Metric definitions

How MarginMeter defines revenue, COGS, gross profit, gross margin, MRR, ARR, ARPA, NRR and churn — the exact formulas used in the dashboard and alerts.

Every number in MarginMeter is calculated by deterministic code from provider data. These are the definitions.

Revenue

Charges collected through Stripe, minus refunds and disputes (net of dispute reversals), excluding tax where the invoice reports it. Revenue is recorded on the day the money moved, in your reporting currency at that day's ECB rate.

Revenue = Payments − Refunds − Disputes (all net of tax)

This is cash-basis revenue, not GAAP revenue recognition.

Cost of goods sold (COGS)

The cost of serving customers: AI APIs, cloud and hosting, payment fees, and any manual costs you classify as COGS. Costs classified as OpEx are shown separately; excluded costs and credits are not counted.

Gross profit and gross margin

Gross profit = Revenue − COGS

Gross margin % = Gross profit ÷ Revenue × 100

Gross margin is not shown when revenue is zero or negative — a percentage of nothing would mislead.

MRR and ARR

MRR is the sum of active subscription prices normalized to one month, after discounts, excluding tax, trials and metered prices. An annual plan contributes one-twelfth of its price.

ARR = MRR × 12

MRR movements: new (first subscription), expansion (increase), contraction (decrease), churn (ended), reactivation (returning customer), and an FX adjustment when currency rates move.

ARPA, NRR and churn

ARPA = MRR ÷ paying customers.
Gross MRR churn % = churned MRR in the period ÷ MRR at the start.
Net revenue retention % = (starting MRR + expansion − contraction − churn) ÷ starting MRR.

Confidence labels

Each cost carries a source label: Provider-reported, Calculated, Estimated (e.g. AWS days not yet finalized) or Manual. When a meaningful share of a figure is estimated or manual, the dashboard shows a badge.