The percentage of recurring revenue retained from existing customers over a period, including the effects of upgrades, downgrades, and churn, but excluding revenue from new customers. Expressed as a percentage, where above 100% means expansion revenue is outpacing losses from downgrades and churn.
Why it matters
NRR is one of the most closely watched metrics in subscription businesses because it isolates how well a company retains and grows revenue from its existing base — a company with strong NRR can grow meaningfully even without adding many new customers.
In a sentence
"Our NRR came in at 115%, meaning existing customers expanded their spend enough to more than offset the customers we lost."
Related terms
- Antonyms: Churn rate (the loss side of the same underlying dynamic NRR measures).
- Often confused with: GRR (Gross Revenue Retention) — NRR includes the positive effect of upsells and expansions, while GRR only accounts for losses (downgrades and churn) and caps at 100%, making it a stricter, downside-only measure.
- Synonyms: Net dollar retention (NDR) — used interchangeably with NRR in most contexts.