closely held shares cannot exceed outstanding shares.

Output guide

Free float is an exact arithmetic remainder in shares for the entered classification: outstanding minus restricted minus closely held. A result of zero means every outstanding share has been placed in one of the two excluded categories. Negative free float is blocked as an invalid state rather than displayed. A higher value means more shares remain in the free-float bucket, but the number alone does not prove high trading liquidity.

Free float percentage is the same remainder divided by outstanding shares and formatted as a percentage. It ranges from 0.00% to 100.00% for valid inputs. The Share breakdown table shows Free float, Restricted shares, and Closely held shares as both counts and percentages of outstanding shares. The Outstanding share composition chart visualizes those same three mutually exclusive parts when at least two positive categories exist; its geometry adds no extra assumptions.

Worked example

With the startup values, free float is 10,000 – 2,000 – 1,000 = 7,000 shares. The percentage is 7,000 ÷ 10,000 × 100 = 70.00%. The table therefore allocates 70.00% to free float, 20.00% to restricted shares, and 10.00% to closely held shares, which reconciles to 100.00% of the 10,000 outstanding shares. Those same typed values are used by the downloadable workbook.

Learn more

Be careful with terminology across contexts. This calculator works with a count of free-float shares, while the SEC uses public float in some reporting rules as a dollar value based on common equity held by non-affiliates and a market price. Likewise, index providers may apply investability or ownership adjustments beyond this basic subtraction. Use the calculator as a transparent arithmetic layer, then apply the definitions required by the filing, exchange, index methodology, or research task you are actually performing.