What is customer upgrade rate?
Customer upgrade rate is the percentage of customers at the start of a period who upgraded during it. An upgrade is any change that raises what a current customer pays: a higher plan, more seats or a new recurring add-on.
It counts people, not dollars. Ten customers adding one seat each and one customer moving to your top plan are very different in revenue. Upgrade rate shows how broad the upgrades are. Expansion rate shows how much they are worth.
The upgrade rate formula
Worked example
A hypothetical company with about $40,000 MRR starts July with 400 paying customers. During July, 6 of them upgrade: four add seats and two move to a higher plan.
In the $10K–$50K tier the benchmark median is 1.8% a month, so 1.5% is a little below it. Given how rough that benchmark is, the more useful question is which plans the six came from, and why the other customers on those plans didn’t move.
Why upgrade rate matters
A low upgrade rate with high expansion MRR means a few large customers drive all your growth from the base. That is a risk: if one of them churns, expansion collapses with it. A broad upgrade rate is steadier.
It also tests your pricing ladder. If customers rarely move up, the next plan may be too far away in price, or the feature that should pull them up sits in the wrong tier.
Where it comes from on Stripe
On Stripe, an upgrade is a subscription change that raises the recurring amount: a move to a more expensive price, a higher quantity or an added recurring item. North Metric counts these changes from your subscriptions and tracks the dollars as expansion in MRR Movement.
Upgrade rate vs expansion rate
| Upgrade rate | Expansion rate | |
|---|---|---|
| Unit | Customers | MRR dollars |
| Denominator | Customers at start | Starting MRR |
| Shows | How many customers moved up | How much revenue the upgrades added |
Common upgrade rate mistakes
- Counting new customers. Only customers paying at the start of the period can upgrade in it. A new customer choosing a big plan is new business.
- Counting a customer more than once. Two seat changes in one month is one upgraded customer.
- Counting price increases you made. If you raise prices for everyone, every customer “upgrades”. Report a price change separately so the rate still reflects customer choices.
Upgrade rate benchmarks
Benchmarks by revenue stage, compiled from published SaaS studies and North Metric’s own analysis. For upgrade rate they are a rough heuristic, not measured data: built from expansion revenue patterns and converted from annual figures. Use them for scale, and trust your own trend over them.
| Stage · MRR | Bottom 25% | Median | Top 25% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed · < $10K | 0.4% | 1.1% | 2.4% |
| Early · $10K – $50K | 0.9% | 1.8% | 3.5% |
| Growth · $50K – $100K | 1.1% | 2.4% | 4.2% |
| Scale · $100K – $500K | 1.4% | 2.7% | 4.9% |
| Enterprise · $500K+ | 1.6% | 2.9% | 5.6% |
Frequently asked questions
Is a 2% monthly upgrade rate good?
Below $50K MRR it is above the benchmark median, which is 1.1% under $10K and 1.8% from $10K to $50K. Above $50K MRR it is below the median: 2.4% from $50K to $100K, 2.7% from $100K to $500K and 2.9% above that. These benchmarks are a rough heuristic, not measured data, so weigh your own trend more.
What counts as an upgrade?
A current customer whose recurring amount goes up: a higher plan, more seats or a new recurring add-on. A customer who canceled and came back is a reactivation, not an upgrade.
Should a customer who upgrades twice count twice?
No. Upgrade rate counts customers, so each customer counts once per period however many changes they made. The dollar total of all their changes belongs in expansion rate.
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.