How cumulative retention works
Cumulative retention is the percentage of an install cohort that opened the app at least once between Day 1 and Day N. A cohort is a group of installs grouped by the day they installed, and the install day is Day 0. If a user opens the app on any day inside that window, they count as retained for that window, even if they were not active on Day N itself.
The formula is the same one used for every retention method: divide the installs that count as retained on Day N by the cohort size, then multiply by 100. What makes cumulative distinct is the "at least once in the window" rule. A user who opened the app on Day 2 and never again still counts toward cumulative Day 7, because Day 2 falls inside the first seven days.
This makes cumulative retention the most complete picture of early engagement. It answers a single question: of everyone who installed, how many did you manage to bring back at all within the first N days? Because of that, cumulative figures are always equal to or higher than classic retention for the same day.
When to use cumulative retention
Cumulative retention is the best measure of early activation and onboarding health. If you want to know how many installs you converted into at least one return visit, cumulative is the number to watch. It is especially useful for apps with intermittent usage, like travel, events, or food delivery, where users are not expected to open the app every single day but a return within the first week still signals real interest.
A key property is that cumulative retention is bounded. It only counts returns inside a fixed window (the first N days), so once a cohort has fully matured it stops changing. That stability makes it safe to record in a report without the number drifting later, unlike rolling retention.
Cumulative vs bracket retention
Some tools describe a similar idea as "bracket retention", where days are grouped into ranges such as Week 1 (Days 1 to 7) and a user counts as retained if they were active at least once in the bracket. Cumulative retention works the same way, always anchored from Day 1 through Day N. Cumulative Day 7 and a Week 1 bracket therefore describe the same group of returning users.
In Linkrunner, cumulative retention is available for Day 1, Day 7, Day 14, and Day 30, and is returned as retention in the Campaign Reporting API.