Net Dollar Retention
Also known as: NDR, Net Revenue Retention
Definition
Net Dollar Retention, or NDR, measures how much recurring revenue remains from an existing customer cohort after churn, contraction, expansion, and upsell. It is closely related to Net Revenue Retention and is a core signal of durable recurring revenue.
NDR above 100% means existing customers expand enough to offset losses. That is a powerful signal, but only if definitions are consistent and cohorts are clean.
Buyers look for retention quality by segment, not just the blended headline number.
Related terms
- Churn Rate — The rate at which customers or recurring revenue leave over a defined period.
- Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) — Revenue retained from existing customers before expansion. GRR shows how much revenue survives without upsell.
- Net Revenue Retention (NRR) — The percentage of recurring revenue retained from existing customers a year later, including expansion, after subtracting churn and contraction. The single most-watched B2B SaaS valuation metric.
Where this gets applied
- Revenue Architecture — ICP, deal-desk, sales-engineering ratios, MEDDPICC, deal-stage definitions. Move win rates from 29% to 68%.
- GTM Execution — Pipeline coverage, top-down/bottom-up motion, AE/SE ratios, comp realignment, partner-channel structure.
- Unit Economics — CAC payback, NRR, gross margin by segment, cohort analysis, paid-on-bookings vs. paid-on-cash.