{"site":{"name":"Koji","description":"AI-native customer research platform that helps teams conduct, analyze, and synthesize customer interviews at scale.","url":"https://www.koji.so","contentTypes":["blog","documentation"],"lastUpdated":"2026-06-26T10:34:57.507Z"},"content":[{"type":"blog","id":"558be1d1-00ee-4f02-9458-bca86fab3533","slug":"how-to-calculate-nps-2026","title":"How to Calculate NPS in 2026: Formula, Benchmarks & the \"Why\" Behind the Score","url":"https://www.koji.so/blog/how-to-calculate-nps-2026","summary":"Net Promoter Score (NPS) is calculated as % Promoters minus % Detractors. On a 0-10 recommendation scale, Promoters score 9-10, Passives 7-8, Detractors 0-6; subtract the Detractor percentage from the Promoter percentage (Passives are excluded from the subtraction but count in the total) to get a number from -100 to +100. Worked example: 60% Promoters minus 15% Detractors = NPS of 45. 2026 benchmarks: average ~32, median ~44; above 30 is strong, above 50 excellent, above 70 top tier; B2B SaaS averages around 36 and B2C beats B2B by ~11 points. The number tells you what, not why — capturing the reason behind each score requires conversational follow-up. Koji uses a scale question type for the NPS number plus AI-moderated dynamic follow-ups and automatic thematic analysis to surface the reasons behind every score.","content":"**Quick answer:** Net Promoter Score (NPS) is calculated with one formula: **NPS = % of Promoters − % of Detractors**. Ask customers \"How likely are you to recommend us?\" on a 0–10 scale. Promoters score 9–10, Passives score 7–8, Detractors score 0–6. Subtract the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters (ignore Passives) to get a number between −100 and +100. That is the entire calculation. The hard part — and the part that actually grows the business — is understanding *why* customers gave the scores they did. This guide covers the formula, a worked example, 2026 benchmarks, and how to capture the reasons behind every score automatically.\n\n## The NPS formula, step by step\n\nNPS comes from a single survey question — \"On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend [product] to a friend or colleague?\" — and three response buckets:\n\n| Bucket | Score range | Meaning |\n|---|---|---|\n| **Promoters** | 9–10 | Loyal enthusiasts who fuel growth and referrals |\n| **Passives** | 7–8 | Satisfied but unenthusiastic; easily swayed by competitors |\n| **Detractors** | 0–6 | Unhappy customers who can damage your brand via word of mouth |\n\nTo calculate NPS:\n\n1. **Collect responses** to the 0–10 recommendation question.\n2. **Categorize** each response into Promoter, Passive, or Detractor.\n3. **Convert each group to a percentage** of total responses.\n4. **Subtract:** NPS = % Promoters − % Detractors.\n\nPassives count toward your total response number (the denominator) but are not added or subtracted directly — they quietly drag your score down by diluting the promoter percentage.\n\n## A worked example\n\nSay you survey 200 customers and get:\n\n- **120 Promoters** (scored 9–10) → 120 ÷ 200 = **60%**\n- **50 Passives** (scored 7–8) → 25% (used in the denominator, not added)\n- **30 Detractors** (scored 0–6) → 30 ÷ 200 = **15%**\n\nNPS = 60% − 15% = **+45**.\n\nYour score is **45**, not 45%. NPS is always expressed as a whole number between −100 (every respondent is a Detractor) and +100 (every respondent is a Promoter). A useful sanity check: if every customer scored 9–10, you would have an NPS of 100; if every customer scored 0–6, you would have −100.\n\n## What is a \"good\" NPS in 2026?\n\nA score is only meaningful against a benchmark. Based on 2026 data across 150,000+ organizations:\n\n- **The average NPS is around 32**, with a median near 44.\n- **Above 30 is strong, above 50 is excellent, and above 70 puts you in the global top tier.** The top 25% of companies score **72 or higher**; the bottom 25% score 0 or lower.\n- **Industry matters enormously.** B2C companies outperform B2B by roughly 11 points (about 49 vs. 38). SaaS and software cluster near the bottom — **B2B SaaS averages around 36**, so 40+ is a strong target — while sectors like manufacturing can post medians around 65.\n\nThe practical takeaway: **always benchmark against your own industry**, not a universal number. A 35 can be excellent in one vertical and mediocre in another. Track your trend over time — your own quarter-over-quarter movement is often more actionable than any external benchmark.