Net revenue retention (NRR) shows how recurring revenue from an existing customer cohort changes after upgrades, downgrades, and churn. It is especially useful for SaaS teams comparing account growth with revenue losses without mixing in sales from new customers. A result above 100% means expansion more than offset contraction and churn; below 100% means the cohort shrank.
Enter recurring revenue from the same customer group at the start of the period.
Include upgrades, add-ons, and seat growth from that cohort.
Enter downgrade losses and revenue lost from customers who left.
Compare the percentage with 100% and inspect the ending cohort revenue.
Only revenue from customers present at the start belongs in this calculation. New-customer revenue is excluded.
Above 100% indicates net expansion within the cohort; below 100% indicates net revenue loss.
Use the same revenue basis and period for every component.
Given: $100,000 starting revenue, $15,000 expansion, $5,000 contraction, and $7,000 churn.
Calculation: ($100,000 + $15,000 − $5,000 − $7,000) ÷ $100,000 × 100 = 103%.
Result: The cohort ends at $103,000, so expansion exceeded losses by 3% of starting revenue.
No. NRR isolates the starting cohort, so revenue from customers acquired during the period is excluded.
The cohort ended with exactly the same recurring revenue it started with after expansion and losses.
Either works if all inputs cover the same period and use the same recurring-revenue basis.
Not with valid revenue inputs because ending cohort revenue should not fall below zero. If losses exceed starting plus expansion revenue, check the data.
Gross revenue retention excludes expansion, while NRR includes expansion and can therefore exceed 100%.