The free-float methodology is a method of calculating the market capitalization of a stock market index's underlying companies. With the free-float methodology, market capitalization is calculated by taking the equity's price and multiplying it by the number of shares readily available in the market.

Rather than using all of the shares (both active and inactive shares), as is the case with the full-market capitalization method, the free-float method excludes locked-in shares, such as those held by insiders, promoters, and governments.