Average revenue per user (ARPU)

Why it matters

ARPU shows whether growth comes from more customers or from each customer paying more. Plan upgrades, add-ons and price rises all show up here.

Worked example

The table shows the columns this metric needs from six months of a made-up subscription brand. Add each column up over the six months, then put the totals into the formula:

₹14,20,800 ÷ 6,643 = ₹213.88

Add up first, then divide. Averaging the six monthly figures gives a slightly different answer, because it counts a small month the same as a large one.

Month by month

ARPU calculator

How to read it

A falling ARPU while subscribers grow often means new customers are joining on cheaper plans or introductory offers.

Common mistakes

• Use the subscriber count at the same moment as the MRR figure, usually month end.
• Free users in the denominator turn ARPU into revenue per user including non-payers, a different metric.
• Over the six months here, the figure is summed month-end MRR over summed month-end subscribers, an average weighted by size.

Calculate average revenue per user in Excel, SQL or Python

The quickest version, for the sample sheet laid out as in the CSV (headers in row 1, months in rows 2 to 7):

=SUM(AF2:AF7) / SUM(Z2:Z7)

• Average revenue per user in Excel and Google Sheets — per-month formula and zero-safe version
• Average revenue per user in SQL — query by month and for the period
• Average revenue per user in Python (pandas) — pandas script with expected output

Related metrics

• Customer lifetime value (LTV)
• MRR growth rate
• Revenue per customer

See all business metrics, or the statistics methods that sit behind them.

Questions people ask

What is average revenue per user?

Average revenue per user (ARPU), or per account (ARPA), is monthly recurring revenue divided by the number of paying subscribers at the same point in time.

How do you calculate average revenue per user?

ARPU = Monthly recurring revenue ÷ Number of active subscribers. For example, with six months of sample data: ₹14,20,800 ÷ 6,643 = ₹213.88.

What is the ARPU formula in Excel?

With the sample data laid out as in the downloadable CSV, =SUM(AF2:AF7) / SUM(Z2:Z7) gives the figure for the whole period. For one month, use =AF2 / Z2 and fill it down.

What is a good average revenue per user?

There is no figure that is right for every business: it depends on your products, prices and channels. A falling ARPU while subscribers grow often means new customers are joining on cheaper plans or introductory offers.

Check how stable it is

• Standard deviation
• Moving average
• Z-score
• Linear trend forecast

Guides

• How to find out what changed in your sales data — 2 min read
• Real change or random noise? A plain guide to reading your numbers — 2 min read
• Excel data analysis: formulas, PivotTables and the ToolPak — 3 min read

About the data on this page

The figures come from a small made-up dataset, printed above in full so you can check every number by hand. Download it as monthly.csv. The results are computed from those rows when the page is built, and the Excel formulas, SQL and Python on these pages are run against the same rows before publishing, so the code and the answers agree.

To get these numbers from your own data without writing formulas, try AnalyzeIt: ask in plain words and it shows the working behind every figure.