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Churn Rate & Revenue Retention (GRR, NRR) Calculator

Calculate customer churn, gross and net revenue retention and net MRR churn from one period's customer counts and MRR movements, with the MRR bridge.

Customers
Monthly recurring revenue (MRR, $)

Calculated entirely in your browser — nothing you enter here is sent to a server.

How churn and retention are calculated

Every figure covers one period and only the customers who were already paying when it began. Revenue from new customers changes your ending MRR, but it never counts towards retention.

  • Customer churn rate = customers who cancelled ÷ customers at the start
  • Gross MRR churn = (contraction + churned MRR) ÷ starting MRR
  • Gross revenue retention (GRR) = (starting − contraction − churned) ÷ starting, never above 100%
  • Net revenue retention (NRR) = (starting + expansion − contraction − churned) ÷ starting
  • Net MRR churn = 1 − NRR; a negative value is “net negative churn”, where expansion outweighs losses
  • Ending MRR = starting + new + expansion − contraction − churned

Worked example

A SaaS company starts the month with 400 customers and $100,000 MRR. During the month 10 customers cancel ($5,000 of MRR), others downgrade by $3,000 and upgrade by $10,000, and new customers add $8,000.

  • Customer churn: 10 ÷ 400 = 2.5%
  • GRR: (100,000 − 3,000 − 5,000) ÷ 100,000 = 92%
  • NRR: (100,000 + 10,000 − 3,000 − 5,000) ÷ 100,000 = 102%, so net MRR churn is −2%
  • Ending MRR: 100,000 + 8,000 + 10,000 − 3,000 − 5,000 = $110,000

If 2.5% monthly customer churn held for a year it would compound to 1 − 0.975¹² = 26.2% annual churn, not 12 × 2.5% = 30%.

Reading the result

  • GRR shows how much existing revenue you keep before any upsell. It is the cleanest measure of cancellations and downgrades.
  • NRR adds expansion. Above 100% means existing customers grow revenue on their own, even with no new sales.
  • Customer churn and revenue churn can tell different stories. Losing many small accounts gives high customer churn but low revenue churn; losing one large account does the opposite.
  • Annualised figures assume this period's rate repeats every period. They describe what that rate implies, not a forecast. Seasonal businesses should compare like-for-like periods instead.

Limitations

  • The calculator trusts how your billing data classifies each change. Make sure a customer who downgrades and later cancels in the same period is counted once.
  • Customers who join and cancel within the same period aren't in the starting count, so they don't affect these rates. Track them separately if early cancellations matter to you.
  • Rates can swing a lot when the starting base is small; a single cancellation among 20 customers is 5% churn.

Turn your monthly churn into customer lifetime value with the LTV calculator, compare it with acquisition cost in the CAC calculator, and check gross margin with the profit margin calculator.

How to use the Churn Rate & Revenue Retention (GRR, NRR) Calculator

  1. Choose the period your numbers cover: one month, quarter or year.
  2. For customer churn, enter the customers you had at the start and how many of them cancelled during the period.
  3. For revenue retention, enter starting MRR and the period's new, expansion, contraction and churned MRR. You can fill in customers, MRR or both.
  4. Read customer churn, gross and net revenue retention and net MRR churn, check the MRR bridge, and see what the rates imply over a year if they repeat.
  5. Copy the summary or download the CSV to share the figures.

Example: One month of a SaaS business

Start: 400 customers and $100,000 MRR. 10 customers cancel ($5,000 MRR), downgrades remove $3,000, upgrades add $10,000 and new customers add $8,000. Customer churn is 2.5%, GRR 92%, NRR 102% (net MRR churn −2%) and ending MRR $110,000. If 2.5% monthly churn repeated all year it would compound to 26.2% annual churn.

Questions about the Churn Rate & Revenue Retention (GRR, NRR) Calculator

What is the difference between GRR and NRR?
Gross revenue retention counts only losses (downgrades and cancellations) from customers you had at the start, so it can never exceed 100%. Net revenue retention also adds their upgrades and add-ons, so it can go above 100% when existing customers grow faster than others shrink or leave.
Why doesn't new-customer revenue count towards retention?
Retention measures what happens to revenue you already had. Including new sales would let strong acquisition hide losses from existing customers. New MRR is still included in ending MRR and the MRR bridge.
Why isn't annual churn just 12 × monthly churn?
Churn applies to a shrinking base each month. Annual retention is monthly retention to the 12th power, so 2.5% monthly churn gives 1 − 0.975¹² = 26.2% a year, not 30%. The annualised figure assumes the same rate every month; it is not a forecast.
Can net MRR churn be negative?
Yes. When expansion from existing customers is larger than their downgrades and cancellations, net MRR churn is negative (often called net negative churn) and NRR is above 100%.
Should customers who joined and cancelled in the same month be counted?
They are not in the starting count, so standard churn and retention rates leave them out. If early cancellations matter to your business, track them as a separate metric rather than mixing them into these rates.
Is there a good churn or NRR figure to aim for?
It depends heavily on customer size, contract length and market. This calculator does not grade your result; compare it with your own history and with peers that sell to similar customers on similar terms.