How to show your Stripe MRR on a desk display

Why DeskBot does not connect to Stripe directly

A device on your desk is the wrong place for a Stripe secret key. Anyone who opened the case could read it, and a restricted key that can list subscriptions can still see every customer. So DeskBot reads a small endpoint on your own server, protected with a separate key that can do nothing but return a few numbers. Your Stripe key stays where it already is.

The route

This is a complete Next.js route handler. It lists active and past due subscriptions, the two statuses Stripe counts towards MRR, converts each item to a monthly amount (annual plans divided by twelve, weekly plans scaled up), adds them up per currency and counts the subscriptions that are past due. It caches the result for a minute, because DeskBot asks once a minute and Stripe does not need asking more often.

It needs the stripe package and two environment variables. STRIPE_SECRET_KEY should be a restricted key with read access to subscriptions only, not your full secret key. DESKBOT_KEY is any long random string, which you also paste into DeskBot.

// app/api/v1/stats/route.ts
import Stripe from "stripe";

const stripe = new Stripe(process.env.STRIPE_SECRET_KEY!);
let cached: { at: number; body: unknown } | null = null;

// One subscription item's price as a monthly amount, in minor units.
// Metered (usage-based) prices are left out, as in Stripe's own MRR.
function monthly(price: Stripe.Price, quantity: number): number {
  const recurring = price.recurring;
  if (!recurring || recurring.usage_type === "metered" || price.unit_amount == null) return 0;
  const perInterval = price.unit_amount * quantity;
  const months = {
    day: recurring.interval_count * (12 / 365),
    week: recurring.interval_count * (12 / 52),
    month: recurring.interval_count,
    year: recurring.interval_count * 12,
  }[recurring.interval];
  return perInterval / months;
}

async function stats() {
  const mrr = new Map<string, number>();
  let pastDue = 0;
  // Stripe counts active and past_due subscriptions towards MRR.
  for (const status of ["active", "past_due"] as const) {
    for await (const sub of stripe.subscriptions.list({ status, limit: 100 })) {
      if (status === "past_due") pastDue++;
      for (const item of sub.items.data) {
        const currency = item.price.currency.toUpperCase();
        mrr.set(currency, (mrr.get(currency) ?? 0) + monthly(item.price, item.quantity ?? 1));
      }
    }
  }
  return {
    revenue: {
      mrr: [...mrr].map(([currency, amount]) => ({ currency, amount: Math.round(amount) })),
    },
    negatives: { pastDue },
  };
}

export async function GET(req: Request) {
  if (req.headers.get("authorization") !== `Bearer ${process.env.DESKBOT_KEY}`) {
    return new Response("Unauthorized", { status: 401 });
  }
  // DeskBot asks once a minute; Stripe only needs asking once a minute too.
  if (!cached || Date.now() - cached.at > 60_000) {
    cached = { at: Date.now(), body: await stats() };
  }
  return Response.json(cached.body);
}

Why the number can differ from Stripe's

Stripe's Billing analytics defines MRR as the monthly value of all active and past due subscriptions, leaving out tax, free plans and metered (usage-based) products, and it can subtract discounts. The route follows the same rules except for two, so its figure is close to Stripe's, not always the same:

• Discounts and coupons are not subtracted. If many customers have one, DeskBot's MRR reads higher than Stripe's.
• Tiered prices have no single unit amount, so the route counts them as zero. Add your own calculation for them if you use tiers.
• Trialing subscriptions are not counted, as in Stripe's figure: they have not paid yet.

Other ways to see Stripe MRR at a glance

A desk display is one answer. These are the others founders use, as listed on 8 November 2026:

Point DeskBot at it

1. Scan the Settings QR screen on DeskBot with your phone's camera, or open http://deskbot.local on the same Wi-Fi.
2. Under Business stats, enter your app's address and paste the DESKBOT_KEY value as the key.
3. Tap Test connection. DeskBot says how many fields it found, or names what went wrong: the certificate, the key, the path or the JSON.
4. Leave money amounts in minor units (Stripe's cents and pence), and pick the currency to show if you bill in several.

Going further

The same route can fill the rest of the screens. Count customers whose first paid invoice landed this month for newPayingThisMonth, and DeskBot celebrates each new one on screen; count cancellations this month for churnedThisMonth and it raises an alert when the number rises. The sales bell page explains how those counters should behave.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Stripe: Billing analytics and how MRR is defined
2. Stripe API: list subscriptions
3. Stripe: auto-pagination in the client libraries
4. DeskBot API guide
5. Geckoboard pricing
6. Databox pricing
7. Notch Metrics on Product Hunt
8. Widgets for Stripe on the App Store
9. IFTTT: LaMetric and Stripe
10. Smiirl: Stripe with Zapier for the Custom Counter
11. TRMNL for teams