Customer Retention Rate Calculator
Estimate retained customers by removing newly acquired customers from the ending base.
- Retained customers
- 950 customers
- Customers lost
- 50 customers
What is customer retention rate?
Customer retention rate is the percentage of customers you had at the start of a period who are still customers at the end. Subtract new customers from the ending count and divide by the starting count: (1,050 − 100) ÷ 1,000 = 95% retention, meaning 50 customers were lost.
(Ending − New) ÷ Starting × 100100% − Retention rateStarting − (Ending − New)Example: a dental practice’s patients this year
- 1,000 active patients in January, 1,050 in December
- 100 of the December patients were new this year
- Retained: 1,050 − 100 = 950; retention: 95%; lost: 50
Growth from 1,000 to 1,050 looks healthy, but it hides 50 lost patients that new ones had to replace.
Common mistakes
- Forgetting to remove new customers. Ending ÷ starting would show 105% here, which is growth, not retention.
- Counting new customers who already left. If some of the 100 new customers also left during the year, count retention directly from the starting list instead.
Customer Retention Rate FAQ
What is a good customer retention rate?
It depends on the business: subscriptions and contracts retain differently from occasional purchases. Track your own rate by period and by customer cohort.
How is retention related to churn?
For the same starting group and period, retention and churn add up to 100%.
Why does improving retention matter so much?
Each retained customer keeps generating revenue without a new acquisition cost, which raises lifetime value and shortens the time to recover marketing spend.