The single most important metric for any subscription business
MRR = Monthly Recurring Revenue. The total predictable revenue you earn from subscribers each month. Used by SaaS, newsletters, memberships, and creators.
Sum every active subscription's monthly price. 100 subs × $10/mo = $1,000 MRR. Annual subs count as their monthly equivalent ($120/yr = $10 MRR).
MRR is more valuable than one-time revenue. Investors value SaaS at 5–15× ARR (MRR × 12). A $10K MRR business can be worth $600K+.
Add up what every active subscriber pays you in a normal month. An annual plan is divided by twelve rather than counted in the month it was paid, which is the single most common mistake — booking a year's payment as one month's MRR makes a business look like it grew 1,100% and then collapsed. Discounts count at the discounted price. One-off setup fees, consulting and refunds are not MRR at all, because none of them recurs.
MRR moves for five separate reasons and lumping them together hides everything useful. New MRR is from customers who did not exist last month. Expansion MRR is existing customers paying more — upgrades, seat additions, usage overages. Reactivation MRR is churned customers coming back. Contraction MRR is downgrades. Churned MRR is cancellations. Net new MRR is the first three minus the last two, and it is the number that tells you whether the business is growing.
| Component | Amount | Running MRR |
|---|---|---|
| Starting MRR | $10,000 | $10,000 |
| New | +$1,200 | $11,200 |
| Expansion | +$400 | $11,600 |
| Reactivation | +$150 | $11,750 |
| Contraction | −$300 | $11,450 |
| Churn | −$800 | $10,650 |
| Net new MRR | +$650 | $10,650 |
Monthly churn sets a hard limit on how big a subscription business can get at a fixed level of new sales. At 5% monthly churn, adding $1,000 of new MRR every month levels off at $20,000 MRR — the arithmetic is new MRR divided by the churn rate, and it does not care how good the product is. At 3% the same $1,000 a month settles at $33,333. Halving churn does more for the ceiling than doubling sales effort, which is why mature subscription businesses spend more on retention than acquisition.
ARR is usually just MRR × 12, and quoting it is a presentation choice rather than a different measurement. It is fair when contracts really are annual and renewal is contractual. It is misleading when the customers are month-to-month and can leave in thirty days — calling $5,000 of monthly revenue "$60,000 ARR" implies a commitment that does not exist. If you are using the number to decide whether to quit a job, use MRR and a churn assumption, not ARR.
You may also find these useful: Residual Income and Money & Side Hustle Glossary.
Monthly Recurring Revenue — the predictable subscription revenue a business collects in a normal month, with annual plans divided by twelve rather than counted all at once.
No. MRR counts only revenue that recurs. One-off setup fees, consulting work and physical product sales are real revenue but not MRR, because they do not repeat next month without new effort.
Divide each annual plan by twelve and count that as the monthly figure. A $1,200 annual subscription is $100 of MRR every month for twelve months, not $1,200 in the month it was paid.
Lower is the only honest answer, because churn sets the ceiling: new MRR divided by the monthly churn rate is where the business levels off. At 5% monthly churn, $1,000 a month of new MRR caps out at $20,000. At 2% it caps at $50,000 on the same effort.
Tax rules, limits and pay data change. Check the current figures with the primary source before acting on them.