# Churn Rate Calculator

- **URL:** https://codeasystem.com/calculators/business/churn-rate-calculator/
- **Category:** business
- **Description:** Measure the share of customers lost over a period and see the average customer lifetime it implies.
- **Primary output:** Churn rate: 5%

## Inputs
- Customers lost in period (name: `lost`, type: number, example: 45)
- Customers at period start (name: `starting`, type: number, example: 900)

## Outputs
- Churn rate: 5%
- Average customer lifetime: 20 months
- Customers retained: 855 of 900

## Formula / methodology
```
Churn rate = Customers lost / Starting customers
Avg lifetime (months) ≈ 100 / churn %
```

Customer churn is the fraction of your starting customer base that cancels during the period. Its reciprocal has a powerful interpretation: if 5% leave monthly, the average customer stays about 20 months, because 100 ÷ 5 = 20. That lifetime figure feeds directly into lifetime-value calculations and sets a ceiling on sustainable acquisition spending.

## Assumptions & limitations
- Measured on customer counts, though the same formula applies to revenue churn (MRR lost ÷ starting MRR).
- Period length matches your billing cycle; monthly churn and annual churn differ enormously.
- Cancellations happen uniformly through the period.

## How to use
1. **Pick a measurement period**; Match your billing cycle; monthly for most subscriptions, annual for enterprise contracts.
2. **Enter starting customers and losses**; Count cancellations and non-renewals during the period; exclude pauses if you reactivate them reliably.
3. **Read churn and lifetime**; The lifetime row converts churn into the average months a customer remains, the number LTV models need.

## Example
Losing 45 of 900 customers in a month is a 5% monthly churn rate; implying the average customer sticks around about 20 months.

Result for these inputs:

```
Churn rate: 5%
```

## About this calculator
### Small churn differences compound brutally

At 3% monthly churn the average customer lasts ~33 months; at 7%, barely 14. Because acquisition cost must be repaid out of each customer’s lifetime, halving churn roughly doubles what you can afford to spend to win a customer; often a bigger lever than any marketing optimization.

### Good churn benchmarks

- Consumer subscription apps often see 5–10% monthly churn.
- SMB SaaS performs well at 2–4% monthly.
- Enterprise B2B targets under 1–2% monthly (under 10–15% annually).

Early-stage startups naturally churn higher; what matters is the trend as you tighten onboarding and fit.

## FAQs
### What is a good churn rate?

Depends on model: consumer apps tolerate high single digits monthly, while B2B SaaS aims for low single digits. Compare within your segment, and watch direction of travel more than the absolute level.

### How is customer churn different from revenue churn?

Customer churn counts accounts lost; revenue churn counts MRR lost. Losing many small customers looks worse on one and better on the other; track both.

### Why does lifetime equal 100 ÷ churn?

If churn is a constant probability p per month, expected tenure is its reciprocal: 1/p periods. At 5% churn, 1/0.05 = 20 months.

## Related calculators
- [MRR Calculator](https://codeasystem.com/calculators/business/mrr-calculator/)
- [Customer Lifetime Value Calculator](https://codeasystem.com/calculators/business/customer-lifetime-value-calculator/)
- [LTV:CAC Ratio Calculator](https://codeasystem.com/calculators/business/ltv-to-cac-ratio-calculator/)
- [CAC Calculator](https://codeasystem.com/calculators/business/cac-calculator/)

---
Last updated: 2026-08-23 · Version: 1.0.0 · [HTML version](https://codeasystem.com/calculators/business/churn-rate-calculator/)