What are New Paid Subscriptions?
New Paid Subscriptions is the count of subscriptions where a first paid invoice was generated during the period. It measures new paying customers entering your business — distinct from reactivations (returning customers) and expansions (existing customers upgrading).
This metric directly feeds the “New Business” component of MRR Movement. When New Paid Subscriptions grows, your top-of-funnel is working. When it stalls while MRR still grows, you’re relying on expansion revenue — sustainable for a while, but eventually you need new logos.
The formula
Worked example
In July, your Stripe account processed these subscription events:
New Paid Subscriptions = 30
22 direct signups + 8 trial conversions = 30 new paid subscriptions. The 3 reactivations are tracked separately (they had a previous billing relationship). The 12 upgrades are existing customers, not new subscriptions.
Why this matters
If those 30 new subscriptions average $80/month, they contribute $2,400 in New Business MRR. If your churn rate is 4% and you have 200 active paid subscriptions, you’re losing ~8 per month. At 30 new, you’re netting +22 — healthy growth. Drop below 8 and the base starts shrinking.
How it’s computed
North Metric derives New Paid Subscriptions from the MRR movement engine, which classifies every subscription change into one of five categories: New, Expansion, Reactivation, Contraction, and Churn.
The movement engine pipeline
The movement engine compares the current period’s active subscriptions against the previous period’s. A subscription that appears for the first time with a paid invoice is classified as “New Business.” This is the same engine that produces the five-component MRR Movement waterfall — New Paid Subscriptions is the count behind the “New” component.
Reactivations vs new
If a customer previously had a paid subscription, churned, and then subscribes again, the movement engine classifies them as a “Reactivation” — not “New Business.” This distinction matters because reactivated customers have different retention profiles than truly new ones.
Trial conversions
A trial that converts to a paid subscription counts as a new paid subscription — the first paid invoice marks the conversion. The trial period itself doesn’t generate a count; only the moment payment begins. This aligns with Trial-to-Paid, which measures the conversion rate of this same transition.
New Paid Subscriptions vs New Business MRR
Both metrics come from the same movement engine classification, but they measure different things.
| New Paid Subscriptions | New Business MRR | |
|---|---|---|
| What it measures | Count of new paying customers | Revenue from new paying customers |
| Unit | Count (integer) | Currency ($/€/£) |
| A $29 signup and a $249 signup | Each counts as 1 | $29 and $249 respectively |
| Sensitive to plan mix | No — a customer is a customer | Yes — heavily weighted by plan price |
| Best for | Funnel health, acquisition velocity, churn offset | Revenue growth attribution, CAC payback, unit economics |
Common New Paid Subscriptions mistakes
- Counting reactivations as new. A returning customer has different economics than a first-time buyer — their CAC is lower, but so is their expected lifetime (they already churned once). Lumping them together distorts both acquisition and retention analysis.
- Including trial starts. A trial is not a paid subscription until the first invoice is paid. Counting trial starts inflates the number and creates a false signal of acquisition health. Wait for the conversion event.
- Ignoring the churn offset. 30 new subscriptions sounds great until you learn you lost 35. Always pair New Paid Subscriptions with Customer Churn Rate to see net customer growth.
- Not tracking by channel. Knowing you added 25 new subscriptions is less useful than knowing 15 came from organic, 8 from paid, and 2 from referrals. Attribution turns a vanity count into an actionable signal.
- Comparing months without adjusting for days. February has 28 days; March has 31. A 10% drop in New Paid Subscriptions from March to February might be entirely explained by fewer calendar days. Normalize to a daily rate for fair comparison.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a new paid subscription?
A subscription where the first paid invoice was generated during the reporting period. This includes direct signups (no trial) and trial conversions. It excludes reactivations (customers who previously had a paid subscription and are returning) and plan changes on existing subscriptions.
Does a trial conversion count as a new paid subscription?
Yes. When a trial ends and the first paid invoice is generated, the subscription becomes a new paid subscription. The trial period itself doesn’t count — only the conversion moment, when the customer starts paying.
How does this relate to MRR Movement?
New Paid Subscriptions is the count behind the “New Business” component of MRR Movement. If you have 25 new paid subscriptions averaging $100/month, the New Business MRR component is $2,500. The count tells you how many; the MRR tells you how much.
What’s a good number of new paid subscriptions per month?
There’s no universal benchmark — it depends on your business model, market, and stage. The meaningful comparison is against your churn: if you’re losing 15 customers/month to churn, you need more than 15 new subscriptions/month to grow. The ratio of new to churned determines whether your customer base is expanding, flat, or contracting.
Why does North Metric use new_business_count instead of counting Stripe subscription.created events?
Stripe’s subscription.created event fires when the subscription object is created, which might be a free trial with no payment. The movement engine waits for the first paid invoice — the point when the customer actually starts paying. This also correctly separates new subscriptions from reactivations, which Stripe’s event stream doesn’t distinguish.
From metric to action
North Metric ranks your paying Stripe customers by money at risk, so you see who is likely to leave before this number moves. See how churn prediction works.