Retention and churn calculator
See how many customers you keep and lose in a period, how long an average customer stays, and the right way to turn yearly churn into monthly.
Example numbers. Replace them with yours.
- Retention rate
- 85%
- Churn rate
- 15%
- Customers lost
- 300
- Average lifetime (periods)
- 6.67
- Monthly churn from annual
- 5.6%
- Annual ÷ 12 (understates)
- 4.2%
What it calculates
Retention rate is the share of customers you had at the start who are still buying at the end, not counting new ones. Churn is the share you lost. Average lifetime is 1 ÷ churn. Many people divide annual churn by 12 to get a monthly figure; that understates it because churn compounds.
How to read the result
Use the same period for all three counts: a month gives monthly churn, a year gives annual churn. Compare the last two rows to see how much dividing by 12 gets wrong. For stores without subscriptions, define an active customer clearly, for example a purchase in the last 12 months.
Learn the metric:Customer lifetime value (LTV)
The formula
Lost = Start + New − End Retention = (End − New) ÷ Start Churn = Lost ÷ Start Average lifetime = 1 ÷ churn (in periods) Monthly churn from annual = 1 − (1 − annual)^(1/12)
Worked example
Example inputs
- Customers at the start
- 2,000
- Customers at the end
- 2,100
- New customers in the period
- 400
- Annual churn to convert
- 50%
Results
- Retention rate
- 85%
- Churn rate
- 15%
- Customers lost
- 300
- Average lifetime (periods)
- 6.67
- Monthly churn from annual
- 5.6%
- Annual ÷ 12 (understates)
- 4.2%
What changes the result
Customers at the end at five values. Every other input stays as in the worked example; the highlighted row is the example.
| Customers at the end | Retention rate | Churn rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1,890 | 74.5% | 25.5% |
| 1,995 | 79.8% | 20.3% |
| 2,100 | 85% | 15% |
| 2,205 | 90.3% | 9.8% |
| 2,310 | 95.5% | 4.5% |
Use your real numbers
Analify reads customers and their orders from Shopify and shows new and returning customers and repeat purchase rates over time.
Analify already reads 3 of these 4 inputs live, from Shopify
Start freeQuestions
How do I calculate customer retention rate?
(Customers at the end − new customers) ÷ customers at the start.
What is the difference between retention and churn?
They add up to 100%. Retention is the share you kept; churn is the share you lost.
How do I convert annual churn to monthly?
Use 1 − (1 − annual churn)^(1/12). Dividing by 12 gives a number that is too low.
Do you store what I enter?
No. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing is sent to Analify.
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