🚪Leaving

When you leave a company, your unvested options stop vesting that day. Your vested options usually have a fixed window after termination during which you can still exercise them. After that window, they expire and the shares are gone.

Two pieces. First, the strike price times your vested shares. That's the cash you owe the company for the shares. Second, depending on grant type, tax. NSOs trigger ordinary income tax on the spread at exercise. ISOs trigger AMT exposure (which may or may not produce an actual tax bill, but counts toward your tax picture).

Use the post-termination calculator in the Exercise tab to see your number with your specific grant and current FMV.

If your company allowed early exercise and you took it, the unvested shares you bought get repurchased by the company at your original strike price when you leave. You don't get the tax you paid back. The 83(b) election locked in your tax basis at today's FMV when you exercised; the company's repurchase right unwinds that for the unvested portion only.

Most plans use cliff vesting. If you leave before your one-year cliff, you typically get nothing. After the cliff, your vested portion is yours; everything past your last day stops accruing.

Some plans have acceleration provisions on a change of control or termination without cause. Those are negotiated up front and live in your offer paperwork. Read it.