Subscription Billing Statistics 2026
MRR growth, churn benchmarks, NRR by segment, payment-failure data, and revenue-retention trends from across the subscription economy.
28 curated statistics with source citations
Subscription billing is the financial backbone of nearly every B2B software business and a growing share of consumer commerce. The economics — predictable revenue, compounding LTV, capital-efficient growth — are now well-understood, but operational execution still varies enormously between best-in-class and average performers.
Benchmarks below pull from recurring industry research by OpenView, ChartMogul, Pacific Crest/KeyBanc SaaS Survey, ProfitWell/Paddle, Recurly, and Stripe. Segment-specific numbers (SMB vs mid-market vs enterprise) often diverge significantly — calibrate against your own segment when forecasting.
AMW context
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- Active relationships with tier-1 outlets across business, lifestyle, finance, and tech
- Crisis communications experience including reputation management for global brands
- Specialized verticals: B2B SaaS, luxury, hospitality, healthcare, financial services
Subscription Economy Size & Growth
How big the subscription market is and how fast it's growing.
estimated global subscription economy revenue across all categories
annual subscription-revenue growth rate (5x faster than S&P 500 sales growth)
of consumers have at least one consumer subscription service (streaming, meal kits, software)
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Churn Benchmarks
Healthy and unhealthy churn rates by segment.
healthy monthly customer-churn rate for SMB-focused SaaS
healthy monthly customer-churn rate for enterprise SaaS
of churn happens in the first 90 days after customer signup — making onboarding the highest-leverage churn intervention
Net Revenue Retention
How much revenue from existing customers grows over time.
best-in-class net revenue retention (NRR) for B2B SaaS — expansion more than offsets churn
median NRR across B2B SaaS — existing customers neither grow nor shrink the revenue base on average
NRR achieved by top-decile B2B SaaS companies, typically through usage-based pricing or multi-product expansion
healthy gross revenue retention (GRR) for mid-market SaaS — the share of revenue kept excluding expansion
Payment Failures & Dunning
How much subscription revenue is lost to payment processing issues.
of subscription revenue is typically lost annually to involuntary churn from payment failures
estimated annual subscription-revenue loss from declined credit-card transactions across the SaaS industry
of recurring credit-card charges fail on first attempt due to expired cards, insufficient funds, or fraud blocks
of failed payments can be recovered through smart-retry dunning that times re-attempts to bank-cycle patterns
European cards now require this authentication on most transactions under PSD2 SCA — improperly-implemented checkouts see 30-40% EU decline rates
Pricing Models & Expansion
How subscription companies actually charge.
use usage-based or hybrid pricing — up sharply from 15% in 2020
average NRR for companies primarily using usage-based pricing (vs 110% for seat-based)
of B2B SaaS revenue now comes from expansion (upsell, cross-sell, usage growth) versus 73% from new business
Customer Lifetime Value & CAC
Unit economics of subscription businesses.
healthy LTV-to-CAC ratio benchmark for B2B SaaS (customer lifetime value 3x customer acquisition cost)
average B2B SaaS cost to acquire $1 of new ARR (CAC-to-ARR ratio)
average B2B SaaS cost to acquire $1 of expansion ARR — half the cost of net-new acquisition
Frequently Asked Questions
What's a healthy SaaS churn rate?
What is Net Revenue Retention and what's a good benchmark?
How much revenue is lost to payment failures?
What pricing model produces the highest NRR?
What's a healthy CAC payback period?
When does churn typically happen?
What's the difference between voluntary and involuntary churn?
How big is the subscription economy?
What's the difference between GRR and NRR?
How does usage-based pricing affect billing complexity?
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