What Is MRR in WooCommerce?
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) is the total predictable revenue your WooCommerce store earns from active subscriptions in a given month. It is the single most important metric for any store running WooCommerce Subscriptions, because it tells you exactly how much revenue you can count on — independent of one-off sales spikes or seasonal variation.
If you have 100 subscribers each paying $29 per month, your MRR is $2,900. If 10 of them cancel, your MRR drops to $2,610. That is the core of the metric — simple in concept, but powerful as a management tool.
How to Calculate WooCommerce MRR
The basic MRR formula is:
MRR = Number of Active Subscribers × Average Revenue Per SubscriberFor stores with multiple subscription tiers, calculate MRR per plan and sum them:
MRR = (Plan A subscribers × Plan A price) + (Plan B subscribers × Plan B price) + ...For annual subscriptions, divide the annual price by 12 to get the monthly equivalent before adding to MRR:
Annual subscriber MRR contribution = Annual plan price ÷ 12The 4 Components of MRR You Should Track Separately
A single MRR number tells you where you are. Breaking it into components tells you why it changed — and what to do about it.
- New MRR: Revenue added from new subscribers this month
- Expansion MRR: Revenue added from existing subscribers upgrading to a higher plan
- Churned MRR: Revenue lost from cancellations and downgrades
- Net New MRR: New MRR + Expansion MRR − Churned MRR
If your MRR grew by $500 this month, net new MRR tells you whether that came from 20 new subscribers, 5 upgrades, or a combination — and whether churn offset more growth than you realise.
Why WooCommerce Does Not Calculate MRR for You
WooCommerce Subscriptions is excellent at processing recurring payments. It is not built to calculate MRR. The plugin tracks individual subscription statuses and renewal dates — but it does not aggregate those into an MRR figure, track MRR trends over time, or break MRR into new, expansion, and churned components.
Most subscription store owners end up doing one of three things to track MRR:
- Exporting subscriber lists to CSV and calculating MRR manually in a spreadsheet each month
- Using a custom SQL query against the WooCommerce database
- Using a dedicated WooCommerce analytics tool that calculates it automatically
The first two are time-consuming and error-prone. The third is what fast-growing subscription stores typically move to as their subscriber count grows.
MRR vs ARR — What Is the Difference?
Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is simply MRR multiplied by 12:
ARR = MRR × 12ARR is useful for annual planning, benchmarking against industry targets, and communicating the scale of your subscription business. MRR is the operational metric you track month to month. Use both — ARR for the big picture, MRR for day-to-day management.
What Is a Good MRR Growth Rate?
For early-stage subscription stores, a monthly MRR growth rate of 10–20% is considered strong. As the business matures, 5–10% monthly growth is healthy. Below 5% means either acquisition is slowing, churn is too high, or both.
The important thing is not any single number — it is the trend. Three consecutive months of declining MRR growth is the signal to act, not a single bad month.
How to Track WooCommerce MRR Automatically
SaleTides calculates MRR automatically from your WooCommerce Subscriptions data — no spreadsheets, no SQL queries, no manual work. Connect your store via the WooCommerce REST API and your MRR dashboard is populated immediately, including historical MRR going back to your first subscription.
You get MRR broken down by new, expansion, churned, and net — updated in real time as subscriptions activate, renew, and cancel.
See SaleTides subscription analytics →
Key Takeaways
- MRR is the total monthly revenue from active subscriptions
- Track new, expansion, churned, and net MRR separately to understand what is driving changes
- WooCommerce Subscriptions does not calculate MRR — you need a dedicated tool or manual process
- ARR = MRR × 12, useful for annual planning
- Healthy monthly MRR growth for an early-stage store is 10–20%
