---
title: What is Gross revenue retention?
url: https://markin.ai/glossary/gross-revenue-retention
category: Revenue and ARPU metrics
aliases: GRR
---

# Gross revenue retention

> Gross revenue retention measures how much starting cohort revenue survives a period counting only losses: churn and downgrades, never expansion. It is capped at one hundred percent and exposes the leak that net retention can otherwise hide behind strong upsell.

## How it is calculated

```
GRR = (Starting revenue - Contraction - Churn) / Starting revenue
```

Report GRR next to NRR. A wide gap means expansion is masking a base that is quietly draining.

## Why it matters for ARPU

Fixing the leak is usually cheaper per point of ARPU than selling harder into it, and it makes every later expansion decision worth more.

## Related terms

- [Net revenue retention](https://markin.ai/glossary/net-revenue-retention), Net revenue retention measures revenue from an existing cohort at the end of a period against its revenue at the start, including upgrades, downgrades and churn, but excluding new customers.
- [Churn rate](https://markin.ai/glossary/churn-rate), Churn rate is the share of customers, or of revenue, lost in a period.
- [Voluntary vs involuntary churn](https://markin.ai/glossary/voluntary-churn), Voluntary churn is a customer deciding to leave.
- [Save offer](https://markin.ai/glossary/save-offer), A save offer is an incentive presented to a customer who is about to leave: a discount, a pause, a plan downgrade or a service remedy.

## Go deeper

- [Churn prediction vs retention decisioning](https://markin.ai/compare/churn-prediction-vs-retention-decisioning), Knowing who leaves is not keeping them.
- [Retention decisioning](https://markin.ai/solutions/retention-decisioning), Closing the leak systematically.

Source: https://markin.ai/glossary/gross-revenue-retention