---
title: Refresh grant — what it means and why it matters | Allocate AI
description: An additional stock grant given to a current employee, usually each year, so that equity pay keeps flowing after the original grant finishes vesting.
canonical: https://allocateai.io/glossary/refresh-grant
site: Allocate AI — https://allocateai.io
---

# Refresh grant

An additional stock grant given to a current employee, usually each year, so that equity pay keeps flowing after the original grant finishes vesting.

A refresh grant (sometimes called a top-up or annual equity award) is new stock awarded to someone already at the company. The original grant from your offer letter vests over a set number of years and then stops. Without refreshes, your equity pay would fall to zero at the end of that schedule. Refreshes stack on top, each with its own vesting calendar.

The effect is a layered income stream. Imagine a $200,000 new-hire grant vesting evenly over four years, plus a $60,000 refresh each year that also vests over four years. In year one you receive $50,000. In year four you receive $50,000 from the original grant plus pieces of three refreshes, roughly $95,000. In year five, the original grant is gone but the refreshes continue.

Refresh sizes usually depend on level and performance, and companies differ a lot: some grant generously every year, some grant only for promotions, some do not refresh at all. It is a fair question to ask during an offer, and the answer changes what year four and five actually pay.

The common mistake is projecting future income from the new-hire grant alone. Since each refresh vests on its own dates, it is worth listing them separately, so a plan knows which months carry a vest and how large each one is.

[Try the Comp Comparison →](https://allocateai.io/calculators/comp-comparison)

## Related terms

- [RSU (restricted stock unit)](https://allocateai.io/glossary/rsu) — A promise from your employer to give you shares of company stock on a future date, as long as you are still there when that date arrives.
- [Vesting (and vesting schedules)](https://allocateai.io/glossary/vesting) — The process by which promised stock or retirement money becomes truly yours over time, usually on a fixed calendar called a vesting schedule.
- [Total compensation](https://allocateai.io/glossary/total-compensation) — Everything a job pays in a year added together: base salary, bonus, stock, and sometimes benefits, as opposed to the salary figure alone.
- [Expected income event](https://allocateai.io/glossary/expected-income-event) — In Allocate, a bonus, commission, or stock vest you tell the app about in advance, so the plan counts it as income on the date it is due to arrive.

**Plan in plain language.**

Allocate answers “can I afford this?” from your own numbers, writes the plan, and stages every change for your yes. It starts from an estimate before you link a bank.

[Get started](https://app.allocateai.io/signup)

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Allocate AI is a budgeting and financial-planning app: link your accounts, say what you want in plain words, and it writes the plan and stages every change for your approval. Read more at https://allocateai.io or see all pages in https://allocateai.io/llms.txt.