Stripe revenue

Stripe Revenue Intelligence

Extract, calculate, and analyze revenue metrics from the Stripe API. This skill covers MRR computation, cohort analysis, LTV calculation, and churn diagnostics for SaaS businesses.

Stripe API Fundamentals for Revenue

Key Objects

Object	What It Represents	Key Fields
Customer	A paying or trial user	id, email, created, metadata
Subscription	Recurring billing relationship	status, current_period_start/end, items, cancel_at
Invoice	A billing event	total, status, paid, period_start/end, subscription
PaymentIntent	A payment attempt	amount, status, created, customer
Charge	A completed payment	amount, paid, refunded, customer
Price	A pricing configuration	unit_amount, recurring.interval, product
Product	What you sell	name, metadata, active

Subscription Statuses

Status	Meaning	Count as Active?
trialing	In free trial period	Yes (for activation metrics)
active	Paying and current	Yes
past_due	Payment failed, retrying	Yes (grace period)
unpaid	All retries failed	No
canceled	User cancelled	No
incomplete	First payment failed	No
incomplete_expired	First payment expired	No
paused	Subscription paused	No

Authentication

STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=sk_live_XXXXXX     # Server-side only, never in frontend
STRIPE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY=pk_live_XXXXX # Safe for frontend
STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET=whsec_XXXXXX   # For webhook signature verification

MRR Calculation

Basic MRR Formula

MRR = Sum of (subscription.items[].price.unit_amount * quantity)
      for all subscriptions where status in ['active', 'trialing', 'past_due']
      normalized to monthly

Normalization Rules

Billing Interval	Normalization
Monthly	amount as-is
Quarterly	amount / 3
Semi-annual	amount / 6
Annual	amount / 12
Weekly	amount * 4.33

MRR Components

New MRR:        MRR from customers who subscribed this month
Expansion MRR:  MRR increase from upgrades, add-ons, quantity increases
Contraction MRR: MRR decrease from downgrades, quantity decreases
Churned MRR:    MRR lost from cancelled subscriptions
Reactivation MRR: MRR from previously-churned customers who resubscribed

Net New MRR = New + Expansion + Reactivation - Contraction - Churned

Fetching Active Subscriptions

# List all active subscriptions (paginate with starting_after)
GET /v1/subscriptions?status=active&limit=100

# Include trialing and past_due for complete MRR picture
GET /v1/subscriptions?status=active&limit=100
GET /v1/subscriptions?status=trialing&limit=100
GET /v1/subscriptions?status=past_due&limit=100

MRR Calculation Algorithm

For each subscription:
  1. Sum all subscription items: item.price.unit_amount * item.quantity
  2. Normalize to monthly based on price.recurring.interval
  3. Apply any discount (subscription.discount or coupon)
  4. Add to running MRR total

Discount handling:
  - percent_off: MRR * (1 - percent_off / 100)
  - amount_off: MRR - (amount_off / interval_months)
  - Check coupon.duration: 'forever', 'once', 'repeating'

Key Revenue Metrics

Metric	Formula	Healthy Range (SaaS)
MRR Growth Rate	(MRR_now - MRR_prev) / MRR_prev	10-20% MoM (early), 5-10% (growth)
Net Revenue Retention	(MRR_start + expansion - contraction - churn) / MRR_start	>100% (best-in-class >120%)
Gross Churn Rate	Churned MRR / Starting MRR	<5% monthly, <3% ideal
ARPU	Total MRR / Active Subscribers	Trending up = good
LTV	ARPU / Monthly Churn Rate	>3x CAC minimum
LTV:CAC Ratio	LTV / CAC	3:1 minimum, 5:1+ ideal
CAC Payback Period	CAC / (ARPU * Gross Margin)	<12 months
Quick Ratio	(New + Expansion) / (Contraction + Churn)	>4 = very healthy
Trial-to-Paid Rate	Paid conversions / Trial starts	15-30%

Webhook Events for Real-Time Tracking

Event	What Happened	Action
customer.subscription.created	New subscription started	Track new MRR
customer.subscription.updated	Plan change, quantity change	Track expansion/contraction
customer.subscription.deleted	Subscription cancelled	Track churned MRR
invoice.paid	Payment succeeded	Confirm revenue
invoice.payment_failed	Payment failed	Alert, track at-risk MRR
customer.subscription.trial_will_end	Trial ending in 3 days	Trigger conversion email
checkout.session.completed	Checkout completed	Track new customer

Churn Analysis

Churn Types

Type	Signal	Intervention
Voluntary	Customer cancels via UI/support	Exit survey, save offer, win-back sequence
Involuntary	Payment fails, card expires	Dunning emails, card update prompts, retry logic
Downgrade	Customer moves to cheaper plan	Understand why, improve value prop
Trial Churn	Trial expires without conversion	Better onboarding, trial extension offer

Involuntary Churn Prevention

Stripe's Smart Retries handle some of this, but supplement with:

1. Pre-dunning: Email 7 days before card expires (use customer.source.expiring event)
2. Failed payment: Email immediately with card update link
3. Retry 1 (Day 1): Automatic Stripe retry
4. Retry 2 (Day 3): Email "action required" with urgency
5. Retry 3 (Day 5): Email "last chance" before service interruption
6. Final (Day 7): Pause/cancel subscription, send win-back email

Environment Variables

STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=sk_live_XXXXXX          # For API calls
STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET=whsec_XXXXXX        # For webhook verification
STRIPE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY=pk_live_XXXXXX     # For frontend (Checkout, Elements)