What Is Gross Revenue Retention (GRR)?
Gross revenue retention (GRR) is the percentage of recurring revenue you keep from existing customers over a period, before any expansion. Because it ignores upsell, GRR can never exceed 100% — making it the purest measure of how much revenue leaks through churn and downgrades.
Key takeaways
- GRR = (Starting MRR − Churn − Contraction) ÷ Starting MRR; expansion is excluded.
- GRR caps at 100% — it's pure retention before any growth.
- The gap between NRR and GRR shows how much expansion is masking churn.
How to calculate GRR
GRR = (Starting MRR − Churned MRR − Contraction MRR) ÷ Starting MRR
No expansion is added back, so GRR is always ≤ 100%.
GRR vs NRR
| Metric | Includes expansion? | Ceiling |
|---|---|---|
| GRR | No | 100% |
| NRR | Yes | No ceiling |
Frequently asked questions
What's a good GRR?
For B2B SaaS, GRR above ~90% is strong; best-in-class enterprise products can exceed 95%. Lower-ACV, SMB-focused businesses typically see lower GRR.
What's the difference between GRR and NRR?
GRR measures retention before expansion and caps at 100%; NRR adds expansion back in and can exceed 100%. GRR is the floor; NRR shows whether the base is growing.
Why can't GRR be over 100%?
Because it excludes expansion revenue. The best you can do is lose nothing — retain every euro — which is exactly 100%.
Related service: Report GRR and NRR from HubSpot