Churn Rate

Churn rate is the percentage of customers (or revenue) lost over a given period, typically measured monthly.

Customer churn (the percentage of customers who leave) and revenue churn (the percentage of revenue lost, which can differ from customer churn if departing customers were smaller or larger than average) tell different stories and both matter — a business can have flat customer churn while revenue churn worsens if its highest-value customers are the ones leaving.

"Negative churn" (also called negative revenue churn) happens when expansion revenue from existing customers — upsells, seat expansion, plan upgrades — more than offsets revenue lost from cancellations, meaning the existing customer base actually grows in revenue even with zero new customer acquisition. It's one of the strongest signals of a healthy subscription business.