--- title: "What Is MRR? Monthly Recurring Revenue Explained | RentAnOTT" description: "MRR is the predictable subscription revenue a streaming service earns each month. See the formula, what to exclude and how new, churned and net MRR fit together." url: "https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/mrr" markdown_url: "https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/mrr.md" category: "Metrics" updated: "2026-10-05" --- # What is MRR? MRR (monthly recurring revenue) is the subscription income a service can expect every month from its active subscribers, with all plans normalized to a monthly amount. It excludes one-time sales and other irregular income. ## How to calculate MRR Multiply the number of active subscribers on each plan by that plan's monthly price and add the results. 4,000 subscribers at $5 and 1,000 at $9 is $29,000 of MRR. Convert longer plans to a monthly figure: a $60 annual plan counts as $5 a month, not $60 in the month it is paid. ## What MRR leaves out - Rentals, purchases and pay-per-view tickets - Advertising revenue - Coin packs and other one-time in-app purchases - Subscribers in a free trial, until they are charged ## The movements inside MRR The change in MRR from one month to the next is made of four parts: new MRR from new subscribers, expansion MRR from upgrades, contraction MRR from downgrades and churned MRR from cancellations. Net new MRR is new plus expansion, minus contraction and churned. Watching the parts separately shows whether growth comes from acquisition or retention, which a single total hides. ## MRR on RentAnOTT The revenue calculator projects monthly recurring revenue from your traffic, conversion, price and churn. RentAnOTT analytics report subscription, transaction and ad revenue on every plan. [Try the revenue calculator](https://www.rentanott.com/tools/ott-revenue-calculator). ## Related terms - [ARR](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/arr) — ARR (annual recurring revenue) is the subscription income a service would earn over a year if its current subscribers and prices stayed as they are. It is monthly recurring revenue multiplied by 12. - [Churn rate](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/churn-rate) — Churn rate is the percentage of a streaming service's subscribers who cancel or fail to renew during a period, usually a month. It is the main measure of how well a subscription service keeps its customers. - [ARPU](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/arpu) — ARPU (average revenue per user) is a service's total revenue in a period divided by the number of users in that period. It shows how much each user is worth on average, across subscriptions, advertising and one-time sales. - [LTV](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/ltv) — LTV (customer lifetime value) is the total revenue, or margin, a service expects to earn from one subscriber over the whole time they stay. It tells you how much you can afford to spend to acquire a customer. - [SVOD](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/svod) — SVOD (subscription video on demand) is a streaming model where viewers pay a recurring fee, usually monthly or yearly, for unlimited access to a catalog of on-demand video. - [Recurring billing](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/recurring-billing) — Recurring billing is charging a customer's saved payment method automatically at a fixed interval, such as every month or year, until they cancel. It is the billing mechanism behind every streaming subscription. - [Subscription tier](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/subscription-tier) — A subscription tier is one of the plans a streaming service offers at a given price. Tiers differ in what the subscriber gets, such as video quality, simultaneous streams, downloads, the catalog included or whether ads are shown. - [Retention rate](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/retention-rate) — Retention rate is the percentage of subscribers, or users, who are still with a service at the end of a period out of those who were there at the start. It is the mirror image of churn rate. ## Further reading - [OTT subscription plans and tiers](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs/ott-subscription-plans) - [SVOD vs VOD: what is the difference?](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs/svod-vs-vod) - [Features](https://www.rentanott.com/features) ## Frequently asked questions ### What does MRR stand for? MRR stands for monthly recurring revenue. ### What is the difference between MRR and ARR? ARR is annual recurring revenue, which is MRR multiplied by 12. Services with mostly monthly plans tend to report MRR; those with mostly annual contracts report ARR. ### Is MRR the same as monthly revenue? No. Monthly revenue includes everything received in the month, such as rentals, ads and annual payments in full. MRR counts only the recurring subscription amount, normalized per month. All 163 terms: [Streaming and OTT glossary](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary). ## Book a demo Tell RentAnOTT what you are launching. The team walks through the platform and maps the path to go-live around your catalog, markets and revenue model. Book a demo: https://www.rentanott.com/contact ## More from RentAnOTT - [Home](https://www.rentanott.com/index.md) — What RentAnOTT is, what every plan includes, and how launch works - [Features](https://www.rentanott.com/features.md) — Every core feature and optional add-on - [Pricing](https://www.rentanott.com/pricing.md) — Platform tiers, apps, add-ons, usage rates and example bills in INR and USD - [Free tools](https://www.rentanott.com/tools.md) — OTT app builder and calculators for streaming revenue, bandwidth, bitrate and pricing - [Insights](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs.md) — All streaming business articles - [Glossary](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary.md) — Definitions of streaming and OTT terms - [Book a demo](https://www.rentanott.com/contact.md) — Talk to RentAnOTT about your launch Full site in one file: https://www.rentanott.com/llms-full.txt