Metric guide · Revenue
Subscriber churn rate
Short answer
Subscriber churn rate is the share of paying subscribers lost during a month. It is calculated as paid subscribers who ended in the month divided by paid subscribers at the start of that month. New subscribers acquired during the month are left out of both numbers so growth does not dilute the rate.
The formula
Subscriber churn rate = paid subscribers lost in month ÷ paid subscribers at start of month × 100
Unit: Percent. Better when it goes down.
How to calculate it
- Count active paid subscribers on the first day of the month.
- Count how many of those subscribers ended their paid access during the month, including failed renewals that were not recovered.
- Divide the lost count by the starting count and multiply by 100.
- Report monthly and annual plans separately if both are material, because annual subscribers can only churn at renewal.
Mistakes that distort it
Using the ending count includes people who joined during the month and makes churn look lower when you grow quickly. Use the starting count.
A subscriber who turns off auto-renew still has paid access until the period ends. Count them as churned when access ends, not when they cancel.
A trial that does not convert was never a paid subscriber. Track it in trial-to-paid conversion instead.
Months differ in length, and a rolling window will not match a calendar-month figure from your billing tool. Use one convention across every period you compare.
Where Sondola reads it from
Sondola reads this metric from RevenueCat and Stripe, with the source and period on every reading. Each reading keeps where it came from, the period and the date it was recorded, and you can download all of it at any time.
See all 34 integrations →Questions
What is the difference between subscriber churn and logo churn?
Subscriber churn counts individual paid subscriptions and suits consumer apps. Logo churn counts paying accounts, where one account may hold many seats, and suits B2B SaaS. The formula has the same shape: lost at period end divided by paying at period start.
How do I convert monthly churn to annual churn?
Annual churn is 1 minus (1 minus monthly churn) raised to the 12th power. Multiplying monthly churn by 12 overstates it.
Related metrics
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