X (Twitter) Retention Rate Calculator

1. Pick a period, such as 28 or 30 days, and enter your follower count on the first day.
2. Enter the new follows gained in that period and your count on the last day. If you know your unfollows, enter those instead of the end count.
3. Add the length of the period and your own target if you have one. Read the retention rate, the churn rate and the verdict.

What each result tells you:

X retention rate is the percentage of the followers you had at the start of a period who still follow you at the end of it. It measures how well you keep an audience, apart from how fast you add to it.

New followers are left out on purpose. An account can grow in total while losing a large share of its older followers, and the follower count alone hides that. Retention shows it.

The same measure works for paying subscribers under Creator Subscriptions. Use subscribers at the start, new subscribers and cancellations in place of followers, new follows and unfollows.

Why this page shows no benchmark: X publishes no typical or healthy retention rate, by niche or by account size. Figures quoted elsewhere are not from X. This calculator grades the result only against a target you set from your own past periods.

The calculator finds how many followers you lost, subtracts them from your starting count, and divides by the starting count.

1. Followers lost = start + new follows - end. If you enter unfollows, that figure is used instead.
2. Followers kept = start - followers lost.
3. Retention rate = followers kept / start x 100. Churn rate = 100 - retention rate.
4. Net change = end - start. Net change percent = net change / start x 100.
5. Losses per day = followers lost / days in the period.
6. Kept after 12 periods = (retention rate / 100) to the power of 12, x 100.

The formula treats every loss as coming from the starting group. Some people follow and unfollow inside the same period, so true retention of the starting group is the calculated figure or a little higher.

Example values only, not benchmarks. An account starts a 30-day period with 12,400 followers. It gains 860 new follows and ends on 12,910. Its own target, taken from earlier months, is 97%.

Meaning: the account kept 97.18% of its starting followers, just above its own 97% target, so the verdict is green. It still lost 350 followers. About 41 of every 100 new follows only replaced people who left.

The rate depends on what you measure and on events outside your posts.

The Length of the Period

A longer period gives more time for unfollows, so retention over 90 days is lower than over 30 days for the same account. Compare periods of equal length only.

Locked and Removed Accounts

The X Help Center says that when accounts are locked, X removes them from follower counts across profiles. Your count can fall with no one choosing to unfollow. These removals show up as losses in the calculator.

Followers You Remove

X lets you remove a follower without blocking them. Any you remove count as losses too.

Follows That Do Not Last

People who follow and leave within the period add one to new follows and one to losses. A burst of short-lived follows lowers the calculated rate.

How You Count New Follows

The result is only as good as the new-follow figure. With only a start and an end count you can measure growth, not retention. The X follower growth calculator covers that case.

Retention and churn describe the followers you already had, and growth describes the change in the total. The three answer different questions.

Net growth equals the gross follow rate minus churn: 6.94% - 2.82% = 4.11%, after rounding. A page that reports only growth cannot tell a loyal audience from one that is being replaced. For percent changes in general, see the percentage increase calculator.

After a Change in What You Post

You change topic, tone or posting rhythm. Compare retention for equal periods before and after.

After a Burst of New Followers

A viral post or a paid campaign brings many follows. Retention in the next period shows whether they stayed. Other ways to read the same audience are in the X audience loyalty calculator.

For Paying Subscribers

Enter subscribers at the start, new subscribers and cancellations. X says a subscriber may unsubscribe at any time. Subscription income follows the subscribers you keep, which feeds the X creator revenue projection calculator.

1. Dividing the End Count by the Start Count

12,910 / 12,400 is 104.11%. That is growth plus 100, not retention. New follows must be taken out first.

2. Dividing by the End Count

Retention is a share of the followers you started with. Using the end count as the base understates churn on a growing account.

3. Comparing Unequal Periods

A 7-day rate and a 30-day rate cannot be compared. Fix the period length.

4. Reading the 12-Period Line as a Forecast

70.9% is what happens if 97.18% repeats twelve times. It does not say the rate will repeat.

5. Blaming Every Loss on Your Posts

X removes locked accounts from follower counts. Some losses have nothing to do with your content.

6. Grading Against a Number from the Web

X publishes no benchmark. Set a target from your own past periods.

The arithmetic is exact, so the rate is only as sound as the three counts you enter.

There is no official figure. X publishes no retention benchmark by niche or account size. The useful comparison is your own rate over equal periods, which is why the calculator grades against a target you set.

Work them out as start + new follows - end. X does not send a notification when someone unfollows, so the count has to come from your analytics or from this subtraction.

The X Help Center says locked accounts are removed from follower counts across profiles. If an account that follows you is locked, your displayed count can go down.

No. Retention is a share of the followers you started with, so it runs from 0% to 100%. A figure above 100% means new follows were not subtracted.

They are two sides of the same count. Retention is the share of starting followers who stayed, and churn is the share who left. The two always add up to 100%.

Use one length every time, such as 28 or 30 days. Longer periods give lower retention for the same account, so rates from unequal periods cannot be compared.

Yes. Enter subscribers at the start, new subscribers and cancellations or the end count. The formula is the same, and the result is your subscriber retention for the period.

No. Retention ignores new follows. An account can keep 99% of its followers and still shrink if it gains fewer than it loses. Check the net change line.

No. It is the measured rate multiplied by itself 12 times. It shows what the same rate would mean over a longer span and holds only if the rate repeats.

No. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing is sent to our servers. Anything you choose to Save stays in this browser only.

• Following FAQs: followers, unfollowing and locked accounts (X Help Center, read 2026-10-03).
• About Subscriptions: what subscribers get and how creators are paid (X Help Center, read 2026-10-03).
• About Creator Subscriptions: eligibility, revenue share and payout timing (X Help Center, read 2026-10-03).