MRR calculator for SaaS

Worked example: three plans, one annual deal

MRR is each plan's monthly price times its paying customers, summed, with annual plans divided by 12. The calculator opens with a small SaaS company on two monthly plans and two annual contracts: MRR is €2,585 and ARR is €31,020. People get annual deals wrong: both customers paid €4,800 up front, but MRR still counts each at €400 a month.

Starter   29 x 24          =    696
Pro       99 x 11          =  1,089
Annual    4,800 / 12 x 2   =    800
MRR                        =  2,585
ARR       2,585 x 12       = 31,020

The annual deals are the part people get wrong. Both customers paid €4,800 up front, so the bank received €9,600 in one month. MRR still counts them at €400 each, every month, because MRR measures what repeats, not when cash arrives. For cash, that up-front payment matters a lot; for MRR, it does not. The calculator also has last month's MRR filled in (€2,350), which gives the growth rate: +10.0 percent.

Stripe describes MRR as the predictable recurring income from customers on a monthly basis, and gives customers times average monthly revenue per customer as its formula, in its MRR explainer.

Why MRR moved: the four movements

MRR changes for four reasons: new customers, expansion from existing ones, contraction from downgrades or discounts, and churn from cancellations. Net new MRR is new plus expansion minus contraction and churn. A growth rate alone hides which one is moving, so a healthy 10 percent can sit on top of a loss you have to replace every month.

MRR last month       2,350
+ new MRR              270
+ expansion MRR         70
- contraction MRR       20
- churned MRR           85
= MRR now            2,585

net new MRR = 270 + 70 - 20 - 85
            = 235 (+10.0%)
MRR lost    = (20 + 85) / 2,350
            = 4.5% of last month

New MRR is new customers. The expansion is one Starter customer moving to Pro (99 minus 29 is 70), the contraction a discount given at renewal, and churn the customers who cancelled. Read it like this. New and expansion MRR show whether selling and upselling work. Contraction and churn show whether customers stay. In the example, €105 of the €2,350 the company started with was lost in one month. Growth still looks healthy at 10 percent, but that loss has to be replaced every month before any growth counts. If MRR lost creeps up while new MRR stays flat, growth will stall even though nothing looks broken yet. That is the signal to talk to the customers who left, before spending more on getting new ones. The churn calculator goes deeper on that side.

What counts as MRR, and what does not

MRR counts revenue that repeats: active paid subscriptions at the price actually paid, annual and quarterly plans converted to a monthly value, and recurring add-ons. It leaves out setup fees, one-off projects, free trials and deals that are signed but not yet paying. Usage-based billing is the grey area, so count the part that reliably repeats and say which method you use.

• Counts: active paid subscriptions at the price actually paid, annual and quarterly plans converted to a monthly value, and recurring add-ons.
• Does not count: setup fees, one-off projects, free trials, and deals that are signed but not yet paying.
• Use care with: usage-based billing. Count the part that reliably repeats, or use a three-month average, and say which one you use.

For the full definition and how investors read it, see what is MRR. If you already know your MRR and want ARR from a mix of monthly and annual contracts, use the ARR calculator.

How Plainhub keeps MRR current

In Plainhub you add customers with their monthly revenue and a status: active, expected, at risk or lost. MRR only counts active, recurring customers, plus any recurring income you record, so a signed deal that has not started paying does not inflate it. Expected revenue shows separately as pipeline, and revenue at risk shows as its own number.

Because MRR sits in the same model as your costs, every change flows straight into net burn and runway. If one customer brings in 30 percent or more of revenue, Plainhub warns you and shows what your net burn would be without them. When a payment you expected is late, it shows up in your alerts.