We combined RNA metabolic labeling and alkylation with droplet-based sequencing to detect newly synthesized mRNAs in single cells. With the classification of labeled and unlabeled precursor and mature mRNAs, we modeled and analyzed the time-dependent RNA kinetic rates associated with the cell cycle. We found both transcription and degradation rates are highly dynamic over the cell cycle and different kinetic regulation types were observed for cycling genes. Overall design: Single cell and bulk RNA-seq of 4sU labeled, fixed and alkylated transcripts in HEK293 cells.