Metric · Hooked
Freemium to paid within six months
Share of free (freemium) accounts that start paying within six months. Self-serve B2B freemium medians sit around 3-5%; sales assistance roughly doubles it. Gate depth, never the core loop.
Plain label: free accounts that start payingAlso known as: free-to-paid, freemium conversion
Larger customers convert lower, and developer tools sit around 5% (benchmark confidence B). Depth-gated freemium (premium features that matter only to devoted users) converts without taxing the habit loop. HK-MON02 (Hooked Ch.1)
Benchmarks
Every benchmark carries its year and a confidence grade for its source. Use them to calibrate, not as targets.
| Context | Median | Top 25% | Top 10% | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B2B freemium, self-serve, account level, within 6 months; good 3-5%, great 6-8% (midpoints)B2B SaaS | 4% | 7% | — | Lenny's Newsletter with OpenView (1,000+ products), 2023Benchmark confidence B. A reputable dataset. |
| B2B freemium with sales assistance; good 5-7%, great 10-15% (midpoints)B2B sales-led | 6% | 13% | — | Lenny's Newsletter with OpenView (1,000+ products), 2023Benchmark confidence B. A reputable dataset. |
| median free-to-paid across all B2B products surveyed in January 2026 (self-serve and sales-assisted mixed)B2B SaaS | 8% | — | — | Growth Unhinged / ChartMogul / ProductLed (200 products), 2026Benchmark confidence B. A reputable dataset. |
Limits
What we don’t claim
- The Hook Model is a practical design tool, not a validated or complete theory of behavior.Hooked, Introduction
Sources
Hooked · Nir Eyal
Ch.1
What is a good free-to-paid conversion rate · Lenny's Newsletter with OpenView, 2023
Benchmark confidence B. A reputable dataset.A new look at free-to-paid conversion · Growth Unhinged (Kyle Poyar), 2026
Benchmark confidence B. A reputable dataset.
Source IDs: HK-MON02
Book content is paraphrased, never quoted at length. Last verified October 24, 2026.
Your product
Find the stage your product is stuck in
Gamify It reads your product, picks the one move that matters at its stage, and sizes the test to your traffic. Connecting is free; a Pro subscription starts it.