How to read your NRR
NRR (net revenue retention) is the MRR you have today from customers who were paying at the start of the period, as a share of what they paid then. It counts upgrades, downgrades, cancellations and customers who came back. New customers stay out.
Above 100% is best-in-class: existing customers grow revenue even without new signups. 90% to 100% is acceptable at an early stage. Below 90% signals a retention or monetization problem.
A monthly NRR compounds. Example: 99% a month is about 89% over a year if every month looks the same, which is below the 90% line.
How to read your GRR
GRR (gross revenue retention) is the share of starting MRR you kept after downgrades and cancellations, before any expansion. It can't go above 100%, so expansion can't hide a leak.
Above 95% is strong and above 90% is healthy. Below 85% means you lose a material part of your base.
GRR is the purer retention measure. If it's low, upgrades are filling a hole that cancels and downgrades keep digging.
NRR vs GRR
Both start from the same MRR and subtract the same losses. NRR adds expansion back; GRR doesn't. The gap between the two is your expansion.
Example: an NRR of 102% with a GRR of 88% means expansion added 14 points and covered the 12% of starting MRR that left or shrank. Growth looks fine, but the leak is still there. Watch both: NRR for growth from existing customers, GRR for how much of the base you hold.
If cancellations are the biggest part of your loss, see how your churn rate stands in SaaS churn rate benchmarks.
What moves NRR up or down
Down: cancellations, downgrades, fewer seats and, for usage-priced customers, lower usage. Usage-only customers often don't cancel at all; they fade, and their MRR shrinks month by month.
Up: upgrades, added seats, more usage, customers who come back, and forever discounts that end at renewal, which return as expansion.
The down side is where churn prevention pays. North Metric's churn prediction flags customers likely to churn and usage drops before the MRR goes, ranked by money at risk, with the move to keep each one ready for you to approve.