How this calculation works
Use the paying-member count rather than a free subscriber total. This is a one-price, one-period model; percentage fees scale with gross revenue while the entered fixed costs do not. Churn timing, proration and collections are outside the model.
Net period contribution = members × price × (1−fee) − fixed costsA worked example
600 paying members at 150 create 90,000 gross revenue. After 10% fees and 15,000 fixed costs, contribution is 66,000.
Good to know
A transparent arithmetic model using your inputs. Example prices, rates and multiples are demonstrations, not benchmarks or offers. No tax, exchange-rate conversion, live account access or automatic attribution is supplied. Monetary display is rounded; calculations retain additional precision.
Use paying members rather than the full audience
A newsletter or community can have a large free audience and a much smaller paying group. This calculation uses the paying-member count directly. It does not decide what share of a free list will convert or assume every registered user pays the listed price.
Choose one recurring period and keep the price and costs on that basis. A monthly membership price combined with annual fixed expenses would not describe a coherent period without a separate conversion.
Subscription churn tracks losses from an opening customer cohort. A monthly revenue total alone does not describe how many of those customers stayed.
Recurring revenue is not all available profit
Percentage fees scale with gross billed revenue, while fixed period costs are entered separately. Support, moderation, software and production work can be part of those costs if you include them.
This simple one-price model does not allocate partial-period members, promotional discounts or unpaid invoices. Churn affects future member counts, so use a separate retention scenario instead of treating one period’s count as permanent.
A few questions, answered
Does it include payment processing automatically?
No. Include the appropriate percentage in the fee input and any other costs in the fixed amount. Different fee bases need separate analysis.
Can contribution be negative?
Yes. Low revenue or high fees and fixed costs can produce a negative period contribution.