Alphabet (GOOGL) RSU sell-vs-hold
Calculator · free · no signup · GOOGLSell at vest or hold? Compare after-tax payout from selling Alphabet RSUs at vest vs. holding through the LTCG cliff at 12 months.
Beta · invite-only · AlphaLatitude Inc. · Free Tools
Your vest
Tax inputs
Hold strategy
Best after-tax payout — at year 1 yr
$47,709
Sell + invest wins by $4,981 over Hold 1 yr.
Estimates only. Not financial advice.
Heads-up: under-withholding. Your employer withholds federal tax at the IRS supplemental rate (22.0% on this vest, ≈ $17,600). Your marginal federal rate on this vest is 32.7%, owing $26,171. Expect to settle the $8,571 gap at tax time.
The hidden purchase
Tax was paid at vest either way. Holding is mathematically equivalent to taking $44,509 in after-tax cash and buying $44,509 of GOOGL today.
Most diversification frameworks would advise against a purchase that size in a single name; the right answer depends on your conviction in GOOGL. Holding past one year converts the gain to LTCG.
Sell + invest
Best payout| Vest value (shares × price) | $80,000 |
| Federal | |
| State | |
| Medicare | −$1,160 |
| Additional Medicare | −$720 |
| Market gain over 1 yr at 10.0% | $4,451 |
| Cap-gain tax on diversified gain — LTCG (federal + state + NIIT) | −$1,251 |
| Net at year 1 yr | $47,709 |
Sell every share at vest; invest the after-tax cash at the market return for 1 yr, then liquidate. Diversified — no single-stock concentration risk.
Hold 1 yr
| Vest value (shares × price) | $80,000 |
| Vest tax (federal + state + FICA) | |
| Net at year 1 yr | $42,728 |
Sold 444 shares to cover vest tax (net-settled); kept 556 shares 1 yr to qualify for long-term capital gains.
Social Security + Medicare are payroll taxes (collectively called FICA) — they apply because you're still employed at vest.
Both columns are stated in year-1 yr dollars. The sell side compounds at the market return; the hold side compounds at your single-stock expected return after a 20% volatility drag.
Estimates only. Assumes net-settled (sell-to-cover) vesting; double-trigger and pre-IPO RSUs are out of scope. Excludes multi-state moves, AMT interactions on other equity, and 83(b) elections. Not financial advice.
You evaluated one RSU vest. The beta plans every vest of every grant across years, with concentration and AMT in the loop.
Request beta access →About Alphabet
Alphabet (GOOGL) is a public Cloud/SaaS company, incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Mountain View, CA. IPO'd Aug 19, 2004.
Last close: $373.25 per share (as of 2026-06-17).
Equity grants at Alphabet typically include restricted stock units (RSUs).
Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. It was created through a restructuring of Google on October 2, 2015, and became the parent holding company of Google and several former Google subsidiaries. Alphabet is listed on the large-cap section of the Nasdaq under the ticker symbols GOOGL and GOOG; both classes of stock are components of major stock market indices such as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100. Alphabet has been described as a Big Tech company.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google in 1998 as a Stanford research project, then restructured the company in 2015 under a new holding entity called Alphabet to separate the core ad business from experimental bets. Headquartered in Mountain View, the group runs Search, YouTube, Android, Google Cloud, Gemini, DeepMind, and Waymo, generating roughly $350B in annual revenue. Sundar Pichai has led Alphabet as CEO since December 2019. A DOJ antitrust case now threatens forced divestiture of Chrome and parts of the search distribution business.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org · abc.xyz
Equity comp at Alphabet
- RSUs use single-trigger vesting: shares become yours as each portion vests on schedule, and the value is taxed as ordinary income at that point. No IPO or acquisition is required.
Researched 2026-05-07.
OptionsAhoy is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Alphabet.
Alphabet (GOOGL) RSUs vest as ordinary income at the price on vest day. The decision is whether to sell at vest and reinvest, or hold the shares through the 12-month LTCG cliff. This calculator runs both paths through the same after-tax math so you can compare like-for-like.
Example: 500 Alphabet (GOOGL) RSUs vesting at $373.25 per share is $186,625 of ordinary income on vest day. After roughly 32% combined federal + state + FICA (~$59,720), the post-tax share value is ~$126,905. Holding 12 months for long-term capital-gains treatment then only matters for the price change between vest and sale; the ordinary income at vest is already locked in. The calculator runs both paths through the same after-tax math.
All Alphabet tools → · Use the generic RSU Sell-vs-Hold Calculator for any company.
Alphabet equity questions
- Should I sell or hold my Alphabet RSUs at vest?
- Alphabet restricted stock units (RSUs) are taxed as ordinary income on their value at vest whether or not you sell. The only open decision is what to do with the shares afterward: sell at vest and reinvest, or hold past twelve months for long-term capital-gains treatment on any further gain. The calculator above runs both paths through the same after-tax math so you can compare them directly.
- Does Alphabet grant ISOs, NSOs, or RSUs?
- Equity compensation at Alphabet typically takes the form of restricted stock units (RSUs). Restricted stock units are taxed as ordinary income when they vest.
- Do Alphabet RSUs use double-trigger vesting?
- No. Alphabet restricted stock units (RSUs) use single-trigger vesting: each tranche becomes yours as it vests on schedule, taxed as ordinary income at that point, with no liquidity event required.
One piece of the puzzle.
OptionsAhoy plans your Alphabet equity alongside hedging, vesting, and de-concentration, across bullish, neutral, and bearish market scenarios. Free during beta.