10 Stripe Metrics Every SaaS Founder Should Track Daily

Stripe is the payment backbone of most SaaS businesses. It processes your subscriptions, handles your billing, and contains a goldmine of data. But the default Stripe Dashboard shows you revenue—not the metrics that actually drive growth.

Here are the 10 Stripe metrics you should track every day, and why.

1. Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

What it is: The sum of all recurring subscription revenue normalized to a monthly value.

Why it matters: MRR is your north star metric. It tells you if your business is growing, stable, or declining.

How to calculate from Stripe:

Sum all active subscriptions, normalizing annual plans to monthly
Annual plan: $1,200/year = $100 MRR

What to watch:

• Is MRR growing month-over-month?
• What's your MoM growth rate?
• Is growth accelerating or decelerating?

2. MRR Movement

Breaking down MRR into components tells a richer story:

Component

Formula

What It Tells You

New MRR	MRR from new customers	Acquisition effectiveness
Expansion MRR	Upgrades + add-ons	Product value & upsell success
Contraction MRR	Downgrades	Product issues or pricing problems
Churned MRR	Cancellations	Retention health

Healthy pattern:

• New + Expansion > Contraction + Churned
• Expansion growing as a % of new

3. Net Revenue Retention (NRR)

What it is: How much revenue you retain from existing customers, including expansions.

Formula:

NRR = (Starting MRR + Expansion - Contraction - Churn) / Starting MRR × 100%

Benchmarks:

• <100%: Revenue declining (problem)
• 100-110%: Healthy
• 110-130%: Strong
• >130%: Exceptional (rare)

Why it matters: NRR above 100% means you can grow even if you acquire zero new customers.

4. Gross Revenue Churn

What it is: MRR lost to cancellations and downgrades as a percentage.

Formula:

Gross Churn = (Churned MRR + Contraction MRR) / Starting MRR × 100%

Benchmarks:

• SMB SaaS: 3-5% monthly is common
• Mid-market: 1-2% monthly
• Enterprise: <1% monthly

Action triggers:

• Churn spikes: Investigate immediately
• Consistent high churn: Product or market fit issues

5. Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA)

What it is: Average MRR per customer.

Formula:

ARPA = Total MRR / Number of Customers

Why it matters:

• Tracks pricing power
• Shows if you're moving upmarket or down
• Key input for LTV calculations

Watch for:

• Is ARPA growing over time?
• ARPA by cohort—are newer customers paying more?

6. Trial Conversion Rate

What it is: Percentage of trials that convert to paid.

Formula:

Trial Conversion = (Trials Converted to Paid / Total Trial Starts) × 100%

Benchmarks:

• Opt-in free trial: 15-25% conversion
• Opt-out (card required): 40-60% conversion
• Freemium: 2-5% upgrade rate

Optimization levers:

• Onboarding experience
• Time to value
• Trial length
• Upgrade prompts

7. Payment Failure Rate

What it is: Percentage of payment attempts that fail.

Formula:

Payment Failure Rate = Failed Charges / Total Charge Attempts × 100%

Why it matters: Failed payments are silent revenue killers. A customer who wants to pay you can't.

Typical causes:

• Expired cards (most common)
• Insufficient funds
• Bank declines
• Card network issues

Solutions:

• Card update emails before expiry
• Stripe's Smart Retries
• Backup payment methods
• Dunning campaigns

8. Refund Rate

What it is: Refunds as a percentage of gross volume.

Formula:

Refund Rate = Total Refunds / Gross Volume × 100%

Benchmarks:

• Healthy: <2%
• Concerning: 2-5%
• Problem: >5%

High refund rate indicates:

• Unclear pricing/features pre-purchase
• Product not meeting expectations
• Billing disputes

9. Time to First Payment

What it is: Days from signup to first successful payment.

Why it matters: Shorter time = faster revenue realization and stronger buying intent.

How to reduce it:

• Reduce trial length (test this)
• Add urgency (limited-time offers)
• Improve onboarding velocity
• Offer annual prepay discount

10. Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

What it is: Total revenue you'll earn from a customer over their lifetime.

Formula:

LTV = ARPA × Gross Margin / Monthly Churn Rate

Example:

• ARPA: $100/month
• Gross Margin: 80%
• Monthly Churn: 3%
• LTV = $100 × 0.80 / 0.03 = $2,667

Why it matters:

• Determines how much you can spend on acquisition
• Key metric for investor discussions
• Guides pricing decisions

Building Your Metrics Dashboard

Stripe's dashboard shows some of these, but not all. You need to:

1. Export data regularly (or use Stripe's Sigma) 2. Calculate derived metrics (NRR, LTV, etc.) 3. Track trends over time (not just snapshots) 4. Segment by cohort, plan, and acquisition source

Or Use KPIStack

KPIStack connects directly to Stripe and automatically calculates:

• All 10 metrics above
• Historical trends
• Cohort analysis
• Real-time alerts when metrics move

No spreadsheets. No manual exports. Just the numbers you need.

Get your Stripe metrics dashboard →

Daily Review Checklist

Each morning, check:

• [ ] Yesterday's MRR (new, expansion, churn)
• [ ] Failed payments to recover
• [ ] Trial conversions
• [ ] Any unusual refund requests

Weekly, review:

• [ ] MRR growth rate trend
• [ ] NRR calculation
• [ ] ARPA changes
• [ ] LTV:CAC ratio

This takes 10 minutes with the right tools. Without them, it takes hours.