What 9,042 New-Hire Grants across 2,438 startups represented in Equitybee's dataset reveal about Grant Size, exercise cost, seniority, company stage, function, industry, geography, and time.
Published August 2026 · Current-market data: January 2022 through June 2026 · Historical data: January 2016 through June 2026
The median recent New-Hire Grant in Equitybee's dataset represented $56,829 in grant-date Fair Market Value of the underlying common shares.
This report compares Grant Size by employee level, company stage, function, industry, geography, valuation, and year. It analyzes 9,042 New-Hire Grants across 2,438 startups observed through Equitybee. Unless otherwise noted, current-market findings cover January 2022 through June 2026. See the methodology for definitions and limitations.
In this report, Grant Size is the aggregate fair market value of the underlying common shares when the grant was made: option count multiplied by grant-date fair market value per share. For most U.S. startup option grants, that per-share value is also the exercise price, so the same calculation shows the pre-tax cash required to exercise the full grant.It is not ownership percentage, company valuation, or an estimate of future gains. Read More...
Does a larger Grant Size mean a better exit outcome?
No. A later-stage employee may receive fewer options at a higher fair market value and therefore have a larger Grant Size, yet own fewer shares and receive less in a future exit. In this report, we use Grant Size as a benchmark for comparing grants when they were made, not a prediction of proceeds. See a simplified example >
The middle half of grants ranged from $21,980 to $156,308.One quarter of grants were below $21,980, while one quarter exceeded $156,308. The wide range shows why the overall median is a starting point: the most useful comparison also considers employee level, function, company stage, location, and grant year.
4,210 New-Hire Grants across 1,491 companies, January 2022 through June 2026.
Among recent New-Hire Grants, 54% required at least $50,000 in pre-tax cash to exercise in full. Seventeen percent required at least $250,000, nearly twice the median annual salary advertised in U.S. startup job postings. These figures exclude taxes and transaction costs, which can increase the total cash required.Carta reported that more than 70% of vested options went unexercised when employees left their companies in 2025. High exercise costs may be one factor, alongside taxes, company risk, and uncertain liquidity.
Salary source: Startup Jobs, August 2026. Exercise-rate source: Carta, September 2025.
4,210 New-Hire Grants, January 2022 through June 2026. Thresholds are cumulative and represent the pre-tax cash required to exercise the full grant; taxes and transaction costs are excluded.
Exercise planning
Employees should calculate the exercise cost, potential taxes, and decision deadline before leaving a company. Planning early creates more time to compare personal funds, company liquidity programs, exercise-window extensions, and third-party funding based on eligibility, costs, terms, and risks.
The observed median Grant Size rose from $12,074 in 2016 to $59,618 in 2025 and $66,960 in H1 2026.After adjusting for seniority, company stage, function, and industry, Grant Size reached 3.21× its 2016 level in 2025 and 3.33× in H1 2026.
H1 2026 is provisional. The period is incomplete and the newest grants may be less fully represented.
| Year | Median Grant Size | Adjusted index |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | $12,074 | 1.00× |
| 2017 | $13K | 1.07× |
| 2018 | $15K | 1.14× |
| 2019 | $18K | 1.25× |
| 2020 | $26K | 1.66× |
| 2021 | $48K | 2.58× |
| 2022 | $58K | 2.95× |
| 2023 | $52K | 2.69× |
| 2024 | $59K | 3.06× |
| 2025 | $59,618 | 3.21× |
| H1 2026 | $66,960 | 3.33× |
New-Hire Grants dated January 2016 through June 2026. Adjusted index controls for seniority, company stage, function, and industry.
H1 2026 is provisional. The period is incomplete, and the newest grants may be less fully represented.
Why Grant Size has increased
Venture-backed companies are staying private longer and often reaching larger valuations before going public. As more growth occurs while a company is still private, its common-share FMV can rise before new employees receive their options. A higher grant-date FMV increases both Grant Size and the cash required to exercise, even when the number of options does not increase.
Median Grant Size ranged from $24,000 for individual contributors to $346,580 for VP and C-suite employees, a 14.4 times difference.Across company stages, it ranged from $33,442 at Seed and Series A companies to $75,000 at Series D and later companies, a 2.2 times difference.
Raw medians for New-Hire Grants dated January 2022 through June 2026.
