Net Revenue Retention (NRR): Definition, Formula & SaaS Benchmarks
What is Net Revenue Retention (NRR)?
Net Revenue Retention (NRR), also called Net Dollar Retention (NDR), measures the percentage of recurring revenue retained from existing customers over a period — including expansion (upsells, cross-sells, seat growth) and subtracting contraction and churn. An NRR above 100% means a company grows revenue from its existing customer base alone, without adding a single new customer.
Formula
NRR = (Starting ARR + Expansion − Contraction − Churn) ÷ Starting ARR × 100Worked Example
If a cohort starts the year at $10M ARR, expands by $2M, contracts by $500K, and churns $500K, ending ARR is $11M. NRR = $11M ÷ $10M × 100 = 110%. The existing customer base grew revenue by 10% without a single new logo.
What Good Looks Like
Thresholds derived from live data across 0 public SaaS companies tracked on SaaSDB.
Live Rankings
View full rankings →| Rank | Company | Net Revenue Retention (NRR) |
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between NRR and GRR?
Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) only measures retention without expansion — it caps at 100%. NRR includes expansion above 100%, making it the more informative metric for evaluating growth potential from the existing base.
What NRR is considered excellent for SaaS?
NRR above 120% is considered excellent. The best-performing companies (Snowflake, Datadog, MongoDB at peak) have reported NRR above 130%, meaning their existing customers double revenue every ~5 years without new sales.
Can NRR be too high?
Extremely high NRR (>150%) can mask low new logo volume. A healthy SaaS business needs both strong NRR from the existing base and continued new customer acquisition to sustain long-term growth.