the number in the corner
In Stripe, MRR (monthly recurring revenue, your subscription income) is the monthly value of every active and past-due subscription, with yearly plans divided by twelve and taxes, free plans and usage-based charges left out. Past due means a card has already failed. Stripe keeps counting it until the subscription is canceled or marked unpaid.
That is the whole answer. The rest of this note is what it means on a Monday morning.
what goes in
What does Stripe count as MRR?
Stripe adds up every subscription in two states, active and past_due, and turns each one into a monthly amount. A $49 monthly plan counts $49. A yearly plan of $1,200 counts $100, because Stripe divides it by twelve (Stripe support).
It leaves out three things: the tax on a subscription, anyone on a free plan, and metered (usage-based) prices (Stripe Billing docs). If part of your income is usage-based, it is not in the figure at all.
Trials depend on how you set them up. With item-level trial offers, only the items still in their trial are left out. With the older kind of trial (a trial_end date on the whole subscription), the entire subscription stays out until the trial ends (Stripe Billing docs).
the gap
Does Stripe MRR include failed payments?
Yes, for a while. When a renewal charge fails, the subscription usually moves to past_due while Stripe retries the card. Past due still counts. It stops counting only when the subscription is canceled or marked unpaid, and at that point Stripe calls it churn, its word for a subscription that no longer counts (Stripe Billing docs).
So the MRR figure on a given morning can include money that has already failed to arrive.
Take Atelier Nūr, the fictional online art school we use in every sample: 312 paying members, $28,450 a month. Three renewal cards fail overnight, $1,240 between them. While Stripe retries, all three stay inside the $28,450. The figure looks steady. The money is not. If nobody writes to those three members, the figure drops by $1,240 later, on the day the retries run out, and it looks like three people left. They did not decide to leave. Their cards did.
That is why the failed-payments note says to look at failed charges the day they happen, not the day they become churn. Read the failed-payments note.
the switch nobody opens
Are discounts taken out of Stripe MRR?
Only if you tell Stripe to take them out. In the Billing overview there is a Configure button with two settings: subtract recurring discounts, and subtract one-time discounts (Stripe support). Changes take 24 to 48 hours to show up (Stripe Billing docs).
If you ran a launch coupon, a figure with the discounts left in will look better than the money you actually collect. Stripe's own docs call subtracting them the more conservative approach (Stripe Billing docs). Pick one setting, write down which, and keep it, so this month compares honestly with last month.
not cash
Is MRR the same as money in the bank?
No. Stripe builds MRR from subscriptions, not from invoices, because it looks forward: it is what you are set up to bill, not what you have just been paid (Stripe support). Cash is what reached your bank after fees, refunds, disputes and the timing of payouts. A founder can have rising MRR and a thinner bank balance in the same month. Both numbers are true. They answer different questions.
four checks
What should I check in Stripe each week?
Once a week is enough.
- Past due against the total. Filter subscriptions to past due and add them up. That amount is inside your MRR and not yet in your bank. If it is growing week to week, the leak is in cards, not in customers.
- Money lost, not just people lost. Stripe's churned revenue is the MRR that churned plus the MRR lost to downgrades (Stripe Billing docs). A week with no cancellations can still lose money if three customers moved to a cheaper plan.
- Your discount setting. Open Configure once and note what is on. If someone changed it, last month and this month are not the same measurement.
- MRR against what landed. Put the week's payouts next to the change in MRR. If MRR went up and payouts went down, look for refunds, disputes or a payout delay before you celebrate or worry.
if you want it drawn
Do I need Baremetrics or ChartMogul to track Stripe MRR?
Not to read the figure: Stripe already calculates it in Billing. A tool such as Baremetrics or ChartMogul is the better choice if you want the history drawn as charts, sliced by plan or by the month a customer joined, and you enjoy opening it. If what you want is someone to read it for you and say what changed, that is a different job. How the two compare.
two moves
Find this week's past-due total today.
In Stripe, filter subscriptions to past due. Whatever it is, write it next to your MRR. That pair is the honest version of the number.
Decide your discount rule once.
Open Billing, Configure, choose whether discounts come out, and keep that choice. A number you can compare month to month is worth more than a flattering one.
straight answers
The questions founders ask about this.
Does Stripe MRR include past-due subscriptions?
Yes. Stripe counts active and past-due subscriptions, so a subscription whose card has failed keeps counting until it is canceled or marked unpaid.
How does Stripe count a yearly plan in MRR?
It divides the yearly price by twelve. A $1,200 yearly plan counts $100 a month.
Is Stripe MRR the same as cash?
No. MRR is built from subscriptions and looks forward. Cash is what reached your bank after fees, refunds, disputes and payout timing.