\n\n## The limit of the number: NPS tells you *what*, not *why*\n\nHere is the problem every team eventually hits. NPS is a fantastic *thermometer* and a useless *diagnosis*. It tells you a customer is a Detractor; it does not tell you whether they are leaving because of price, a missing feature, a support failure, or onboarding friction. A score with no reason behind it cannot be acted on — and the classic follow-up (\"What's the primary reason for your score?\") gets one-line answers that are too thin to code or trust.\n\nThis is exactly where most NPS programs stall. Teams accumulate a trend line but can't explain the movement, so the metric becomes a vanity number reported in a dashboard rather than a driver of decisions. (We have written before about [why NPS is broken](/blog/nps-is-broken) and the [best NPS alternatives](/blog/best-nps-alternatives-2026) when the single number stops earning its place.)\n\n## How to capture the \"why\" behind every score with AI\n\nThe fix is to treat the NPS score as the *opening* of a conversation, not the end of a survey. Instead of a static \"reason\" textbox, an AI moderator can ask the score question and then **probe in real time**: a Detractor who mentions \"it's too expensive\" gets asked what they expected to pay and what would make it worth it; a Promoter who says \"the reports save me hours\" gets asked which report and what they did before. That follow-up depth is the difference between a number and an insight.\n\nWith [Koji](/docs/ai-moderated-interviews), this is native:\n\n- Use the **scale question type** to ask the 0–10 NPS question, so the quantitative score is captured cleanly and visualized as a distribution. See [structured questions](/docs/open-ended-questions-ai-interviews) — Koji supports six types (open-ended, scale, single-choice, multiple-choice, ranking, and yes/no) in a single study.\n- The AI moderator then asks **dynamic, open-ended follow-ups** based on the score and the reason given — the probing a one-line survey box never does. See [AI-moderated interviews](/docs/ai-moderated-interviews) and [voice vs text interviews](/docs/voice-vs-text-interviews).\n- Every transcript is **auto-coded**, so the reasons behind Detractor and Promoter scores cluster into themes automatically across hundreds of responses. See [AI auto-tagging](/docs/ai-auto-tagging-customer-interviews) and the [thematic analysis guide](/docs/thematic-analysis-guide).\n- Then [chat with your transcripts](/docs/chat-with-interview-transcripts-ai) — ask \"what's the top reason Detractors gave?\" and get a cited answer in seconds.\n\nThe result: your NPS number *and* the ranked list of reasons behind it, in one study, without manually reading and coding open-ended replies — a task that traditionally costs researchers four to seven hours of work per hour of interview audio.\n\n## Common NPS calculation mistakes to avoid\n\n- **Counting Passives as Promoters.** Passives (7–8) are not added to your score; treating them as positives inflates the number.\n- **Reporting NPS as a percentage.** It is a whole number from −100 to +100, not a percent.\n- **Tiny samples.** A handful of responses produces a volatile score; collect enough responses for the percentages to stabilize before you trust the number.\n- **Surveying only happy users.** Sampling bias (e.g., only emailing recently active customers) inflates NPS. Survey a representative cross-section.\n- **Stopping at the number.** The score without the reason cannot drive a roadmap. Always capture the \"why.\"\n\n## From score to action\n\nNPS earns its keep only when it changes what you build. The workflow that works in 2026: measure the score with a clean scale question, capture the reason with AI-moderated follow-up, let thematic analysis rank the drivers, then route the top Detractor themes to the teams that own them — and re-measure next quarter. That closes the loop between a metric and a decision. For the broader system around this, see our guides to the [customer feedback loop](/blog/customer-feedback-loop-guide-2026) and [churn survey questions](/blog/churn-survey-questions-2026).\n\n## The bottom line\n\nCalculating NPS is genuinely simple: % Promoters − % Detractors, on a 0–10 scale, expressed as a number from −100 to +100. Benchmark it against your own industry — roughly 30+ is strong, 50+ excellent, with B2B SaaS averaging around 36 — and track your own trend over time. But the calculation is the easy 10%. The 90% that grows the business is understanding *why* customers scored the way they did, and that requires real conversation, not a one-line textbox.