Gross Revenue Retention (GRR)
This metric is defined in Core Metrics. Customer Success lists it here as a key outcome metric.
GRR shows retention with expansion taken out.
Gross Revenue Retention (GRR): The percentage of revenue retained from existing customers, excluding expansion revenue. Also known as Gross Dollar Retention.
Also known as: GRR
Formula
GRR = (Beginning MRR - Contraction MRR - Churned MRR) / Beginning MRR × 100GRR = Sum of min(Beginning MRR, Current MRR) per customer / Beginning MRR × 100Benchmarks
- Below 80%: Severe retention problem
- 80-85%: Below average for most segments
- 85-90%: Average for SMB-focused businesses (Median for bootstrapped SaaS: 92%)
- 90-95%: Good, typical for mid-market
- 95%+: Excellent, typical for enterprise (90th percentile: 98%)
What It Tells You
The baseline health of your customer relationships, independent of upsell. Investors examine GRR alongside NRR because strong expansion can mask high churn.
Adjusted Variant
This metric has an adjusted form that leaves out temporary revenue movements.
Tag CEL events with the change_nature field (permanent, temporary, scheduled_reversal)
and filter to permanent to compute Adjusted GRR.
That keeps permanent contraction, a risk signal, apart from expected reversals, which are neutral.
Dual-Lens Note
GRR measures revenue retained from existing customers and leaves expansion out. The Operating and Market forms of other metrics differ in which expansion classifications they count, so GRR has nothing to filter. One calculation serves internal planning and investor reporting.
Related Metrics
Connected in the GASP relationship graph.
Upstream: what drives this
- Renewal Rate drives GRR (Customer Success)
- Churned MRR component of GRR (Core)
- Contraction MRR component of GRR (Core)
- MRR component of GRR (Core)
Downstream: what this drives
- GRR measures Customer (Entity)
- GRR measures Subscription (Entity)