Revenue Churn Calculator
Calculate gross and net revenue churn. Plug in starting MRR, cancellations, downgrades, and expansion, and see how much MRR is actually leaving each month.
Gross revenue churn
6.00%
$3,000 lost MRR
Net revenue churn
3.00%
Net of $1,500 expansion
The formulas
Gross Revenue Churn = (Lost MRR + Downgrade MRR) / Starting MRR × 100
Net Revenue Churn = (Lost MRR + Downgrade MRR − Expansion MRR) / Starting MRR × 100
Example calculation
You start the month with $50,000 MRR. Cancellations cost $2,500. Downgrades cost $500. Upsells and upgrades brought in $1,500.
- Gross revenue churn = (2500 + 500) / 50000 × 100 = 6%
- Net revenue churn = (2500 + 500 − 1500) / 50000 × 100 = 3%
- Expansion is closing the leak, but you're still net negative.
When to use this
Use this when you need a single number that reflects the dollars leaving the business — for a board update, a forecast, or a retention planning session. Revenue churn is the right denominator for most SaaS decisions; customer churn alone hides plan-mix effects.
What to do next
Revenue churn is the size of the wound. The fastest patch is usually plugging failed payments. Start with the Failed Payment Recovery Calculator and then the free Churn Leak Report.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is revenue churn?
Revenue churn is the percentage of recurring revenue you lose in a given period. It is measured against starting MRR (or ARR). Customer churn counts heads; revenue churn counts dollars, which is what actually matters for SaaS growth.
What's the difference between gross and net revenue churn?
Gross revenue churn is (cancellations + downgrades) / starting MRR. Net revenue churn subtracts expansion from upgrades and upsells. If expansion exceeds lost revenue, net churn goes negative, which is the gold-standard SaaS metric.
What is a good revenue churn rate?
Healthy enterprise SaaS aims for under 1% monthly gross revenue churn, ideally negative net churn. SMB SaaS commonly runs 3-5%. Above 5% monthly gross revenue churn is a real growth ceiling.
Should I include failed payments in revenue churn?
Yes. Failed payments that lead to involuntary cancellations are still churn. Count them in cancellations. Many founders silently exclude failed payments and end up underreporting the leak by 30-50%.
How ChurnNote helps
Revenue churn shows the damage. ChurnNote shows who left, why they left, and who can be recovered.
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
Map the revenue churn leak on real Stripe or Lemon Squeezy data
The Churn Leak Report breaks gross and net churn down by reason and shows recoverable MRR.
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