ARPU / ARPPU

ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) - revenue for the period ÷ the number of all active users. ARPPU (Average Revenue Per Paying User) - revenue for the period ÷ the number of paying users only. The difference is fundamental: ARPU takes into account everyone, including free subscribers, ARPPU - only those who are already paying.

The ARPU/ARPPU ratio gives the conversion to payment. If ARPU = 180 ₽, ARPPU = 1800 ₽, then approximately 10% of the audience pays. This is normal for freemium games and SaaS with a free plan. For e-com, where all users are potentially paying, ARPU and ARPPU should converge.

ARPPU benchmarks for the 2025-2026 market: mobile games (Russia) - 350-800 ₽/month, subscription EdTech - 1200-2500 ₽/month, b2b SaaS - 5000-25 000 ₽/month, streaming - 300-600 ₽/month. If ARPPU is below the lower limit of the niche, it is most likely a weak price offer or too wide a free zone.

I use ARPPU to calculate the target CPL: if ARPPU = 2000 ₽/month and average LTV = 8 months, customer value = 16,000 ₽. This means that CAC up to 5000 ₽ is normal, up to 3000 ₽ is good. Without these numbers, talking about “is 800 rubles per lead expensive” is meaningless.