Gross Revenue Retention (GRR)
Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) measures the percentage of recurring revenue retained from existing customers over a period, excluding expansion. It's the purest measure of churn — what you kept of what you had.
Formula
GRR = (Starting MRR − Contraction − Churn) ÷ Starting MRR × 100
GRR is always ≤ 100% by definition (you can't gain ground without expansion). A GRR of 92% means you lost 8% of the cohort's revenue over the period.
GRR vs NRR
NRR includes expansion; GRR doesn't. If NRR is 120% and GRR is 90%, you're growing — but you're burning a leaky bucket fast. Healthy SaaS companies post GRR ≥ 92%.
How customer operations affects GRR
GRR improves with stronger retention work: better onboarding (fewer early churners), better support (less frustration churn), and proactive health monitoring (catching at-risk accounts before they cancel).
How BlueHill helps with GRR
BlueHill surfaces churn-risk signals on the customer record (drop in interactions, missed milestones, low portal usage) so CSMs can intervene early. The status report view makes it easy to QBR-prep weekly rather than scrambling at renewal.