\n\n**Want the score and the story behind it?** [Start with Koji free](https://www.koji.so) — run an AI-moderated NPS study with a clean scale question plus dynamic follow-ups, and get auto-coded reasons behind every score in hours. 10 credits, no credit card, no research expertise required.","category":"Tutorial","lastModified":"2026-06-25T03:20:29.012716+00:00","metaTitle":"How to Calculate NPS (2026): Formula, Benchmarks & Example","metaDescription":"How to calculate NPS in 2026: the formula (% Promoters minus % Detractors), a worked example, what counts as a good score by industry, common mistakes, and how to capture the \"why\" behind every score with AI-moderated follow-up.","keywords":["how to calculate nps","nps formula","net promoter score calculation","what is a good nps score","nps benchmarks 2026","nps score example","calculate net promoter score"],"aiSummary":"Net Promoter Score (NPS) is calculated as % Promoters minus % Detractors. On a 0-10 recommendation scale, Promoters score 9-10, Passives 7-8, Detractors 0-6; subtract the Detractor percentage from the Promoter percentage (Passives are excluded from the subtraction but count in the total) to get a number from -100 to +100. Worked example: 60% Promoters minus 15% Detractors = NPS of 45. 2026 benchmarks: average ~32, median ~44; above 30 is strong, above 50 excellent, above 70 top tier; B2B SaaS averages around 36 and B2C beats B2B by ~11 points. The number tells you what, not why — capturing the reason behind each score requires conversational follow-up. Koji uses a scale question type for the NPS number plus AI-moderated dynamic follow-ups and automatic thematic analysis to surface the reasons behind every score.","aiKeywords":["how to calculate nps","nps formula","net promoter score","nps benchmarks 2026","good nps score","nps calculation example","promoters passives detractors","voice of customer","customer feedback","ai moderated interviews","thematic analysis"],"aiContentType":"tutorial","faqItems":[{"answer":"NPS = % of Promoters − % of Detractors. On a 0–10 'how likely are you to recommend' question, Promoters score 9–10, Passives score 7–8, and Detractors score 0–6. Convert Promoters and Detractors to percentages of total responses and subtract. Passives count toward the total but are not added or subtracted. The result is a whole number between −100 and +100.","question":"What is the formula to calculate NPS?"},{"answer":"Yes. With 200 responses: 120 Promoters (60%), 50 Passives (25%), 30 Detractors (15%). NPS = 60% − 15% = 45. The score is expressed as 45, not 45% — NPS is always a whole number from −100 to +100.","question":"Can you give an NPS calculation example?"},{"answer":"Across 150,000+ organizations the average NPS is around 32 with a median near 44. Above 30 is strong, above 50 is excellent, and above 70 is top tier — the top 25% of companies score 72 or higher. Benchmarks vary by industry: B2B SaaS averages around 36, while B2C beats B2B by roughly 11 points. Always benchmark against your own industry and track your own trend over time.","question":"What is a good NPS score in 2026?"},{"answer":"Passives (scores of 7–8) are included in the total response count (the denominator) but are not added or subtracted in the formula. They still affect your score by diluting the Promoter percentage, which is why a high share of Passives quietly lowers NPS.","question":"Are Passives included in the NPS calculation?"},{"answer":"The score alone tells you what, not why. The most reliable way to capture the reason is to treat the score as the start of a conversation: ask the 0–10 scale question, then probe with dynamic follow-ups. Koji does this with a scale question type for the number plus an AI moderator that asks open-ended follow-ups in real time, then auto-codes every transcript so the reasons behind Promoter and Detractor scores cluster into ranked themes automatically.","question":"How do I find out why customers gave their NPS score?"},{"answer":"No. Although you use percentages to calculate it, NPS is reported as a whole number between −100 and +100, not as a percentage. An NPS of 45 means Promoters exceed Detractors by 45 percentage points.","question":"Is NPS expressed as a percentage?"}],"relatedTopics":["how to calculate nps","nps formula","net promoter score","nps benchmarks","good nps score","voice of customer","customer feedback","thematic analysis"]}],"pagination":{"total":1,"returned":1,"offset":0}}