What to enter
Set the goal per month (MRR) or per year (ARR). $10,000 a year is $833.33 a month, so it needs about a twelfth of the customers.
For the price, use your plan's monthly price. With several plans, use the average: current MRR divided by paying customers. The ARPU and ARPA calculator works it out, and the MRR calculator turns yearly and quarterly plans into monthly amounts.
For the timeline, pick the method that matches what you track:
| You know | Pick |
|---|---|
| New paying customers and cancellations each month | New customers and churn |
| Only your total MRR each month | MRR growth rate |
- New paying customers a month: everyone who started paying, before anyone cancels. An average of the last three months is steadier than one month.
- Monthly customer churn: customers who cancelled in a month, divided by paying customers at its start. The customer churn calculator finds it, and the churn rate converter turns a yearly rate into a monthly one. Don't use revenue churn.
- Net monthly MRR growth: this month's MRR minus last month's, divided by last month's. Cancellations are already in it.
Pace for a deadline works backward. Enter the months you have, and the tool finds the new customers a month, or the growth rate, you need.
For Traffic needed, enter the share of visitors who sign up and the share of signups who pay. A trial start counts as a signup. The free trial conversion calculator gives your signup-to-paid rate.
How to read the result
Paying customers needed rounds up, since you can't have part of a customer. Those customers bring in a little more than the goal.
Month 1 is one month from today. Lost each month at goal is how many customers cancel each month once you're there. That's also how many new ones you need each month just to stay at the goal.
$10,000 MRR at $29 a month
Example
You need 345 paying customers, who bring in $10,005.00 MRR.
Starting from 0, with 15 new customers a month and 3% monthly churn, you reach 345 in month 39, about 3 years 3 months from now. At the goal you lose about 11 customers a month. Ceiling at this pace is 500, the most customers this pace and churn can ever hold.
How many customers do you need for $10k MRR?
Divide your monthly goal by your monthly price, then round up. At $29 a month, $10,000 MRR takes 345 paying customers.
Customers at goal
Formula
Customers needed = monthly goal ÷ monthly price, rounded up
Your price changes the count more than anything else:
| Monthly price | Customers for $10,000 MRR |
|---|---|
| $9 | 1,112 |
| $12 | 834 |
| $29 | 345 |
| $49 | 205 |
| $99 | 102 |
| $299 | 34 |
Check whether your goal is MRR or ARR. $10,000 ARR is $833.33 a month, which is 29 customers at $29, not 345.
The count assumes every customer pays the price you enter. With several plans, it's only as good as your average. If your plan mix shifts, run it again with the new average.
How does churn slow you down?
Churn takes a share of all your customers every month, so you lose more as you grow. Each month, the tool keeps the customers who stayed and adds the new ones.
One month
Formula
Next month's customers = customers × (1 − monthly churn) + new customers
At 15 new customers a month, with no churn you reach 345 customers in month 23. At 3% churn, the same pace takes until month 39.
New customers join at the end of the month, so they can't cancel in the month they join.
Why is my goal out of reach?
Your goal is out of reach when you'd lose as many customers each month as you add before you get there. Your customer count stops growing at new customers a month divided by monthly churn. The tool calls this the ceiling.
Where the count levels off
Formula
Ceiling = new customers a month ÷ monthly churn
15 new customers a month, 3% churn
Example
15 ÷ 3% = 500. At 500 customers, 3% churn removes 15 a month, the same 15 you add. The count creeps toward 500 and never passes it.
A $10,000 goal at $29 needs 345, below 500, so you get there. A $15,000 goal needs 518, above 500, so waiting longer won't help at this pace.
When that happens, the tool shows the smallest pace that works. For the $15,000 goal it's 16 new customers a month, which raises the ceiling to about 533. That makes the goal possible, not quick: at 16 a month you'd reach 518 in month 117, nearly 10 years out. To aim for a set month, use Pace for a deadline.
Lower churn also raises the ceiling. At 2.5% churn, the same 15 a month levels off at 600.
Are customers at goal and new customers a month the same?
No. They're three different numbers. For $10,000 MRR at $29 with 3% churn:
| Number | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Customers at goal | Paying customers you need at the same time | 345 |
| New customers a month | Customers who start paying each month, before anyone cancels | 15 |
| Lost each month at goal | Customers who cancel each month once you're there | About 11 |
Don't add the monthly losses to the 345. You need 345 customers at once. Replacing the 11 who leave is part of your monthly pace, not part of the total.
Should you plan from a growth rate or from new customers?
Use new customers and churn when you can count both. Use the growth rate when you only see your total MRR change each month.
Net MRR growth already includes cancellations, downgrades, and upgrades. The tool never takes churn off it again, which is why the growth method has no churn field.
At $1,000 MRR and 10% net growth a month, you reach $10,000 in month 25. To get there by month 24, you need 10.07% a month.
A growth rate needs a starting MRR above 0, because 10% of nothing is nothing. If you're starting from scratch, use new customers and churn.
A steady percent also means adding more dollars each month as MRR grows. At 10%, month 1 adds $100 and month 24 adds almost $900.
How much traffic does your goal need?
Divide the new customers you need each month by both conversion rates.
Visitors a month
Formula
Visitors a month = new customers a month ÷ (visitor to signup × signup to paid)
To reach $10,000 MRR at $29 in 12 months with 4% churn, you need 36 new customers a month. At 3% visitor to signup and 15% signup to paid, that's 240 signups and 8,000 visitors a month.
Some calculators show 7,919 visitors for the same inputs, because they use a fractional pace of 35.63 customers a month. You can't add part of a customer, and 35 a month gets you there in month 13, not 12. So this tool rounds the pace up to 36 whole customers first, then works out the traffic, which gives 8,000.
Use rates from the same period and the same kind of visitor. A rate from a launch week or one big referral may not hold month after month.
How long does it take to reach $10k MRR?
It depends on your price, pace, and churn, so there's no typical time. Use your own figures, not someone else's.
Run your numbers twice: once with a pace you've already hit, and once with the pace you're planning for. The gap between the two dates tells you more than any average.
Is $10k MRR the same as $10k income?
No. MRR is the monthly value of your active subscriptions. Stripe's MRR guide says it isn't accounting revenue. It isn't cash either: a yearly plan paid up front still adds only a twelfth of its price to MRR each month.
MRR also comes before payment fees, hosting, tools, and taxes. The break-even MRR calculator finds the MRR that covers your costs. To see how long the cash you have will last, use the startup runway calculator.