Trial Conversion Rate: How to Calculate It for a Subscription App

Customers are grouped by the start of their first trial in the period, and a customer who starts more than one trial counts once. A trial converts when a paid period of the same subscription follows it. The chart shows trial starts, conversions, trials still running and the rate.

Trials that are still running count as starts but not as conversions, so the newest cohorts show a rate that is too low until their trials end. RevenueDot marks those points incomplete. The final rate can rise up to the share you get when every running trial converts.

You can filter and segment by app, store, product, product duration, offering, country, platform and app version. Segmenting by product duration is the simplest way to compare trial lengths. Sandbox trials are excluded. You can open it in the dashboard under Charts or fetch it with GET /v2/projects/{project_id}/charts/trial_conversion_rate. The response has the same shape as RevenueCat's Charts API, so scripts written for that API keep working. The secret key needs the charts_metrics:charts:read permission. The Charts guide lists every parameter.

A week with 100 customers who started a trial.

The rate today is 41 / 100 = 41.0%, marked incomplete. If all 12 running trials convert it ends at 53.0%.

Trial conversion rate decides how much each new trial is worth. If 100 trials produce 40 subscribers, then raising the rate by five points is the same as getting 12 percent more trials, without buying a single extra install. Test trial length, the reminder before the first charge and what the customer sees on day 1 against this number.

It is also the number to check before you spend on more top-of-funnel traffic. A low rate means more trials will mostly add churn, not subscribers.

How to read it

• Read only the points without the incomplete mark. A recent point can still change.
• Do not mix it up with Paywall Conversion. That chart also has a trial conversion rate, but there it is divided by paywall viewers, not by trial starts.
• Segment by product duration to compare a 3 day, 7 day and 14 day trial.
• A drop right after a price change on the paid plan can mean the price shown at the end of the trial is a surprise.
• Pair it with Trial Cancellation Rate to see whether customers cancel early or let the trial lapse.