Churn Rate

What is Churn Rate?

Churn rate is the percentage of customers who stop using your product or service during a given time period. It's the opposite of retention—and one of the most critical metrics for subscription and SaaS businesses.

Churn Rate Formula:
Churn Rate = (Customers Lost During Period / Customers at Start of Period) × 100

Example:

• Started month with 100 customers
• Lost 5 customers during the month
• Churn Rate = 5/100 × 100 = 5% monthly churn

Types of Churn:

• Voluntary churn: Customers cancel intentionally (found alternative, no longer need product)
• Involuntary churn: Customers lost due to failed payments, expired cards, technical issues

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Why Churn Rate Matters

The Leaky Bucket Problem

High churn makes growth nearly impossible.

The Math:

• Start with 100 customers
• Acquire 10 new customers each month
• Lose 10 customers each month (10% churn)
• Result: Zero growth despite acquisition efforts

You can't out-acquire high churn. Lowering churn compounds growth.

Revenue Impact

Churn directly affects revenue.

Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) Impact:

• 5% monthly churn = ~46% annual churn
• 10% monthly churn = ~72% annual churn
• Most of your acquired customers are gone within a year

Company Valuation

Investors value companies based on retention.

Valuation Impact:

• Low churn companies trade at 10-15x ARR
• High churn companies trade at 3-5x ARR
• Churn rate is a primary indicator of product-market fit and customer satisfaction

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Churn Rate Benchmarks

By Performance Level

Performance	Annual Churn	Monthly Churn
**Excellent**	<3%	<0.25%
**Good**	3-7%	0.25-0.6%
**Average**	7-10%	0.6-0.8%
**Poor**	>10%	>0.8%

By Company Type

Company Type	Annual Churn	Notes
**Enterprise B2B**	3-5%	Higher ACV, stickier
**Mid-Market B2B**	5-7%	Moderate churn
**SMB B2B**	7-10%+	Lower ACV, higher churn
**B2C Subscription**	10-15%+	Lower commitment

Churn Breakdown

Typical Split:

• Voluntary churn: ~2.6% annually
• Involuntary churn: ~0.9% annually
• Combined average: ~3.5% annually for healthy B2B SaaS

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Calculating Churn Rate

Customer Churn vs. Revenue Churn

Two different churn metrics:

Customer Churn Rate:

• Measures percentage of customers lost
• Simple count of canceled accounts
• Useful for understanding customer retention

Revenue Churn Rate:

• Measures percentage of revenue lost
• Accounts for downsells and expansion revenue
• More financially accurate

Example:

• Lose 5 customers out of 100 = 5% customer churn
• If those 5 customers were your smallest accounts = 2% revenue churn
• Revenue churn is often lower than customer churn

Monthly vs. Annual Churn

Monthly and annual churn don't convert linearly.

Rough Conversion:

• 1% monthly ≈ 11% annual
• 2% monthly ≈ 22% annual
• 5% monthly ≈ 46% annual
• 10% monthly ≈ 72% annual

Formula:
Annual Churn % = 1 - (1 - Monthly Ch Rate)^12

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Reducing Churn Rate

Identify At-Risk Customers

Spot churn before it happens.

Churn Indicators:

• Declining usage or logins
• Reduced feature adoption
• Support tickets increasing
• Payment failures
• Negative sentiment in communications

Tools to Monitor:

• Product analytics (usage patterns)
• Customer health scores
• NPS surveys and feedback
• Support ticket trends

Improve Onboarding

Early experience determines long-term retention.

Onboarding Best Practices:

• Fast time-to-value (TTV)
• Clear success metrics
• Proactive customer success outreach
• Training and resources
• Early check-ins after signup

Impact:

• Companies with strong onboarding see 30-50% lower churn
• First 90 days are critical—most churn happens early

Focus on Customer Success

Help customers achieve outcomes.

Customer Success Activities:

• Regular business reviews
• Proactive support and check-ins
• Feature adoption guidance
• Value realization tracking
• Expansion and upsell identification

Reduce Involuntary Churn

Fix preventable churn.

Involuntary Churn Solutions:

• Automated dunning for failed payments
• Multiple payment retry attempts
• Up-to-date billing information
• Clear payment reminders
• Easy payment method updates

Impact:

• Involuntary churn represents 20-30% of total churn
• Mostly preventable with proper payment systems

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Common Churn Mistakes

Ignoring Early Warning Signs

Most customers show churn signals before leaving.

Watch For:

• Declining engagement
• Increased support tickets
• Leadership changes at customer company
• Budget cuts or restructuring
• Competitor mentions

Not Measuring Cohort Churn

Aggregate churn hides problems.

Cohort Analysis:

• Track churn by signup month
• Compare different customer segments
• Identify problematic cohorts
• Measure improvement over time

Over-Focusing on Acquisition

You can't acquire your way out of churn problems.

Growth Reality:

• 10% monthly churn = lose most customers within a year
• Even with strong acquisition, high churn kills growth
• Retention is more valuable than acquisition

No Customer Success Investment

Catching churn requires investment.

Customer Success ROI:

• Every CSM typically saves $500K-$1M annually in retained revenue
• CSM costs are 5-10% of retained revenue
• Strong ROI when reducing churn

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Key Takeaways

• Churn rate = percentage of customers who stop using your product over time
• Benchmark: <3% annual churn (excellent), 3-7% (good), >10% (poor)
• Two types: voluntary (cancellations) and involuntary (payment failures)
• Customer churn differs from revenue churn (revenue accounts for downsells/expansion)
• Monthly and annual churn don't convert linearly (5% monthly ≈ 46% annual)
• Reduce churn through: onboarding improvement, customer success, at-risk monitoring
• Involuntary churn is 20-30% of total churn and mostly preventable
• Track cohort churn to identify problematic customer segments
• You can't grow sustainably with high churn—fix the leaky bucket first
• Customer success investment pays for itself through retained revenue

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Sources:

• Churnfree - B2B SaaS Churn Rate Benchmarks 2026
• SaaS Capital - Churn Benchmarks for B2B SaaS Companies
• Baremetrics - Proven Ways to Reduce SaaS Churn Rate
• Averi.ai - SaaS Metrics That Matter in 2026)