Find the exact number of customers and the MRR you need to cover your fixed costs — and, if you're growing, an estimate of how many months it takes to get there.
Salaries, rent, tools — costs that don't scale per customer.
Average monthly revenue per account.
Revenue left after cost of goods sold.
Paying accounts today — for the time view.
Gross new accounts added each month.
Logo churn — share of accounts lost per month.
How many customers it takes to cover your current fixed costs at different price points and margins. Higher ARPA and margin lower the bar fast.
| ARPA / mo | 60% margin | 70% margin | 80% margin | 90% margin |
|---|
higher prices mean each account covers more fixed cost
cut COGS so more of every dollar contributes
a smaller fixed base needs fewer customers to clear
Break-even is the point where your contribution margin exactly covers your fixed costs — no profit, no loss. In SaaS it's most useful as a customer count: the number of accounts whose gross-margin dollars equal your monthly fixed base. Reach it and your EBITDA turns positive at current rates.
The key move is using gross margin, not raw revenue. Cost of goods sold — hosting, payment fees, support — comes out first, so contribution per customer is ARPA times your gross margin. The lower that margin, the more customers it takes.
Customers = Fixed costs / (ARPA × Margin) Example: $40K fixed, $100 ARPA, 80% margin:
"Get profitable" is abstract. "We need 500 customers" is a number the whole team can rally behind — and one you can plot your acquisition plan against. It turns runway pressure into a clear finish line.
The break-even count is fixed, but churn decides how fast you reach it. Every lost account is one a new signup has to replace before you make progress. High churn can stall growth entirely — which is why retention is part of every break-even plan.
Break-even is the level of recurring revenue at which your contribution margin exactly covers your fixed costs — you make neither a profit nor a loss. For SaaS it's usually expressed as a customer count: the number of paying accounts whose combined gross-margin dollars equal your monthly fixed costs. Below it you burn cash; above it every new customer drops contribution to the bottom line.
First work out contribution per customer: average monthly revenue per account (ARPA) multiplied by your gross margin. A $100 ARPA at an 80% gross margin contributes $80 a month. Then divide your monthly fixed costs by that contribution and round up. $40,000 of fixed costs divided by $80 is 500 customers. Multiply break-even customers by ARPA to get your break-even MRR.
Because not every dollar of revenue is yours to keep. Cost of goods sold — hosting, payment fees, support, and third-party APIs — comes out before a sale contributes anything to fixed costs. Using gross margin gives you the real contribution per customer, so you don't understate how many accounts you actually need. The lower your margin, the more customers it takes to break even.
Churn doesn't change the break-even customer count itself, but it raises the bar for reaching it. Every month you lose a share of existing customers, so your net adds are new customers minus churned customers. If churn is high, more of your new signups go to replacing lost ones rather than growing toward break-even — and past a certain point, churn can cancel out growth entirely and you never get there.
It depends on net customer adds. Take the gap between your break-even customer count and where you are today, then divide by net monthly adds (new customers minus churned customers). At 30 net adds a month, a 300-customer gap closes in about 10 months. This is an estimate that assumes steady acquisition, churn, ARPA, and costs — real trajectories move as you scale.
Three levers move it. Raise ARPA — higher prices or expansion revenue lift contribution per customer. Improve gross margin by cutting cost of goods sold like hosting and payment fees. Or reduce fixed costs. Of the three, ARPA and margin compound: a higher contribution per customer means every account does more work, so you need far fewer of them to cover the same fixed base.
Break-even is a moving target as ARPA, margin and churn shift. Mowt tracks your MRR, customer count and churn straight from Stripe, so you always know how far you are from profitability.
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