Average Revenue per User (ARPU)

ARPU is widely used by telecoms companies, subscription services, online platforms and app developers. It helps them understand how much each user is worth and track how this changes over time.

For example, if a streaming service earns 600,000 in a month from 20,000 subscribers, its monthly ARPU is 30.

Businesses can grow revenue by increasing the number of users, by increasing ARPU or both. ARPU can rise through price increases, upselling customers to premium plans, selling add-ons or advertising.

ARPU is an average, so it can hide wide differences between customers. A rising ARPU might reflect losing lower-paying customers rather than earning more from each one. Businesses often analyse ARPU by customer segment, region or plan. Some companies use average revenue per account or per paying user, which can give different figures, so definitions should be checked when comparing companies.