After adjusting for function, industry, and grant year, VP and C-suite Grant Size was 11.6 times IC Grant Size at Seed and Series A companies, rising to 16.8 times at Series D and later companies.
Whiskers show 95% confidence intervals. The intervals overlap between adjacent stages; the trend across stages is what the model tests.
| Company stage | Adjusted ratio | 95% CI |
|---|---|---|
| Seed / Series A | 11.6× | 8.6–15.7× |
| Series B | 13.3× | 10.0–18.0× |
| Series C | 16.0× | 11.0–24.0× |
| Series D+ | 16.8× | 13.5–20.5× |
4,009 New-Hire Grants, January 2022 through June 2026. Adjusted for function, industry, and grant year; lines show 95% confidence intervals.
Career progression
Seniority was the strongest visible divider in this analysis. Employees taking on broader responsibility should ask whether promotions come with new equity, how refresh grants are determined, and whether the company updates equity when an employee moves into a new level.
After adjusting for seniority, company stage, geography, grant year, and company-specific grant practices, Product and Engineering grants were roughly twice the size of Sales grants.
Higher than Sales — the 95% interval excludes 1×
No difference established — the interval includes 1×
Sales is the reference category, fixed at 1.00×
| Function | Adjusted ratio | 95% CI | Includes 1× |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product | 2.08× | 1.82–2.42× | No |
| Engineering | 1.99× | 1.76–2.27× | No |
| Finance | 1.61× | 1.31–1.98× | No |
| Marketing | 1.17× | 1.00–1.40× | Yes |
| Other | 1.14× | 0.99–1.35× | Yes |
| Sales | 1.00× | reference | — |
| Operations | 0.98× | 0.88–1.11× | Yes |
3,239 New-Hire Grants, January 2022 through June 2026. Adjusted for seniority, company stage, geography, grant year, and company-specific grant practices; lines show 95% confidence intervals.
The clearest function-level differences were in Product, Engineering, and Finance, whose adjusted Grant Sizes were higher than Sales. Marketing, Other, and Operations were closer to Sales; their estimated ranges included no difference.
The median Grant Size for AI and Data companies was $70,328. After accounting for observed differences in seniority, company stage, function, geography, and grant year, AI and Data New-Hire Grants carried an estimated 27% premium over other industries.
Raw median Grant Size by selected industry. The AI and Data analysis covers 648 New-Hire Grants dated January 2022 through June 2026; the adjusted premium was estimated at 3% to 56%.
Compensation strategy
Companies may use equity differently when competing for specialized talent. The Product, Engineering, and AI/Data premiums do not mean every employee in those groups receives more, but they are a reason to ask how the company balances salary and equity for a specific role.
Grant Size rose with company valuation, but valuation was only part of the story
A tenfold increase in company valuation was associated with Grant Size that was 2.5 times as large. Valuation explained part of the difference between companies, but not all of it. The comparable-hire analysis below examines how much variation remained among employees who looked similar in the data.
| Company valuation | Modeled Grant Size |
|---|---|
| 1× (baseline) | 1.0× |
| 2× | 1.3× |
| 5× | 1.9× |
| 10× | 2.5× (range 1.9–3.4×) |
247 New-Hire Grants across 149 companies with matched valuation data. The estimated tenfold multiplier ranged from 1.9 to 3.4 times; treat the relationship as directional.
Understanding valuation
A funding-round valuation is not the same as common-share FMV
In a priced funding round, investors usually buy preferred shares with rights and protections that common shares do not have. Grant Size uses the 409A fair market value of common stock, which generally sets the option strike price. A higher company valuation can increase common-share FMV and Grant Size, but the headline company valuation does not directly determine the per-share value used to calculate an employee's Grant Size.
Across comparable pairs matched on company, function, seniority, and a 12-month grant window, the larger Grant Size was typically 1.7 times the smaller. In 41% of pairs, the difference exceeded two times.
218 comparable-hire pairs matched on company, function, seniority, and a 12-month grant window.
Exact job scope, experience, location, competing offers, and negotiation may also matter. The data cannot determine why individual grants differed.
Comparable hires and negotiation
Among comparable-hire pairs, 41% differed by more than 2×, showing that similar employees can receive materially different grants. Candidates should ask for the grant range, where the offer sits within it, and what parts of the equity package can change. Being informed does not guarantee a larger grant, but it can help candidates negotiate from a clearer position.
