How do I calculate MRR?
Add up what every paying customer pays you per month, with annual plans divided by 12. So 250 customers on a $20 plan is $5,000 MRR. Leave out one-off payments, setup fees and taxes.
daykeeperYour 4% monthly churn is 39% a year
Churn of 4% a month adds up to 39% of your customers gone in a year (monthly churn is customers lost ÷ customers at the start of the month). The median SaaS charging under $25 loses 6.1% a month, according to ChartMogul's 2022 data, so type in last month's numbers and see where you sit.
MRR from customers who canceled.
From customers who signed up this month.
Upgrades from customers you already had.
Downgrades from customers you already had.
Don't count anyone who joined and left in the same month.
Revenue minus hosting, AI and payment costs. 80% is a common SaaS number.
Optional. Leave at 0 to skip payback.
ARR
$66,000
Your MRR times 12, so it's what a year looks like if nothing changes.
MRR at the end of the month
$5,500
What your subscriptions bring in each month after this month's signups, upgrades and cancels.
Customer churn, monthly
4%
Out of the customers you had on day 1, this is the share who left by the end of the month.
You're at or under the 6.1% median for SaaS charging under $25 (ChartMogul, 2022 data). The target is under 2%.
Customer churn, over a year
38.7%
How many of today's customers are gone after 12 months if this month repeats all year.
Revenue churn
5%
The share of last month's MRR you lost to cancels and downgrades.
Net revenue retention (NRR)
98%
If you got zero new customers, this is how much of last month's revenue you'd still have, upgrades included.
80% to 100%: Stripe calls this okay. You keep most customers but don't grow them much.
Compared with SaaS charging under $25 a month: 70% or more is the top 25%, so you're in it. Only 2% get over 100% (ChartMogul, 2023 report).
Gross revenue retention (GRR)
95%
The same thing without upgrades, so it can't go over 100%.
ARPU
$20.00
What the average paying customer pays you each month.
LTV
$400
How much gross profit one customer brings in before they leave.
CAC payback
–
How many months a new customer takes to pay back what you spent to get them.
Optional. Leave at 0 to skip payback.
The $5,000 MRR example
You start the month at $5,000 MRR with 250 customers. You add 35 customers worth $600, get $150 in upgrades and $50 in downgrades, and lose 10 customers worth $200. Gross margin is 80% and each customer costs $120 to get.
- MRR at the end: $5,500, so ARR is $66,000
- Customer churn: 4% a month, 38.7% a year
- Revenue churn: 5%
- NRR: 98%, GRR: 95%
- ARPU: $20.00 across 275 customers
- LTV: $400
- CAC payback: 7.5 mo
How we work it out
- MRR at the end = start + new + expansion − contraction − churned. ARR = that × 12.
- Customer churn = customers lost ÷ customers at the start, leaving out same-month joins. Annual churn = 1 − (1 − monthly churn)^12.
- Revenue churn = (churned MRR + contraction MRR) ÷ starting MRR.
- NRR = (start + expansion − contraction − churned) ÷ start. GRR = (start − contraction − churned) ÷ start.
- ARPU = MRR at the end ÷ customers at the end.
- LTV = ARPU × gross margin ÷ monthly customer churn. With 0 churn, we use 60 months like Stripe.
- CAC payback = CAC ÷ (ARPU × gross margin), in months.
- Quick mode treats new, expansion and contraction as 0.
Sources, checked Oct 1, 2026
- Stripe: essential SaaS metrics (updated Apr 13, 2026)
- Stripe: net revenue retention (updated May 7, 2026)
- Stripe: subscriber lifetime value and the 60-month cap
- Stripe: CAC payback period
- ChartMogul: what's a good customer churn rate (Feb 23, 2022)
- ChartMogul: benchmark formulas for NRR and GRR
- Recurly: churn rate guide (2022 data)
- ChartMogul: SaaS Benchmarks Report 2023 (2,100+ companies)
- ChartMogul: SaaS retention, the AI churn wave (Dec 10, 2025)
Questions founders ask
What's a good churn rate for SaaS?
Under 2% of customers a month is the target ChartMogul sets for the best SaaS. Their 2022 medians were 6.1% a month for products under $25 and 2.2% for products over $500. Recurly's 2022 average for software was 4.8%.
How do I calculate churn rate?
Divide customers lost this month by customers you had at the start of the month. 10 lost out of 250 is 4%. Leave out anyone who joined and canceled in the same month, or your churn looks better than it is.
What's net revenue retention and what's a good NRR?
Over 100% is strong, 80% to 100% is okay and under 80% is low, by Stripe's bands. NRR is (starting MRR + upgrades − downgrades − churned MRR) ÷ starting MRR, so it leaves out new customers on purpose.
How do I calculate LTV for a SaaS?
LTV = average revenue per customer × gross margin ÷ monthly customer churn. At $20 a month, 80% margin and 4% churn, that's $400. If nobody churned, Stripe caps the customer's life at 60 months so you don't get an infinite number.
What's a good CAC payback period?
12 months or less is healthy for SaaS, and high performers get to 5 to 7 months, according to Stripe. Payback = what you spend to get one customer ÷ that customer's monthly gross profit.
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