> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Refund Rate, Recharge > Refund Rate for Recharge stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Supporting Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Payment Gateway](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) ## At a glance > The percentage of successful Recharge subscription charges that were subsequently **refunded** (in full or part) within the period. On Recharge specifically this is dominated by *cancellation refunds* (a subscriber cancels right after their rebill processes and the merchant refunds them as goodwill) and *quality refunds* (product defect, wrong item shipped). Healthy subscription brands run 1.5, 4% refund rate; >5% suggests a structural product or expectation problem. | | | | --------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | `COUNT(charges WHERE refund issued in window) ÷ COUNT(SUCCESS charges in window) × 100`. Both partial and full refunds count as "refunded" in the numerator. | | **Currency** | Currency-neutral rate. | | **Refund timing** | The refund DATE is what bucks into the window, not the original charge date. A 03 Apr 26 refund of a 28 Mar 26 charge counts in this period. | | **Subscription cancellation refund** | Counted. The most common Recharge refund type: customer cancels subscription, requests refund of the most recent rebill, merchant honours. | | **Quality refunds** | Counted. Product defect, wrong item, late delivery. | | **Promotional refunds** | Counted. "First month free" applied retroactively, "we sent the wrong size" make-goods. | | **Goodwill / customer service refunds** | Counted. A CS-rep-discretionary refund still flows through `/refunds`. | | **Time window** | `30D vsP` default. | | **Alert trigger** | `>5%` absolute, OR `+50%` relative spike vsP. `sentiment_key: refund_rate`. | | **Reading hints** | Spike often signals a fulfilment problem (delayed shipment cohort), a pricing mistake (campaign promo applied retroactively to all subscribers), or an OOS / quality cohort. | | **Roles** | owner, finance, operations | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your Recharge data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example "Daily Greens Co". 30-day window 03 Apr 26 to 02 May 26. | Refund category | Refunds issued | USD value | Notes | | ------------------------------- | -------------- | -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | | Cancellation goodwill | 184 | USD 14,540 | Customers cancelled and asked for last rebill back | | Product quality / defect | 38 | USD 3,002 | Damaged in transit, missing scoop, wrong flavour | | Late shipment make-good | 22 | USD 1,738 | 4PL warehouse delay cohort | | Duplicate charge correction | 8 | USD 632 | Customer-portal swap caused unintended double-bill | | Promotional retroactive | 28 | USD 2,212 | "Welcome 20% off" applied retroactively to first rebill | | **Total refunds (this period)** | **280** | **USD 22,124** | | ```text theme={null} Refund rate (this card) = 280 ÷ 20,656 × 100 = 1.36% vs prior 30 days = 1.18% vsP delta = +0.18 pp (+15% relative) Within healthy band (<3%); not alerting. ``` What the merchant should notice: 1. **1.36% refund rate is well within healthy** for a DTC supplement subscription. Typical healthy band 1.5, 3.5%. Above 5% would indicate a structural product / expectation problem. 2. **Cancellation goodwill (184 of 280) is the largest cluster.** Standard DTC pattern: customers cancel and want the last rebill returned, the merchant honours as a retention gesture. Reducing this requires *prevention* (cancel-flow with pause / skip / discount offers) rather than refusal. 3. **Late-shipment make-goods (22) point at the 4PL.** If this cluster grows over multiple weeks, the warehouse / carrier is the root cause. Recharge admin's order-shipment view (or upstream Shopify shipping tracking) confirms. 4. **Duplicate-charge corrections (8) deserve investigation.** Customer-portal plan swaps that double-bill are usually a Recharge configuration bug or a misuse of the swap API. Audit the swap-flow events for the affected customer. 5. **Promotional retroactive (28) is a process issue.** Marketing applied a "welcome 20% off" promo retroactively to first-rebill, and CS issued refunds. Cleaner alternative: structure as next-rebill-discount on the subscription itself, no refund needed. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with Refund Rate | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`rec_refund_volume`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/recharge/refund-volume) | Dollar amount complement. | | [`rec_chargeback_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/recharge/chargeback-rate) | High refund rate often *prevents* chargebacks (refunded customers don't escalate). | | [`rec_total_volume`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/recharge/total-volume) | The denominator for refund-rate. | | [`rec_total_transactions`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/recharge/total-transactions) | Same. | | Shopify [`refund_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/refund-rate) | Storefront-wide rate, broader (includes one-time orders). | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in the Recharge merchant portal:** [admin.rechargepayments.com](https://admin.rechargepayments.com). The closest comparable view is **Recharge Admin → Charges → Refunded** filtered by date. Recharge admin shows the running refund total at the top of the filtered list. **Why our number may legitimately differ from the Recharge merchant portal:** | Reason | Direction | Why | | --------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Time zone bucketing** | Boundary days off | Standard. | | **Refund vs reversal** | Slight differences | Recharge admin sometimes treats reversals (Stripe-side, before settlement) separately from refunds (after settlement). We aggregate both as "refund" for this rate. | | **Refund date attribution** | Theirs may show on the date of charge | Some Recharge admin tiles attribute the refund to the original charge date; this card uses the refund-issued date. | **Cross-connector reconciliation:** | Comparison | Expected relationship | When divergence is legitimate | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `rec_refund_rate` ↔ Shopify [`refund_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/refund-rate) | Recharge often slightly higher | Subscription customers cancel + refund more than one-time-purchase customers. | | `rec_refund_rate` ↔ Stripe / Shopify Payments refund rate | Should match closely | Same underlying refund events. | ***
Documentation cross-reference * [`recurly.rec_refund_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/recurly/refund-rate) * [`stripe.stripe_refund_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/stripe/refund-rate)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **"Why is refund rate lower than I expected for a subscription business?"** Most subscription cancellations *don't* result in a refund. Customers cancel before the next rebill (no charge, no refund). Refund rate counts only customers who waited until AFTER the rebill, then cancelled and asked for a refund. That's the more aggressive cohort. **"Should I tighten the refund policy to reduce this?"** Almost always no. Customers refunded promptly rarely escalate to chargebacks (which carry scheme fees and merchant-side dispute work). High refund rate is often the *cheaper* outcome compared to dispute volume. **"Refund rate spiked, what to check first?"** Three usual suspects: (1) shipment cohort delayed (4PL or carrier issue), (2) product quality issue (a bad batch shipped), (3) a marketing campaign creating churn-prone customers (price-sensitive cohort acquired on promo). **"Cancellation refunds vs cancellation no-refund, can I split?"** This card is rate; the cancellation-with-refund subset is in the Recharge admin **Charges → Refunded → group by reason**. Recharge tags refunds with reason codes (cancellation, defect, late, goodwill, other). **"Promotional refunds, can we structure them differently?"** Yes. Instead of issuing a refund after charging, apply the discount to the next rebill via Recharge Promotions. No refund operation, lower processing fees, less customer confusion. **"Partial refunds, how are they counted?"** Counted as one refund event, regardless of partial / full. The dollar value differs ([`rec_refund_volume`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/recharge/refund-volume) tracks that). For rate, both partial and full count the same. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Refund Rate* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Recharge and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.