Gross Revenue Retention (GRR)
Also known as: Gross Dollar Retention, GDR
The percentage of recurring revenue retained from existing customers, excluding expansion. GRR can never exceed 100%. It purely measures your ability to keep what you have.
Formula
(Starting ARR - Contraction - Churn) / Starting ARR × 100 Who Is This Metric For?
Monitor weekly to catch emerging retention issues before they become trends.
Report monthly to leadership as the baseline health indicator of the customer base.
Understand GRR trends in your book of business to prioritize at-risk accounts.
GRR is the foundation of sustainable growth — if it’s declining, scaling efforts are wasted.
Priority by Stage
This is your most important metric. If GRR is low, nothing else matters — you're losing the foundation.
GRR remains critical. Your playbooks and health scores should be directly aimed at improving this number.
GRR should be stable and high. Now focus on understanding GRR by cohort and segment to find hidden weaknesses.
GRR should be consistently strong. Shift attention to optimizing cost-to-retain and identifying structural churn vs. preventable churn.
Benchmarks
| Segment | Good | Great | World Class |
|---|---|---|---|
| SMB | 80-85% | 85-90% | 90%+ |
| Mid-Market | 85-90% | 90-95% | 95%+ |
| Enterprise | 90-95% | 95-98% | 98%+ |
Common Mistakes
- Ignoring GRR because NRR looks healthy — expansion can mask a retention problem for a while, but not forever
- Not separating voluntary churn (customer chose to leave) from involuntary churn (payment failure, company closed)
- Measuring GRR annually only — monthly or quarterly cohort GRR catches trends much earlier