MRR calculator
The MRR calculator turns your plans and paying customers into monthly recurring revenue, ARR and what the average customer pays you.
Use it before you set a price, plan a hire or decide whether your growth rate gets you where you need to be.
A yearly plan counts as its price over 12 months and one-off charges stay out, the way Stripe defines MRR.
Built by the IndieHacked team
- $50,400 ARRMRR times 12
- $17.50 a month per customerAcross 240 paying customers
- 18 months to target$10,000 MRR around May 2028, at 5% a month
How the numbers work
What counts as MRR
MRR is the monthly value of the subscriptions customers pay for right now. Stripe calculates it that way in its billing analytics: a yearly plan counts as its price over 12 months, so a $192 yearly plan adds $16 to MRR in each month of its term.
Taxes, free trials, free plans, usage charges and one-off fees stay out. a16z's 16 startup metrics (2015) leaves setup fees and services out of recurring revenue for the same reason: they do not repeat. Enter what a customer pays after any standing discount, since that is the money that recurs.
- MRR
- sum of (customers x monthly price), a yearly price divided by 12
- ARR
- MRR x 12
- Revenue per customer
- MRR / paying customers
Time to your target
Give it a monthly growth rate and the calculator compounds your MRR month by month until it passes the target. It assumes the rate holds, which few products manage for long, so read the answer as a pace check rather than a plan.
Paul Graham puts a good growth rate during Y Combinator at 5% to 7% a week (Startup = Growth, September 2012). That is a weekly rate over a three-month batch, at the steepest stretch of a startup's curve. It is not a monthly target for a profitable product.
- Months to target
- log(target / MRR) / log(1 + monthly growth)
Questions founders ask
How do yearly plans count in MRR?
Divide the yearly price by 12 and count that in each month of the plan's term. A customer who pays $192 up front adds $16 to MRR, not $192 in the month the payment lands. Stripe's billing analytics treats yearly plans the same way.
Do trials, free users or one-off fees count towards MRR?
No. MRR counts paying subscriptions. A trial adds to MRR when it converts to a paid plan. Setup fees, services and one-off purchases are revenue, but not recurring revenue.
What is the difference between MRR and ARR?
ARR is MRR times 12: the recurring revenue you would collect over a year if nothing changed. It is a run rate, not a forecast, and not the revenue in your accounts for the year.
What is a good MRR growth rate?
No published benchmark covers bootstrapped products. The best-known figure is Paul Graham's from September 2012: 5% to 7% a week is good for a company inside Y Combinator, and 1% a week suggests the founders have not found what works yet. Compare your rate with your own last few months first.
How do discounts count?
Enter what the customer pays. A $20 plan sold at $15 for as long as the customer stays counts as $15, because $15 is what recurs. A discount for the first month only does not change MRR after that month.
Does a calculator work in euros, pounds or kronor?
Yes. The maths is the same in any currency and the dollar sign is a label. Enter every amount in the same currency.
Is anything I type into a calculator saved or sent anywhere?
No. A calculator runs in your browser and nothing you enter leaves it. Close the page and the numbers are gone.
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