GEOGRAPHY
After accounting for employee level, function, company stage, industry, and grant year, New-Hire Grant Size was estimated to be 53% larger at Bay Area-headquartered startups and 25% larger at New York-headquartered startups than at companies in other observed locations. Los Angeles-headquartered startups showed a 26% smaller adjusted Grant Size.
Differs from other locations — the 95% interval excludes 0%
No difference established — the interval includes 0%
0% is startups headquartered in other observed locations, not a national average.
| Headquarters | Difference | 95% CI | Includes 0% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bay Area | +53% | +28% to +83% | No |
| New York | +25% | +2% to +53% | No |
| Boston | +13% | −18% to +60% | Yes |
| Austin | +9% | −22% to +57% | Yes |
| Los Angeles | −26% | −45% to −3% | No |
3,816 New-Hire Grants across 1,339 companies, compared with other observed headquarters locations. Adjusted for employee level, function, company stage, industry, and grant year; lines show 95% confidence intervals.
Across the five hubs shown, Carta's H1 2025 startup salary index ranged from 87 to 100 relative to San Francisco, while Equitybee's median Grant Size index ranged from 36 to 100 relative to the Bay Area.
Location-based compensation
Some startups adjust compensation by location, while others use national bands
Location-based compensation can reflect local labor costs, competition for talent, hiring budgets, and a company's approach to consistency across distributed teams. Employees should ask which policy applies to salary, initial equity, and refresh grants, and whether that policy changes after a move.
Methodology: Salary indexes come from Carta's State of Startup Compensation: H1 2025 and are included as market context rather than a matched comparison. See the Methodology for full sample and model details.
Build your own comparison
The Benchmark provides market context and is not compensation, investment, legal, or tax advice.
Employee checklist
1
Ask for the exact number of options in the grant. This is the starting point for calculating your ownership percentage and total exercise cost.
2
Request the fully diluted share count used for the calculation and the date it was measured.
3
Confirm whether the grant consists of incentive stock options (ISOs) or non-qualified stock options (NSOs), because their exercise and tax treatment can differ.
4
Calculate what it would cost to exercise all vested options before considering taxes.
5
Understand the cliff, vesting cadence, expiration date, and how long you have to act after leaving.
6
Ask which level, function, location, and company-stage peers informed the offer.
7
Ask about dilution, refresh grants, liquidity programs, and the company's history of tender offers or secondary sales.
Methodology
The analysis covers 9,042 New-Hire Grants across 2,438 startups observed through Equitybee's platform.
Current-market and historical views
Most cross-sectional findings use 4,210 grants at 1,491 companies dated January 2022 through June 2026. That window better reflects the market employees encounter today. The historical trend analysis uses grants dated January 2016 through June 2026 to show change over time.
Grant Size and grant-date fair market value
Grant Size represents the aggregate fair market value of the underlying common shares when the grant was made, calculated as option count multiplied by grant-date fair market value per share. The vesting start date is used as a proxy for the grant date. For most option grants in the dataset, fair market value at grant equals the exercise price, so this amount also equals the pre-tax cash required to exercise the full grant at its original exercise price.Under U.S. tax rules, private companies must establish a reasonable fair market value for their common stock when setting the exercise price of employee stock options. Startups commonly obtain a 409A appraisal from an independent third-party valuation firm. An appraisal is updated at least every 12 months and sooner when new information or a material event could affect the value of the company's common stock.
409A valuation description: Treasury Regulation §1.409A-1(b)(5)(iv)(B).
Statistical analysis
Medians and percentiles describe the raw data. Grant Size is highly skewed by a small number of very large grants, so the median is less sensitive to extremes and better represents a typical observation. Adjusted estimates use regression models to compare grants while holding observed employee and company characteristics constant; they are estimates rather than exact market rules.The VP/C-suite-to-IC stage comparison used 4,009 grants. A focused test estimated a 15% increase in the relative gap per stage step, with a 95% confidence interval from 2% to 30%. The AI and Data analysis used 648 grants; its estimated 27% premium had a 95% confidence interval from 3% to 56%. These intervals describe uncertainty around the estimates.
