---
title: What is ARPA?
url: https://markin.ai/glossary/arpa
category: Revenue and ARPU metrics
aliases: Average revenue per account
---

# ARPA

> ARPA, average revenue per account, is revenue divided by the number of accounts rather than individual users. It is the right denominator when one paying relationship covers several people, such as a family mobile plan, a shared streaming subscription or a household utility contract.

## How it is calculated

```
ARPA = Total revenue in period / Average active accounts in period
```

Report ARPA alongside users per account; ARPA can rise purely because households consolidated.

## Why it matters for ARPU

Choosing the wrong denominator hides the real story. In telco and streaming, account-level and user-level ARPU move in opposite directions surprisingly often.

## Related terms

- [ARPU](https://markin.ai/glossary/arpu), ARPU, average revenue per user, is total revenue in a period divided by the average number of active users in that period.
- [ARPPU](https://markin.ai/glossary/arppu), ARPPU, average revenue per paying user, divides revenue only by users who paid in the period.
- [Monetization rate](https://markin.ai/glossary/monetization-rate), Monetization rate is the share of active customers who pay anything in a period.
- [Expansion revenue](https://markin.ai/glossary/expansion-revenue), Expansion revenue is additional revenue from customers a business already has: upgrades, add-ons, cross-sell, higher usage or a move to a richer plan.

## Go deeper

- [ARPU benchmarks by industry](https://markin.ai/blog/arpu-benchmarks-by-industry-2026), How each sector defines its denominator.
- [Telco](https://markin.ai/industries/telco), Account-level economics in practice.

Source: https://markin.ai/glossary/arpa