What is Gross Revenue Retention (GRR)?
Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) measures the percentage of recurring revenue retained from an existing customer base over a period, excluding any upsells. It focuses solely on revenue lost through downgrades or churn. High GRR signals low churn/downgrade and predictable baseline revenue.
Calculating Gross Revenue Retention (GRR)
Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) measures how well your business keeps revenue from its existing customer base over a set period. Here’s how to work it out:
Note the total revenue from your current customers at the beginning of the period (e.g., month or year).
Identify any revenue lost when customers cancel or downgrade their subscriptions during that same period, and subtract that amount from your starting revenue.
Apply the Formula
GRR (%) = [(Starting Revenue – Lost Revenue) ÷ Starting Revenue] × 100
Interpret the Result
A GRR of 90% means you’ve retained 90% of the revenue you began with. Since this metric ignores any upsells or cross-sells, it will never exceed 100%.
Example:
Starting MRR: $10,000
Revenue lost to cancellations/downgrades: $1,000
GRR = [($10,000 – $1,000) ÷ $10,000] × 100 = 90%
This shows that you kept 90% of your original revenue from existing customers over the period.
