Gross revenue retention (GRR) is the percentage of recurring revenue you keep from an existing group of customers over a period, usually twelve months, after subtracting downgrades and cancellations. Unlike net revenue retention, it ignores expansion entirely. The formula is (starting ARR − contraction − churn) ÷ starting ARR.
Because nothing is ever added, GRR tops out at 100%, which only happens if no customer left and none paid less. That ceiling makes it the cleaner measure of how well you hold on to revenue you already earned.
The GRR formula
GRR = (starting ARR − contraction − churn) ÷ starting ARR × 100
Use the same cohort rule as NRR: freeze the list of customers paying you on the first day of the period, and measure only them at the end. Expansion from those customers is left out, and so is every customer won during the period.
| Component | In NRR | In GRR | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting ARR | Yes | Yes | Recurring revenue from the cohort on day one of the period |
| Expansion | Added | Excluded | Upgrades, added seats, cross-sells and price increases to those same customers |
| Contraction | Subtracted | Subtracted | Downgrades, removed seats and discounts that lower what an existing customer pays |
| Churn | Subtracted | Subtracted | Recurring revenue from customers who cancelled or did not renew |
| New customers | Excluded | Excluded | Anyone not in the cohort on day one, however large |
One detail trips people up. A customer who downgrades and later upgrades within the period should be measured at their end-of-period value, capped at their starting value. GRR can register a loss. It cannot register a gain, even one that only reverses a loss.
A worked example
Same cohort as the NRR example: $2,000,000 of starting ARR, $300,000 of expansion, $80,000 of downgrades and $140,000 of cancelled contracts.
GRR = ($2,000,000 − $80,000 − $140,000) ÷ $2,000,000 = $1,780,000 ÷ $2,000,000 = 89%.
The expansion is not in the calculation at all. With it, the same cohort's net revenue retention is 104%. The company kept 89 cents of every starting dollar, and expansion carried the result past 100.
NRR and GRR calculator
Enter one cohort's numbers for the same twelve months, in any currency and in the same unit throughout. Leave out revenue from customers won during the period. Nothing leaves your browser.
GRR vs NRR
| Gross revenue retention | Net revenue retention | |
|---|---|---|
| Formula | (start − contraction − churn) ÷ start | (start + expansion − contraction − churn) ÷ start |
| Includes expansion | No | Yes |
| Maximum | 100% | No ceiling |
| Question it answers | How much revenue did we hold on to? | How much did the existing base grow or shrink? |
| Moved most by | Churn and downgrades | Expansion, then churn and downgrades |
Read them as a pair. The gap between NRR and GRR is the share of the result that came from expansion. A narrow gap means the result rests on keeping customers. A wide one means it rests on a subset of them buying more, which is good news that is harder to repeat. This is a complement to the case for NRR made in The NRR Advantage, not a rebuttal of it: NRR says where the base is heading, GRR says how much of it is holding.
The two do tend to travel together, though less tightly than you might expect. In High Alpha's 2025 data, 49% of companies with high GRR (above 93%) also had high NRR, and 47% of companies with high NRR also had high GRR. Roughly half the time, a strong result on one metric comes with only an average result on the other.
GRR benchmarks
SaaS Capital's 2025 survey put median GRR at 91% across private B2B SaaS, and called 90% the "table stakes" level: below it, a company is unlikely to keep pace with its peers on growth. High Alpha's 2025 data lands in the same place, with medians between 88% and 92% in every ARR band.
| ARR band | Median GRR | Middle 50% of companies |
|---|---|---|
| Under $1M | 92% | 80% to 100% |
| $1M to $5M | 92% | 83% to 95% |
| $5M to $20M | 88% | 82% to 95% |
| $20M to $50M | 90% | 85% to 95% |
| Over $50M | 88% | 84% to 90% |
Contract terms matter more than company size. In SaaS Capital's data, median GRR is 94% on multi-year contracts, 90% on annual contracts and 89% on month-to-month, and it reaches 95% where average contract value is above $250K, against about 91% below it.
Sources: SaaS Capital, 2025 B2B SaaS Retention Benchmarks, more than 1,000 private B2B SaaS companies surveyed in Q1 2025, pp.1–2; High Alpha, 2025 SaaS Benchmarks Report, 800+ respondents, metrics as of Q2 2025, p.11. These are survey medians of the companies that responded, not targets.
What GRR shows that NRR hides
Take two companies, each reporting 105% NRR on a $10M base. The first has GRR of 95%: it lost $500K and its customers expanded by $1M across most of the base. The second has GRR of 80%: it lost $2M, and $2.5M of expansion came from a handful of large accounts. The NRR line makes them look identical, but the businesses underneath are very different.
The second company's result depends on a few accounts continuing to grow while a fifth of its revenue walks out each year. If those large accounts stop expanding, NRR falls straight to the 80% underneath. GRR shows that floor before it is reached.
What drags GRR down
Logo churn
Customers who cancel or do not renew. Usually the largest component, and the one tracked most closely. Split it by reason where you can: a customer who went out of business needs a different response from one who moved to a competitor.
Seat and usage contraction
Customers who stay but pay less: fewer seats after a layoff, lower usage, a smaller tier. It rarely triggers an alert because no account is lost, which is why it is worth reporting as its own line.
Involuntary churn
Revenue lost to failed payments and expired cards rather than decisions. It counts against GRR exactly like a cancellation, and it is often the cheapest part to recover, through card updaters, retry schedules and dunning emails.
Discounts that renew lower
A renewal closed at a lower price to save the account is contraction. Saving the account can be the right call, but it should still be recorded as lost revenue rather than as full retention.
Frequently asked questions
What is gross revenue retention?
Gross revenue retention (GRR) is the percentage of recurring revenue a company keeps from its existing customers over a period, usually a year, after subtracting downgrades and cancellations. Expansion and new customers are excluded, so GRR measures only how much starting revenue survived.
What is the gross retention formula?
GRR = (starting ARR − contraction − churn) ÷ starting ARR × 100. Starting ARR comes from customers active on the first day of the period, and contraction and churn are measured for those same customers.
Can gross revenue retention be over 100%?
No. GRR excludes expansion, so the most it can reach is 100%, which means no customer cancelled and none paid less than at the start. A figure above 100% means expansion has been included, and the number is really net revenue retention.
What is the difference between GRR and NRR?
Both start from the same cohort's starting revenue and subtract downgrades and cancellations. NRR also adds expansion from those customers; GRR does not. NRR can exceed 100% and shows whether the base is growing. GRR cannot exceed 100% and shows how much of the base is holding.
Is gross dollar retention the same as gross revenue retention?
Yes. Gross dollar retention (GDR), gross retention rate and gross revenue retention describe the same calculation. Differences between reported figures usually come from the inputs: ARR or MRR, monthly or annual, one cohort or a trailing-twelve-month blend.