Calculate gross revenue retention (GRR), also called gross dollar retention, from a starting recurring-revenue cohort after churn and contraction-without giving credit for expansion.
Use one existing-customer recurring-revenue cohort and one reporting period. Exclude new business, expansion and reactivation from GRR so the metric isolates downside retention.
GRR shows the percentage of recurring revenue preserved from a starting customer cohort after cancellations and downgrades, before any expansion is allowed to offset those losses. Under the standard definition, GRR cannot exceed 100%. The same aligned scope makes gross revenue churn the complement of GRR: 100% minus GRR.
Use GRR beside NRR rather than instead of it. GRR isolates the health of the installed revenue base; NRR adds expansion and can exceed 100%. If NRR looks strong while GRR is weak, upsells may be masking material churn or contraction. Compare like-for-like cohorts, periods and revenue definitions before using an external benchmark.
Choose one recurring-revenue basis first: MRR for a monthly operating view or ARR for an annual contract view. Snapshot the existing-customer revenue at the start of the period, then measure only churned and contraction revenue from that starting cohort.
Use GRR = (Starting Revenue - Churned Revenue - Contraction Revenue) / Starting Revenue × 100. Expansion, reactivation and new-business revenue are excluded by design. This makes GRR a downside-only retention metric rather than a growth metric.
For planning, separate full cancellations from downgrades. A falling GRR can come from more customers leaving, larger customers leaving, or retained customers moving to lower-value plans. Segmenting by plan, customer size, industry or acquisition cohort can reveal which mechanism is responsible.
Keep GRR, NRR and logo retention together in reporting. GRR tells you how much recurring revenue survives before expansion, NRR shows the net result after expansion, and logo retention shows how many customer accounts survive. Their differences are often more informative than any one number alone.
This calculator is an educational planning tool. Reconcile source-system definitions before board, financing or audited reporting, especially when your billing platform treats reactivations, usage movements, credits or plan migrations differently.
Read the matching guide for definitions, formula context, worked examples, reporting boundaries and common mistakes.
Disclaimer: This calculator provides estimates for planning and educational purposes only. Results depend on the assumptions and definitions entered and should not be treated as accounting, financial, legal, tax, valuation or investment advice. Validate material decisions with qualified professionals and your source systems.