Nathan FieldSkool analytics shows owners how their group is doing over time: members, monthly recurring revenue (MRR), cash flow, About page conversion, free trials, retention and where new members come from. Skool launched the main dashboard in November 2025 and added traffic sources in February 2026. This guide covers what each Skool analytics number means, where to find it, what it leaves out, and how to use it. Every definition here was checked against Skool's help centre on 29 September 2026.
Skool analytics lives in your community's admin settings. It shows members, MRR, cash flow, About page conversion rate, free trial conversion, revenue retention, cohorts and unit economics, plus a Growth tab that shows where the last 30 days of visitors and sign-ups came from. It shows who joins and leaves, not why.
Where to find Skool analytics
Open your group's Settings as an admin. Skool's team showed the analytics dashboard there in Skool News #36 (18 November 2025), the video above. Skool's help centre says the Growth tab, with traffic sources, is also in the community admin settings.
Skool's analytics definitions article explains every number, but gives no click-by-click steps for the dashboard.
The numbers, and what each one means
Every metric in Skool's definitions article, in plain words:
| Metric | What Skool counts | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| Members | Approved members now, including free trials and cancelled members with time left. Not pending requests. | Real time |
| MRR | Current monthly recurring revenue. Excludes free trials. Includes failing payments still in the retry window. | Real time |
| Conversion rate | Joins divided by unique non-member About page visits, averaged per day over the last 30 completed days. | Every 8 hours |
| Retention | MRR at the start of last month that is still active at the end of last month. | Monthly |
| Monthly member count | New, existing and churned members each month, and the total. | Every 8 hours |
| Monthly MRR | MRR split into new, existing, churn, reactivation, downgrade and upgrade. | Monthly |
| Monthly cash flow | One-time payments, annual subs, monthly subs, affiliate payouts, fees, refunds and disputes. | Every 8 hours |
| About page views and conversion | Unique About page visits and the rate that became members, by day or by month. | Every 8 hours |
| Monthly free trials | Trials and the share that became paid. Only counts trials that finished their full 7 days. | Real time |
| Unit economics | Average revenue per paying user (ARPU) and lifetime value (LTV). | Monthly |
| Cohorts | Members or revenue grouped by the month they joined or first paid. | Monthly |
MRR and cash flow are not the same
MRR is the monthly value of your subscriptions. Cash flow is the money that actually moved. Skool's definitions say annual subscriptions and one-time payments show their whole amount in cash flow in the month they were paid. In #36, Skool's team explained that an annual plan counts toward MRR as a twelfth each month.
Cash flow also shows what went out: affiliate payouts, Skool's fees, refunds and disputes. One trap: MRR includes failing cards still inside Skool's retry window, so it can look fine while money has not arrived. See our guide to Skool failed payments.
How Skool labels revenue changes
- Churn: a paying member's MRR drops to zero.
- Downgrade: their MRR drops but stays above zero.
- Upgrade: their MRR goes up from a paid amount.
- Reactivation: someone who fully churned pays again.
In #36, Skool's team said this is why the dashboard shows retention instead of the old churn number. Once groups have membership tiers, upgrades and returning members can push revenue retention above 100%. The help centre agrees that a cohort's retention can go above 100%, and says the monthly rate never shows below 0%.
Cohorts: the most useful chart most owners skip
A cohort is everyone who joined, or first paid, in one month. Skool shows two kinds:
- Engagement cohorts show how many members from each month are still active later. "Active" means at least one page view in your group that month. This works for free groups too.
- MRR retention cohorts show how much of each month's new revenue is still paying later. Members who leave and come back stay in their first month's cohort.
Both are coloured against the Skool average for that month. In #36, Skool's team said that across groups, most members who leave do so in the first month, fewer in the second and third, and cohorts tend to flatten after about month three. If your cohorts never flatten, that is the problem to fix.
Unit economics
ARPU is your month's MRR divided by the members who paid that month. LTV is ARPU divided by your churn rate (1 minus retention). Skool smooths the churn rate, caps LTV at 60 times ARPU, and shows no LTV in your first month of revenue.
Small numbers swing
Skool's team warned in #36 that with little traffic, daily conversion jumps around, so give an About page change about a month. The About page chart has a time-range dropdown for recent and historical views.
Traffic sources: where your members come from
Skool added traffic sources in Skool News #45 (17 February 2026). Its Traffic Sources and Growth Boost help article (updated 9 September 2026) says the Growth tab shows the last 30 days in near real time.
Every visitor and sign-up is put into one of five sources:
| Source | What it means |
|---|---|
| Invite | An admin emailed an invite and the person joined through that invite link. |
| Affiliate | The person joined through a member's (non-admin) affiliate link. |
| Skool network | The person found you through Skool itself: Discovery, the recommended groups sidebar, or Skool's paid ads (see Growth Boost). |
| External website | A link on another site. It shows as the site itself, such as Facebook or your own website. |
| Direct | Someone typed your link, or came from an email broadcast, a redirect or a URL shortener. |
Skool counts each visitor once per source. Sign-ups are people who joined and were approved, including free trials that end early. Conversion rate is sign-ups from a source divided by visitors from it. That number matters most: the source with the most visitors is not always the one with the most members.
