Churn Calculator
Use this churn calculator to understand how many customers you lost during a period and how much retention work your loyalty program needs to offset.
How this calculator works
Measure customer churn rate, retained customers, and retention rate for a period.
Churn rate = customers lost during the period ÷ customers at the start of the periodRetention rate = 1 − churn rateRetained customers = customers at start − customers lost
Decide what "lost" means before you measure
In a subscription business a lost customer is one who cancelled. In retail, hospitality, and most loyalty programs there is no cancellation, so you have to define churn as no purchase within a set window. A sensible window is two to three times the typical gap between a customer's purchases: a cafe might use 60 days, a furniture retailer two years. Changing this definition moves the churn rate more than any campaign will, so fix it and keep it fixed.
The period changes the number
Monthly and annual churn are not comparable. A 5% monthly churn rate compounds to about 46% over a year (1 − 0.95¹²), not 60%. Report the period alongside the rate every time.
Customers acquired during the period should not be in the starting count, because they have not had a full period in which to churn. This calculator assumes the starting figure already excludes them.
What to do with the result
The retention rate feeds the customer lifespan input in the lifetime value calculator: lifespan is roughly one divided by annual churn. Beyond that, a blended churn rate mostly hides where the loss is. Split it by acquisition cohort, channel, and loyalty tier, and look for the segment that is dragging the average.
Common mistakes
Including new customers in the starting count. Counting paused or dormant accounts as churned. Using a window too short for the category, so infrequent buyers show up as lost when they are merely between purchases.
These calculators are intended for planning and benchmarking. Use your own finance, attribution, and campaign data before making final budget decisions.
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Frequently asked questions
What is a good churn rate?
It varies so much by category that cross-industry benchmarks mislead more than they help; a subscription software product and a neighbourhood cafe are not comparable. The useful comparisons are your own rate month over month and the rate for one segment against another, measured with the same definition and the same period.
How do I convert monthly churn to annual churn?
Annual churn = 1 − (1 − monthly churn)¹². Multiplying the monthly rate by twelve overstates it, because customers who churned early in the year cannot churn again.
Does a loyalty program reduce churn?
It can for the members, but measure it carefully. Compare churn for members and non-members over the same period with the same definition, and allow for the fact that customers who choose to join were usually more loyal to begin with.
What is negative churn?
Negative churn is a revenue concept: it occurs when growth in spend from retained customers more than offsets the revenue lost to those who left. This calculator measures customer-count churn, which can never be negative.
Worked examples
Each example runs the same formulas as the calculator above, using figures typical of that kind of business.
Fitness studio chain
A 5-location yoga and fitness studio seeing seasonal churn patterns during summer months.
| Customers at start | 2800 |
|---|---|
| Customers lost | 420 |
| Churn rate | 15% |
|---|---|
| Retention rate | 85% |
| Retained customers | 2,380 |
SaaS platform
A B2B software platform monitoring account cancellations month-over-month to measure program impact.
| Customers at start | 45000 |
|---|---|
| Customers lost | 2250 |
| Churn rate | 5% |
|---|---|
| Retention rate | 95% |
| Retained customers | 42,750 |