Sales Forecasting

Retention Curve

2026-05-31 7 min read

A retention curve plots the percentage of users or customers still active at each time interval after acquisition. Synonymous with cohort retention curve when applied to specific acquisition cohorts. Retention curves are the canonical visualization for product-market fit assessment — used by every major venture firm and the engineering teams at top consumer apps to evaluate product strength.

TL;DR

A <strong>retention curve</strong> plots the percentage of users or customers still active at each time interval after acquisition. Synonymous with <a href="/glossary/cohort-retention-curve" class="text-brand-600 underline decoration-brand-200 underline-offset-2 hover:text-brand-700">cohort retention curve</a> when applied to specific acquisition cohorts. Retention curves are the canonical visualization for product-market fit assessment — used by every major venture firm and the engineering teams at top consumer apps to evaluate product strength.

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Sources

Definitions and benchmarks reference primary sources from the Sales Forecasting pillar. Verified at publication.

  1. 1 State of Sales Forecasting — Gartner, 2025. View source .
  2. 2 AI Revenue Forecasting Accuracy Study — Forrester, 2025. View source .
  3. 3 Pipeline Coverage Benchmarks B2B SaaS — Pavilion, 2025. View source .

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