The geography benchmark groups grants by company headquarters and shows hubs with at least 90 grants across at least 30 companies. The adjusted model controls for employee level, function, company stage, industry, and grant year, with standard errors clustered by company. Observed hub samples were Bay Area 1,744 grants, Boston 167, New York 658, Austin 118, and Los Angeles 125. Salary comparisons use Carta's H1 2025 rates by employee metro area and provide market context rather than a matched analysis of the same employees. Adjusted geographic differences are associations, not estimates of location's causal effect.
Comparable-hire analysis
We limited this analysis to groups containing exactly two grants from the same company, seniority level, and function when the observed grant dates spanned no more than 12 months. We then compared the larger and smaller Grant Size in each pair. The analysis aligns several major factors, but it does not match exact job title, sublevel, experience, or location.
Limitations
- The data reflects employees who engaged with Equitybee and is not a random sample or census of the startup market. It may overrepresent employees with substantial exercise costs or employees exploring financing.
- Grant Size represents the grant-date fair market value of the underlying common shares. It does not measure the fair value of the option rights, ownership percentage, company valuation, or expected return.
- Later-stage and higher-valuation companies are more heavily represented than they may be in the broader startup population.
- Grant records were verified through Equitybee's platform, but the dataset and report analysis have not been independently audited.
- Some company and financing variables are unavailable or measured with error.
- Observed associations do not establish causation.
- Small cohorts and the incomplete 2026 period require additional caution.
In this report, Grant Size is the aggregate grant-date fair market value of the common shares underlying a stock option grant: option count multiplied by fair market value per share. For most grants in the dataset, grant-date fair market value equals the exercise price, so the same calculation also shows the pre-tax cash required to exercise the full grant. Grant Size is not ownership percentage, company valuation, future value, or expected proceeds.
Among recent New-Hire Grants in Equitybee's dataset, the median Grant Size was $56,829. The middle 50% ranged from $21,980 to $156,308. These figures cover 4,210 grants across 1,491 companies and describe Grant Size when the grant was made, not its future value.
Seniority produced the larger visible difference: the raw median rose from $24,000 for individual contributors to $346,580 for VP and C-suite employees, a 14.4× gap. Across company stages, the raw median rose from $33,442 at Seed and Series A companies to $75,000 at Series D and later companies, a 2.2× gap. After adjusting for function, industry, and grant year, the VP/C-suite-to-IC gap increased from 11.6× at Seed and Series A to 16.8× at Series D and later.
After adjusting for seniority, company stage, geography, grant year, and company-specific grant practices, Product grants were 2.08× and Engineering grants 1.99× the size of Sales grants. AI and Data companies also carried an estimated 27% adjusted Grant Size premium over other industries. These are patterns observed in the dataset, not rules for individual offers.
Yes, in this dataset. After accounting for employee level, function, company stage, industry, and grant year, Bay Area-headquartered startups had an estimated 53% Grant Size premium relative to companies in other observed locations. The result is an association and does not establish that headquarters location caused the difference.
Yes. The observed median Grant Size increased from $12,074 in 2016 to $59,618 in 2025 and $66,960 in H1 2026. After adjusting for shifts in seniority, company stage, function, and industry, Grant Size reached 3.21× its 2016 level in 2025 and 3.33× in H1 2026. H1 2026 is provisional because the period is incomplete and the newest grants may be less fully represented.
No. In a simplified example, 100,000 options at a $0.10 exercise price create a $10,000 Grant Size, while 20,000 options at $1.00 create a $20,000 Grant Size. If both employees could sell fully vested shares at $2 each, the first grant would have a $190,000 gross pre-tax spread and the second a $20,000 spread, before dilution, liquidation preferences, taxes, transaction costs, and other terms. Grant Size is a point-in-time benchmark, not a prediction of exit proceeds.
Among recent New-Hire Grants, 54% required at least $50,000 in pre-tax cash to exercise in full, and 17% required at least $250,000. These figures exclude taxes and transaction costs, which can increase the total cash required. Exercise cost depends on the number of vested options exercised, the strike price, taxes, and applicable fees.
Start with the closest available cohort for your seniority, company stage, function, industry, geography, and grant year. Then compare the option count, fully diluted ownership percentage, strike price, vesting schedule, post-termination exercise window, option type, and total exercise cost. The benchmark provides context but cannot determine whether a particular offer is appropriate or predict its outcome.
About Equitybee
Source: Equitybee platform data. Eligibility and funding are not guaranteed.