Big Tech RSU Vesting Schedules Compared (2026)

Two offers, both “$400K in RSUs over 4 years.” One pays you $132K of equity in Year 1. The other pays $20K.

That is not an edge case. It is literally Google versus Amazon, and it is why comparing 4-year equity totals without the vesting schedule is the single most common mistake engineers make when weighing big tech offers.

Here is every major schedule side by side, based on what we have seen across 1,200+ negotiations, followed by what each one means for how you negotiate.

The comparison table

Company	Schedule (Y1/Y2/Y3/Y4)	Cadence	Cliff	The catch
Google	33% / 33% / 22% / 12%	Monthly	None	Front-loaded: income drops in Y3 and Y4 without refreshers
Meta	25% / 25% / 25% / 25%	Quarterly	None	Cleanest vest in FAANG; grant size is the whole conversation
Amazon	5% / 15% / 40% / 40%	Annual then semi-annual	Effectively Y1	Only 20% vests in the first 2 years; Y1/Y2 sign-ons paper over the gap
Apple	25% / 25% / 25% / 25%	Semi-annual	None	Conservative initial grants; refreshers do the heavy lifting
Microsoft	25% / 25% / 25% / 25% (on-hire)	Annual	None	Refreshers vest over 5 years quarterly, so TC dips in Y2 to Y4
Netflix	No RSUs	n/a	n/a	All-cash comp; stock options are an opt-in choice
Nvidia	25% / 25% / 25% / 25%	Quarterly (6.25%)	None	No annual cash bonus; equity and ESPP carry the upside
Uber	25% / 25% / 25% / 25%	Monthly	None	Front-loading is sometimes available, and itself negotiable
Stripe	Time-based, double-trigger	Varies	Varies	Illiquid until a tender offer; value depends on the private valuation
OpenAI	~4-year vest, terms in flux	Varies	Varies	Moved from PPUs to conventional RSUs after the Oct 2025 restructuring; confirm current terms

Schedules apply to standard engineering offers and can vary by level, org, and offer cycle. Always confirm the exact schedule in your written offer.

Why the schedule changes your negotiation

Google (33/33/22/12): negotiate the grant, plan for the Year 3 dip

Google’s front-loaded schedule is genuinely candidate-friendly early on: two-thirds of your grant lands in the first two years, vesting monthly. The trap is the back half. Years 3 and 4 deliver only 34% combined, so your total comp falls off a cliff unless refresher grants fill the hole.

What to do with this: anchor your counter on the initial grant size (it can vary by $100K+ within a level) and ask directly about the refresh policy. The full Google salary negotiation playbook covers the equity conversation word for word.

Amazon (5/15/40/40): the sign-on IS the negotiation

Amazon’s schedule is the inverse of Google’s. You collect 5% of your equity in Year 1. That is why Amazon offers large sign-on bonuses split across Years 1 and 2: they exist specifically to make early total comp look competitive despite the back-loaded vest.

What to do with this: model Y1 and Y2 income separately from the 4-year total, and push on the sign-on and the total RSU grant rather than base (which is hard-capped for most roles). Our Amazon salary negotiation guide walks through the math.

Meta, Apple, Microsoft (25/25/25/25): grant size is everything

An even vest means no schedule games, so the negotiation collapses to one number: the size of the grant. Meta moves fastest on equity increases. Apple starts conservative and pays for performance through refreshers. Microsoft’s wrinkle is that refreshers vest over five years, which quietly dips Years 2 through 4 unless the on-hire grant is big enough.

Netflix: there is no schedule

Netflix pays all cash, full stop. No vest, no cliff, no golden handcuffs. That makes a Netflix offer easy to value and impossible to inflate with equity storytelling, and it means the entire negotiation is a base salary conversation.

Private companies (Stripe, OpenAI): value the liquidity, not the headline

At Stripe, RSUs are double-trigger: they vest on a time schedule but only turn into money at a liquidity event, in practice a periodic employee tender offer. At OpenAI, the instrument itself changed in late 2025 (PPUs converting to conventional equity). In both cases the headline dollar figure assumes a valuation you cannot sell at today, so negotiate the grant while discounting for liquidity.

How to use this when you counter

1. Convert every offer to Year 1 and Year 2 income (base + bonus + actually-vesting equity + sign-on). This is the honest comparison, and it is where Amazon’s 5/15/40/40 or a Microsoft refresher dip shows up.
2. Use the schedule gap as your justification. “Your vest delivers $20K in Year 1; the competing offer delivers $130K. Can we bridge that with sign-on?” is a counter a recruiter can take to the comp committee. A proven salary negotiation email template gets the wording right.
3. Ask about refreshers before you sign, especially at Google, Apple, and Microsoft, where the initial schedule understates or overstates long-term comp.

The schedule tells you where the money is. Getting it moved is the back-and-forth that follows your counter, and that is what the SalaryScript playbook covers: a counter-move for every recruiter pushback, calibrated by company. Get the Bundle · $129 → (instant download, 14-day results-based guarantee) or compare all plans from $39.

Related reading: The Complete FAANG Salary Negotiation Guide, How Much Should You Counter a Software Engineer Offer?, and How to Negotiate Salary After a Job Offer.