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Gross revenue retention (GRR)

The share of last year's recurring revenue you still have this year — before any upsells — so it's a pure measure of how leaky your bucket is.

In plain English

Take the recurring revenue you started a period with and ask: how much of it is still there at the end, ignoring any new sales or upgrades? That's gross revenue retention. Because it only counts what you lost — customers who cancelled or downgraded — and never credits you for expansion, GRR can never go above 100%. It strips out the cosmetic boost that upsells give, leaving a clean read on how well your product holds onto the revenue it already had. A high GRR means a sticky product; a low one means you're refilling a leaky bucket every quarter just to stand still.

The formula

GRR = (Starting MRR − Churned MRR − Contraction MRR) ÷ Starting MRR

Expansion is deliberately left out, which is precisely why GRR caps at 100% and can only tell you about leakage, never growth.

A worked example

You begin the period with €100k in MRR. Over the period, €7k churns from cancellations and another €3k is lost to downgrades (contraction). Existing customers also upgraded — but expansion doesn't count here.

GRR = (€100k − €7k − €3k) ÷ €100k = 90%

You held onto 90% of the revenue you started with. That 10% you lost has to be replaced by new sales before you've grown a single euro — which is why even a small GRR improvement compounds powerfully over time.

What's a good gross revenue retention?

GRR benchmarks are fairly consistent across SaaS, with enterprise sitting at the top of the range:

GRRVerdictTypical fit
> 90%StrongEnterprise & sticky products
85–90%AcceptableMid-market
< 85%Leaky bucketRetention needs work

Smaller, self-serve customers churn more easily, so SMB-focused businesses naturally run lower GRR; enterprise products with annual contracts and switching costs usually clear 90% comfortably.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good gross revenue retention?
Above 90% is good for most SaaS, 85–90% is acceptable, and below 85% points to a leaky bucket. Enterprise products with annual contracts usually sit above 90%, while SMB and self-serve products run lower because smaller customers churn more easily.
What's the difference between gross and net revenue retention?
Gross revenue retention excludes expansion, so it can never exceed 100% and shows only how much you keep after churn and contraction. Net revenue retention adds expansion back in, so it can exceed 100% when upsells outweigh losses. Gross measures leakage; net measures overall account growth.
Why is gross revenue retention capped at 100%?
Because the formula only subtracts churned and contracted revenue from your starting base and never adds expansion. The best you can do is lose nothing, which equals 100%. Upsell revenue is deliberately ignored so the metric isolates how well you hold on to what you already had.

Net revenue retention · Revenue churn · Churn rate · Customer lifetime value (LTV)

Learn more

The complete guide to value-based bidding · Value-based bidding without a data team

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