Metrics · Purchase / Paid Conversion

Trial-to-Paid Conversion Rate

Percentage of free trial users who convert to a paid subscription. The critical monetization metric for SaaS, subscription boxes, and free-tier products. Opt-in trials (credit card required) convert at 40-60%; opt-out trials (no card) convert at 15-30%. PQL (product-qualified lead) strategies can push opt-out rates above 35%.

Direction
Higher is better ↑
Unit
percent
Top quartile
≥ 35.0%
Bottom quartile
< 12.0%

How to calculate it

(new_paid_subscribers / trial_starts) × 100

Trial type (opt-in vs opt-out) dramatically shifts the baseline. Always specify which type when benchmarking. Mixpanel's 2024 Product Benchmarks Report covers 8,000 SaaS products.

Per-industry distribution (3)

Each row shows the cited p25 / p50 / p75 for Trial-to-Paid Conversion Rate in that industry. Click an industry to open the full benchmark page.

Swipe horizontally to see the study name and source details.

Primary source

Product Benchmarks Report (2024) · Mixpanel · 2024

Cohort-based analysis of 8,000 SaaS products using Mixpanel's analytics platform, covering 16 million+ daily active users. Computes activation rates, trial-to-paid conversion (separately for opt-in vs opt-out trials), 7-day and 30-day return rates, and monthly churn by product category. Uses median + quartile distribution rather than mean to reduce skew from enterprise outliers.

Related metrics

Monthly Churn Rate