glossary
NRR
Net Revenue Retention: this period’s recurring revenue from an existing customer cohort divided by that cohort’s revenue a period ago, counting expansion, contraction, and churn but no new logos.
NRR is the one number that summarizes the post-sale half of the funnel. It asks: if we signed no new customers at all, what would happen to revenue? Above 100%, the installed base grows on its own because expansion outruns churn; below it, new sales are filling a leaking bucket before they grow anything.
Because it nets four forces together (renewals, expansion, contraction, and churn), NRR rewards the unglamorous work: onboarding that reaches first value fast, expansion prompts at real usage milestones, and win-backs that arrive with a changelog instead of a coupon. The retention hub carries those plays.
Watch it by cohort, not blended, and pair it with churn and LTV to see the same machine from three angles. The lifecycle marketing guide puts NRR at the top of the post-sale scorecard.
formula
NRR = (starting MRR + expansion − contraction − churned MRR) ÷ starting MRR
worked example
A cohort was worth $84k MRR a year ago. Since then it added $14k in expansion, lost $3k to downgrades and $6k to churn: (84 + 14 − 3 − 6) ÷ 84 = 106% NRR. The base grows 6% a year before a single new logo.