How this calculation works
Follow the same opening customers through the period. Their retained recurring revenue determines GRR; expansion within that same cohort determines the difference between GRR and NRR. New-customer revenue belongs in the company total but not the retention ratios.
NRR = (opening + expansion − contraction − churn) / opening × 100; GRR excludes expansionA worked example
An opening cohort of ₹10,000 with ₹2,000 expansion, ₹500 contraction and ₹1,000 churn closes at ₹10,500: NRR is 105% and GRR is 85%. Adding ₹3,000 of new customers changes total closing revenue to ₹13,500 without changing either ratio.
Good to know
One consistent revenue basis and currency. Aggregate losses must not overlap or exceed opening revenue. No customer-count retention, cash accounting, FX, benchmark or forecast is inferred.
Reference: Stripe: opening-cohort NRR and GRR (opens in a new tab) ↗
Freeze the customer cohort at the start
Choose an opening set of customers and one consistent recurring-revenue period. A customer joining during the interval does not belong to that opening cohort. New revenue can increase the company total while the existing cohort still shrinks.
The result therefore shows new-customer revenue separately. Do not mix monthly recurring revenue with annual recurring revenue, or cash receipts with contracted recurring revenue. The numerator and denominator need the same measurement basis.
Separate expansion from gross losses
NRR includes expansion from opening customers. GRR excludes it and shows the retained share after contraction and churn. A business can report NRR above 100% even when some customers leave because retained customers spend more.
The aggregate inputs assume churned and contracted revenue are not the same opening amounts counted twice. Their combined loss cannot exceed the opening cohort. Customer-level events or reactivations need a stated policy before being summarized here.
Read a bridge instead of a company forecast
The bridge moves from opening revenue to revenue after losses and then adds existing-customer expansion. Its last company-total bar includes new customers, which makes acquisition visible without changing the retention ratios.
A retention percentage is not a probability that a particular customer will stay. It also does not forecast next year. Changes in pricing, currency, contract length and revenue recognition can affect comparisons between periods or companies.
Compare revenue retention with customer retention
The subscription customer churn calculator counts customer departures. A business that loses many small accounts and expands a few large accounts can have a weak customer count and strong NRR at the same time.
The membership and newsletter revenue calculator models a different planning scenario. Use these tools together only after identifying whether the question concerns an opening revenue cohort, customer counts or a projection of future membership income.
A few questions, answered
Does new-customer revenue increase NRR?
No. NRR follows only the opening customer cohort.
Can NRR exceed 100%?
Yes. Existing-customer expansion can exceed contraction and churn.
Why must losses not exceed opening revenue?
This aggregate model treats losses as non-overlapping reductions of the opening cohort.