Customer SuccessSaaSB2B ServicesGuardrailApproved

Gross Revenue Retention (GRR)

The percentage of recurring revenue retained from an existing cohort, counting only contraction and churn (excluding any expansion upside) — capped at 100%.

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Business Question Answered

“How much revenue would we retain from existing customers if we never sold them anything else?”

What This Tells You

The 'floor' of revenue durability — how sticky the existing base is, without any credit for upsell.

What It Does Not Tell You

Whether the business is actually growing — pair with NRR to see the expansion story too.

Formula & Example Calculation

(Starting Revenue − Contraction − Churn) / Starting Revenue × 100

Numerator

Starting Revenue − Contraction − Churn

Denominator

Starting Revenue

Example

$10M starting ARR − $0.4M contraction − $0.6M churn = $9M. GRR = $9M / $10M = 90%.

Recommended Dimensions & Segments

SegmentCohortPlan tier

Recommended visualization: Waterfall chart, capped at 100%

Technical Implementation Notes

GRR is capped at 100% by definition (expansion is excluded) — a GRR figure above 100% signals a calculation error.

Data Quality Checks

Verify GRR never exceeds 100% in reporting; investigate immediately if it does

Common Pitfalls

Confusing GRR with NRR and using them interchangeably in board reporting — they answer different questions

AI Explanation

Get a conversational, stakeholder-friendly explanation of this KPI, generated on demand.

Metadata

Funnel StageRetention

Owner RoleVP Customer Success / CFO

CadenceQuarterly

Data Sources

Billing SystemFinance / Revenue Recognition system