How Skool decides the source
Skool uses last-touch attribution: the last link a person clicked before joining gets the credit. A visit from most sources is remembered for 90 days. Skool network and affiliates are remembered for 14 days. Once set, Skool says, attributions cannot be changed, and support cannot re-assign affiliate credit.
Skool rebuilt this in Skool News #59 (2 June 2026). Skool's team said attribution now works per group, so a click toward one group no longer counts for another, and the source locks when someone requests to join. They warned affiliate and Skool network numbers might dip a little as accidental credit went away. The help centre does not spell out those two details, but it does say attributions are locked.
Why so much "Direct"?
Skool's help centre says link-in-bio tools, redirects and URL shorteners strip the source and show up as Direct. For the best tracking, share your About page link itself, with no extra tags. In #45, Skool's team said that if more than about a quarter of your sign-ups show as Direct, something in how you share the link is hiding the source.
Hobby vs Pro
In #45, Skool's team showed Pro groups seeing every source, while Hobby groups saw Skool network with the rest blurred until they upgrade. They also showed each member's source in the members list. The help centre does not mention either, so check your own Growth tab. See Skool pricing for what else Pro adds.
What Skool analytics does not show
- Why members leave. Churn is a count and a dollar amount. Skool's definitions list no field for the reason.
- More than 30 days of sources. The help centre still says the Growth tab shows the last 30 days.
- Your own ads apart from your posts. In #45, Skool said Facebook and Instagram ads were bundled with organic, with a split planned. The help centre does not say if it exists yet.
- Deep engagement. "Active" means one page view in a month. Skool said in #36 that posts, comments and likes over time would come later. We could not find that documented.
- The current month for MRR. Monthly MRR, retention and cohort charts cover completed months only.
How to use the numbers
- Check new against churned. If joins and leavers match, you are flat: you need more traffic, a better About page or fewer people leaving.
- Find the source that converts. Back the channel with the best conversion rate, not just the most visitors.
- Watch the first month. If Skool's pattern holds for you, most leavers go early. See how to reduce churn on Skool.
- Compare cohorts after a change. Added a free trial or changed your price? Check that month's cohort a few months later.
Turn "who left" into a message
Skool analytics tells you how many members churned and how much MRR sits in failing cards. It does not reach out to them. Skool retries failed cards and prompts the member to update their card, and on Pro you can add a cancellation video shown on step two of cancelling. Skool's help centre documents no setting that messages a member in your words after they cancel.
Backpack is a Chrome extension plus our servers that acts on those two moments. Cancellation Recovery sends your message when a member cancels. Payment Recovery sends your message when a member's card fails. You write the words, it sends them from your own account, and it stops when they pay or come back. It runs with your computer off, costs $9 a month for every Skool community you admin, and is not made by or affiliated with Skool. Try Backpack free for 7 days.
Skool analytics shows where members come from and when they leave. What you do next is up to you.
FAQ
Where are the analytics on Skool?
Open your group's Settings as an admin. Skool showed the analytics dashboard there when it launched in November 2025, and its help centre says the Growth tab with traffic sources is in the community admin settings. The help centre's analytics definitions article explains every number, but it does not give click-by-click steps.
Can Hobby plan owners see Skool analytics?
Skool's help centre does not split analytics by plan. In Skool News #45 (February 2026), Skool's team showed Hobby groups seeing their key stats and Skool network sign-ups, with other traffic sources blurred until they upgrade to Pro. We could not confirm that split in the help centre, so check your own Growth tab.
How does Skool calculate conversion rate?
For the headline number, Skool takes members who joined and divides them by unique non-member visits to your About page, averaged per day over the last 30 completed days. On the Growth tab, conversion rate is sign-ups from one traffic source divided by visitors from that same source during the time period.
What does "Direct" mean in Skool traffic sources?
Direct means Skool could not see where the visitor came from. It covers people who typed your link, email broadcasts, redirects and URL shorteners. Skool says link-in-bio tools also strip the source and show up as Direct, so share your About page link itself wherever you can for cleaner tracking.
How long does Skool attribution last?
Skool uses last-touch attribution with two windows. A visit from most sources, like YouTube or Instagram, counts for 90 days. A visit from the Skool network or an affiliate counts for 14 days. Once a member's source is locked, Skool says it cannot be changed, and support cannot re-assign affiliate credit.
Why is my Skool retention over 100%?
Revenue retention counts upgrades and returning members as well as churn and downgrades. If members moving to higher tiers, plus members coming back, add more revenue than you lost to people leaving, retention goes above 100%. Skool's help centre confirms cohort retention can exceed 100%, meaning that cohort now pays more than when it started.