Trial-to-Paid Conversion Rate
The percentage of free trial users who convert to a paid subscription.
Formula
Why it matters
Trial-to-paid rate is the single most important conversion metric for subscription businesses. It determines the effective cost of every trial start — a 10% conversion means you need 10 trial users to get 1 customer, so CAC equals trial acquisition cost × 10. Doubling trial-to-paid rate halves CAC.
How to improve Trial-to-Paid Conversion Rate
Identify the "aha moment" — the action most correlated with paying — and design onboarding to reach it within day 1. Send targeted activation emails at 24h and 72h. Add in-app checklists. Reduce setup friction (pre-populate data, offer templates). A direct outreach call at day 5 can lift B2B trial conversion significantly.
B2B SaaS (no card): 15–25%. B2B SaaS (card-required trial): 40–60%. Consumer apps (subscription): 5–15%.
Prooflytics tracks Trial-to-Paid Conversion Rate automatically from your connected sources and flags it in your daily briefing when it moves significantly.
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Calculate trial-to-paid conversion rate
Trial-to-paid rate
Trial-to-Paid = (Paid ÷ Trial Starts) × 100
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Frequently asked questions
What is a good trial-to-paid conversion rate for B2B SaaS?
For no-credit-card trials: 15–25% is competitive. For card-required trials: 40–60% is typical (the card requirement pre-qualifies intent). Consumer subscription apps run 5–15% because trial audiences are less commercially motivated. The most important benchmarks are your own cohort trends — improving 10pp from your baseline is more actionable than hitting an industry number.
What is the single highest-impact way to improve trial-to-paid conversion?
Identifying and accelerating the "aha moment" — the first action that makes the product's value undeniable. In most SaaS products, users who complete one specific action (connected a data source, built their first report, shared with a team member) convert at 3–5× the rate of users who don't. Find that action in your cohort data and redesign onboarding around it.
How does trial length affect trial-to-paid rate?
14-day trials typically outperform 30-day trials for B2B SaaS because urgency drives action. However, for complex products requiring significant setup, 30 days provides more time to realise value. The key variable is time-to-value: if users get value in day 1, 7-day trials work. If setup takes a week, 14 days is the minimum.