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Growth & SaaS metrics

Annual Recurring Revenue ARR

The value of a subscription business's recurring revenue normalized to a full year, excluding one-time fees.

Part of the Growth & SaaS Metrics course · Lesson 1 of 8
Formula
ARR = MRR x 12, where MRR is monthly recurring revenue

What it is

Annual Recurring Revenue is the yearly value of the contracted, repeating revenue a subscription company expects from its customers at a point in time. It counts only recurring items like subscriptions and committed usage, and excludes one-time charges such as setup fees, professional services, or hardware. It is a snapshot of run-rate revenue, not an accounting figure from the income statement.

Why it matters

ARR shows the durable, predictable core of a SaaS business better than a single quarter of total revenue, which can be distorted by one-off sales. Investors track ARR growth and its trajectory to judge how fast the recurring base is compounding. Because it is non-GAAP and self-defined, the exact components a company includes should always be checked.

How it's calculated

Take the recurring revenue earned in a month or quarter and annualize it, or sum the annualized value of all active recurring contracts; always strip out non-recurring fees.

How Quintarthai uses it

When a company reports ARR, you can sanity-check it against the reported GAAP revenue trend in the Financials tab of its company deep-analysis page.

Cross-border note. ARR is a non-GAAP metric under both US GAAP and Canadian-reporting IFRS, so neither regulator standardizes it; a Canadian SaaS issuer and a US peer may define ARR differently, and currency (CAD vs USD) must be matched before comparing.

FAQ

What is the difference between ARR and revenue on the income statement?
Income-statement revenue is the GAAP/IFRS amount actually recognized over a period, including one-time items. ARR is a non-GAAP snapshot of only the recurring portion, annualized; the two will not match exactly.
Is ARR the same as MRR?
They measure the same thing on different time scales. MRR is monthly recurring revenue; ARR is generally MRR multiplied by 12.
Related terms
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