Churn is the silent killer of growth—but it's only invisible if you're not looking. Amplitude lets you surface exactly where users drop off and when, but you need to track the right events and segment properly. The difference between knowing your churn and guessing is usually just a few lines of instrumentation and one good chart.
Track Churn Events in Your App
You can't visualize churn if you're not tracking it. Define what churn means for your product and instrument those moments.
Log a churn event when users become inactive
Use Amplitude's JavaScript SDK to capture when a user hasn't taken a key action in 30 days (or whatever threshold makes sense for your product). You can also track explicit churn signals like subscription cancellations or account deletions.
import amplitude from '@amplitude/analytics-browser';
// When user hasn't used the product for 30 days
amplitude.logEvent('user_churned', {
churn_reason: 'inactivity',
days_inactive: 30,
subscription_status: 'cancelled',
mrr_lost: 99.00
});Set user properties to track subscription status
Track subscription state as a user property so you can segment active vs churned users in your charts. Update this whenever subscription status changes.
amplitude.setUserProperties({
subscription_status: 'active',
subscription_value: 199.00,
last_active_date: new Date().toISOString(),
plan_tier: 'pro',
cohort_start_date: '2026-01-15'
});Track daily engagement events
Log meaningful product usage—dashboard views, feature usage, data exports—to build a baseline of engagement. Churn is usually a drop-off from this baseline.
amplitude.logEvent('dashboard_viewed', {
dashboard_type: 'metrics',
num_metrics: 12,
session_duration: 420
});
amplitude.logEvent('report_exported', {
format: 'csv',
num_rows: 5000
});Visualize Churn with Retention Charts
Amplitude's Retention Chart shows what percentage of users from a cohort return over time. This is your clearest view of churn patterns.
Create a retention chart
Navigate to Analytics > Retention and create a new chart. Define your initial event (first purchase, subscription start) and your return event (any engagement event or a specific feature use). Amplitude calculates what percentage of your cohort came back on each day, week, or month.
// Log the events that define your cohort
amplitude.logEvent('subscription_started', {
plan: 'pro',
amount: 199.00,
billing_period: 'monthly'
});
// Log what counts as returning
amplitude.logEvent('dashboard_session', {
session_duration_seconds: 450,
features_used: ['metrics', 'funnel']
});Segment retention by user properties
In Cohort Settings, add filters on user properties like Plan Tier or Customer Segment. This reveals whether churn differs between Pro and Enterprise, or between self-serve and sales-led customers.
amplitude.setUserProperties({
plan: 'pro',
annual_contract_value: 2400,
customer_segment: 'mid-market',
sales_channel: 'self-serve',
customer_type: 'new' // or 'expansion'
});Export and compare retention curves
Once your chart is built, click Export to pull retention data into a spreadsheet. Compare retention curves between your top segments and identify which cohorts are most at risk.
Add Context with Funnels and Segmentation
Retention curves show the shape of churn, but funnels and event segmentation show you why it's happening.
Build a dropout funnel to find the churn trigger
Use Analytics > Funnels to trace the path to cancellation. Create a funnel: subscription start → last activity → cancellation event. This shows where users typically drop off and how long they usually stay before leaving.
Break down churn by reason in Event Segmentation
Create an Event Segmentation chart on your user_churned event, broken down by Churn Reason. Group by week to spot seasonal patterns. This answers: Is churn driven by feature gaps, pricing, or natural attrition?
amplitude.logEvent('user_churned', {
churn_reason: 'missing_feature',
tenure_days: 45,
mrr_lost: 99.00,
last_nps_score: 3,
cancellation_type: 'self_serve'
});Pin to a dashboard for weekly review
Go to Analytics > Dashboards and add your Retention, Funnels, and Event Segmentation charts. Check it weekly to spot churn spikes before they become problems.
Common Pitfalls
- Not tracking enough context with churn events—reason, tenure, and revenue matter more than just the event name.
- Confusing retention with engagement—a user might open the product daily but never take a valuable action; define what 'return' actually means.
- Using Amplitude's default 30-minute session timeout as your churn window—most B2B products have much longer natural gaps between usage.
- Forgetting to set user properties before logging events—segmentation in Amplitude depends on consistent property data.
Wrapping Up
Amplitude's retention and cohort charts turn churn from a vague feeling into a metric you can act on. Once you see where users drop off, you can focus your retention efforts where they matter most. If you want to track churn signals automatically across Amplitude, Mixpanel, and other analytics tools while building retention playbooks, Product Analyst can help you connect the dots.