What is net revenue retention?
Net revenue retention, or NRR, is the share of recurring revenue you keep and grow from existing customers over a period, including expansion. Because expansion is counted, NRR can exceed 100%.
NRR above 100% means your existing customers grow your revenue even if you add no new logos. It is one of the metrics investors weight most heavily, because it signals durable, compounding growth.
The NRR formula.
NRR = starting MRR plus expansion MRR minus churned MRR minus contraction MRR, divided by starting MRR, as a percentage. The only difference from GRR is that NRR adds expansion.
Measure all four inputs over the same period on the same starting base.
A worked example.
You start with 100,000 dollars of MRR. You add 15,000 in expansion, lose 5,000 to churn and 2,000 to downgrades. NRR is 100,000 plus 15,000 minus 7,000, divided by 100,000, which is 108%.
What is a good NRR?
For B2B SaaS, 100% is the line: above it, your base grows on its own. 110% or higher is strong, and the strongest companies post 120% or more. Below 100% means your base is shrinking and new sales has to run just to stand still.
Always read NRR with GRR. A 110% NRR with an 85% GRR means heavy churn masked by a few expanding accounts, which is more fragile than the headline suggests.
How to improve your NRR.
Two levers: expand existing accounts, and stop the churn and downgrades that drag the number down. Expansion is the growth side; retention is the defense.
Both depend on customers reaching and growing value. Content that helps customers adopt and expand supports NRR directly. See how we tie content to retention and expansion.