Customer Retention Rate Calculator
Calculate customer retention rate using the standard SaaS formula. Plug in starting customers, new acquired, and ending customers.
Customer retention rate
90.00%
450 of the original 500 customers stayed.
Customer churn rate
10.00%
100% − retention rate
The formula
Retention Rate = ((Ending Customers − New Customers) / Starting Customers) × 100
The new customers acquired during the period are subtracted from the ending total so the formula isolates the original cohort. That tells you the real retention rate, not just net growth.
Example calculation
You start the month with 500 customers. During the month you acquire 75 new ones. At month end you have 525 total.
- Retained from start = 525 − 75 = 450
- Retention rate = 450 / 500 × 100 = 90%
- Customer churn rate = 100 − 90 = 10%
When to use this
Use this when you want a clean retention number for the executive summary or a board update. Use the Churn Rate Calculator when you need the same number framed as the leak.
What to do next
Retention tells you how many stayed. The next question is why the others left. The Cancellation Reply Analyzer groups churn replies by reason. ChurnNote does this automatically for every cancellation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the customer retention rate formula?
Customer Retention Rate = ((Ending customers - New customers acquired) / Starting customers) × 100. The formula excludes new customers from the numerator so it measures how many of the original cohort actually stayed.
How is retention different from churn?
Retention measures the percentage of customers who stay. Churn measures the percentage who leave. They add up to 100%. Retention is usually the more positive framing, churn the more diagnostic one.
What is a good customer retention rate?
Enterprise SaaS commonly runs 92-99% annual retention. SMB SaaS averages 70-85%. Consumer subscriptions are lower at 50-70%. The monthly equivalent depends on the segment, but most healthy SaaS sits above 95% monthly retention.
Should I include free trial users?
No. Retention is measured on paying customers. Including trials inflates the denominator and distorts the rate. Calculate trial-to-paid conversion separately.
How ChurnNote helps
Retention tells you how many stayed. ChurnNote helps you understand why others left.
ChurnNote connects to Stripe or Lemon Squeezy and automatically captures cancellation reasons, recovers failed payments, and queues win-back emails. So you stop losing revenue silently.
Start recovering churnNext step
Find out why the rest left
The Cancellation Reply Analyzer groups churn replies by reason and flags win-back candidates.
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