Monthly churn snapshot
A subscription product starts with 1,000 customers, loses 45 and adds 120 at $39 ARPU.
- Starting customers: 1,000
- Lost customers: 45
- New customers: 120
- ARPU: $39
Subscriptions
Churn Rate Calculator
Calculate customer churn, retention and net customer change for a subscription business.
Subscriptions
Churn Rate Calculator
Use this to understand how many customers you kept, lost and added during a billing period before forecasting growth.
How to use this calculator
Start with conservative inputs, copy the result, then test a best-case and worst-case version. For production decisions, compare the estimate against actual accounting, analytics and payment data.
Best used for
Use this to understand customer retention before you forecast MRR, LTV or acquisition payback.
Formula
Customer churn measures the share of the starting customer base that left during a period. Net customer change adds new customers so you can see whether acquisition is overcoming churn.
Formula
Churn rate = lost customers / starting customers. Retention rate = retained customers / starting customers.
Example
How to read the result
- Lower churn improves both MRR stability and lifetime value.
- Customer churn and revenue churn should be tracked separately when plan sizes vary.
- A rising churn rate can make acquisition look productive while the base quietly weakens.
Common mistakes
- Mixing trial users, free users and paying customers in the same churn calculation.
- Changing the churn definition from month to month.
- Ignoring failed payments and involuntary churn.
FAQ
Is churn calculated from starting or ending customers?
A simple customer churn rate uses lost customers divided by the starting customer count for the same period.
What is the difference between gross and net churn?
Gross churn only looks at customers or revenue lost. Net churn also considers expansion, upgrades or new revenue.
Can churn be negative?
Customer churn cannot be negative, but net revenue churn can be negative when expansion revenue is larger than lost revenue.
Important limits
- Define churn consistently before comparing periods.
- Customer churn and revenue churn can tell different stories.