Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) Rate is the percentage of recurring revenue retained from existing customers in a defined time period, including downgrades, and cancels. It does not include any expansion revenue. GRR is also commonly referred to as Gross Renewal Rate.
Example A: A company has 100 customers, each paying $2,000 per month. MRR at the beginning of the month is $200,000. Within the month, 2 customers downgrade by $500 each, and 1 customer cancels.
Applying the Gross Retention formula, we get ($200,000 - ($500 x 2) - $2,000) / $200,000 = $197,000 / $200,000 = 98.5% GRR expressed monthly
The maximum possible value for Gross Revenue Retention Rate is 100%. Across all SaaS companies, the median Gross Retention Rate is ~90%. For SaaS companies selling into small and medium businesses (SMBs), a good Gross Retention Rate is 80%. For Enterprise SaaS, 90% is considered a good Gross Retention Rate. For very high Annual Contract Value (ACV) products, Enterprise SaaS companies should benchmark themselves to 95%.
Further qualifying this, when looking at its own portfolio of companies scaling to $10M in ARR, Bessemer Venture Partners, reports the bottom quartile at less than 85%, the middle at 90%, and the top quartile at 95% GRR. April 2022.
Since Gross Retention is usually tracked as a percentage, yearly or monthly, it's best to visualize your GRR as a line chart. This way, you have a wealth of historical data and can detect early signs of churn. Take a look at the sample chart for an idea of what it looks like when you track GRR over time:
Retaining customers is key for operating a healthy and profitable business. A high Gross Retention Rate is an indication that your offering represents a strong value proposition for your customers. This is sometimes referred to as having a “sticky” product.
Maximizing your Gross Retention is also an important component of profitability. Acquiring a new customer can be 5 - 25 times more costly than retaining an existing customer. By retaining your existing customers, you reduce your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), therefore increasing your profitability.
While you want your Gross Retention to be as high as possible, the maximum is 100%, and even that is virtually unattainable after a few years in business. Some churn is simply unavoidable, but this can be a smaller percentage that you might think. Companies should analyze the reasons behind all churn, and segment into what is truly avoidable versus what could be avoided if concrete actions were taken in the future. Then take steps to implement those actions. For example, mature and proactive Customer Success practices have been proven to increase Gross Revenue Retention.
For a comprehensive understanding of retention, it’s important to track both the percentage of all customers who renew or cancel contracts, measured by logo churn, and the percentage of all revenue dollars under contract which renew.
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