Churn rate calculator for customers, revenue and staff
This churn rate calculator measures how much you lose in a period and how much you keep. In Customers mode it gives customer churn and the retention rate. In Recurring revenue mode it gives gross and net revenue churn and net revenue retention. In Employees mode it gives the attrition (turnover) rate against average headcount.
Each result also comes annualised, so you can see what a 3% monthly churn means over a year, and customer mode estimates the average customer lifetime. Add what it costs to replace one employee and the Employees mode also gives the employee turnover cost. It runs in your browser with the numbers you type.
How to use the Churn & Retention Rate Calculator
- Choose Customers, Recurring revenue or Employees.
- Select the length of the period: a month, a quarter or a year.
- Enter the counts. For customers that is the number at the start, the new customers gained and the number at the end.
- Read the churn or attrition rate at the top and the retention, annualised rate and lifetime underneath.
Churn & Retention Rate Calculator features
Lost customers worked out for you
Enter start, new and end numbers; the lost customers are start + new − end.
Revenue churn and net retention
Separate cancellations, downgrades and expansion to see gross and net revenue retention, including above 100%.
Employee attrition
Separations divided by average headcount, the usual HR convention.
Employee turnover cost
Optionally multiply the leavers by your cost to replace one person (hiring, training, lost output) for the cost of turnover.
Annualised figures
Converts a monthly or quarterly rate to a yearly one by compounding.
Churn and retention formulas with an example
Customer churn = customers lost ÷ customers at the start × 100. You begin the month with 1,000 customers, gain 150 new ones and end with 1,050. You therefore lost 1,000 + 150 − 1,050 = 100, so churn is 10%. Customers gained during the period are excluded from the divisor, because they were not at risk at the start.
Retention = (customers at the end − new customers) ÷ customers at the start × 100 = (1,050 − 150) ÷ 1,000 = 90%. Churn and retention add up to 100%.
A 10% monthly churn compounds to 1 − 0.912 = 71.8% a year, and implies an average customer lifetime of 1 ÷ 0.10 = 10 months. Do not simply multiply a monthly rate by 12.
| Measure | Formula |
|---|---|
| Gross revenue churn | (cancelled + contraction) ÷ starting revenue |
| Net revenue churn | (cancelled + contraction − expansion) ÷ starting revenue |
| Net revenue retention | 100% − net revenue churn |
| Employee attrition | separations ÷ average headcount × 100 |
Limits and good practice
- Use one definition of “active customer” for the start and the end. A change in definition looks like churn.
- Annualising assumes the same rate repeats. Churn is usually higher early in a customer’s life, so a young base can look worse than a mature one.
- Employee attrition mixes voluntary and involuntary exits, and HR reports often use a different denominator, such as headcount at the start; compare only like with like.
- To put a value on retention, try the customer lifetime value calculator, and track satisfaction with the net promoter score calculator.
Churn & Retention Rate Calculator FAQ
How do you calculate churn rate?
Divide the customers lost in a period by the customers you had at the start, and multiply by 100. Losing 100 of 1,000 customers is a 10% churn rate.
How do you calculate customer retention rate?
Subtract new customers from the end count and divide by the start count: (1,050 − 150) ÷ 1,000 = 90%.
How do I convert monthly churn to annual churn?
Use 1 − (1 − monthly rate)^12. A 3% monthly churn is about 30.6% a year, not 36%.
What is net revenue retention?
The share of starting recurring revenue you still have after cancellations, downgrades and expansion from existing customers. It can exceed 100% when expansion outweighs losses.
How is employee attrition rate calculated?
Divide the number of employees who left by the average headcount for the period and multiply by 100. Average headcount is (start + end) ÷ 2.
How do I calculate the cost of employee turnover?
Estimate what it costs you to replace one person (advertising, recruiter fees, interview time, training and the output lost while the seat is empty), then multiply by the number of employees who left. Enter that per-person cost in Employees mode and the total appears. The per-person figure is your own estimate; this tool does not assume one.
What is the employee retention rate?
It is the share of staff who stayed: 100% minus the attrition rate. With 15.4% attrition, retention is 84.6%. Some HR teams measure retention only for the people employed at the start of the year, which gives a different figure; state your method when you compare.
What is the difference between churn and attrition?
Churn usually describes customers or revenue leaving a product or subscription; attrition usually describes employees leaving a company. The arithmetic is the same: people or money lost divided by the amount you had at the start, or by the average for attrition.
Why exclude new customers from the churn divisor?
Customers who joined during the period were not at risk at the start of it. Dividing by the starting base keeps the rate comparable from one period to the next, and a cohort view is the next step if you want to see how new customers behave.
What is a good churn rate?
It depends on the business model, price point and customer type, so compare with your own history. This tool shows no industry benchmarks.