Free LTV:CAC calculator
Are your customers worth what they cost? See the profit each brings back per $1 spent, and how fast. Free, no email.
1Your numbers
Example numbers: replace with yours2Your result
Your result will appear here
Fill in the form and press Calculate my results. You'll get:
Back for every $1 spent
—
Time to earn it back
—
Profit from one customer
—
Most to spend per customer
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Plus the changes that would improve your numbers most.
How the LTV:CAC & CAC Payback Calculator works
- 01
Pick how customers pay you
Every month (a subscription) or order by order (repeat purchases).
- 02
Add what you spend
What you spent on sales and marketing, including ads, tools, agencies and salaries, and how many new customers you won in that time.
- 03
Add what a customer is worth
What each customer pays and how long they stay, plus your profit margin: what's left of each $100 after the cost of delivering.
- 04
Read your result
How many dollars of profit you get back for every $1 spent winning a customer, how long it takes to earn it back, and what one customer is worth.
- 05
See what to change
The most you should spend to win a customer, and which change improves your numbers most.
Questions about the LTV:CAC & CAC Payback Calculator
What it does, what it costs, and how far to trust the result.
01How do I calculate customer acquisition cost (CAC) payback?
CAC payback (months) = CAC ÷ (monthly revenue per customer × gross margin). For example, a $560 CAC on a $50-a-month customer at 80% gross margin pays back in 560 ÷ 40 = 14 months.
02What is a good lifetime value to customer acquisition cost (LTV:CAC) ratio?
About 3:1, meaning $3 of profit back for every $1 spent winning a customer, is the widely used target, from David Skok's SaaS Metrics. Below 1:1 you lose money on each customer; between 1:1 and 3:1 the margin is thin; above 5:1 you may be under-investing in growth.
03What is a good CAC payback period?
Under 12 months is the common target. In Benchmarkit's 2025 SaaS data (198 companies) the median was 16 months, with the middle half between 10 and 24 months. Longer payback needs more cash to fund growth.
04Should lifetime value (LTV) use revenue or gross profit?
Gross profit. Revenue-based LTV ignores what it costs to deliver the product, so it overstates what a customer is worth and how much you can afford to spend to win one.
05Does it work for ecommerce and repeat-purchase businesses?
Yes. Choose "Order by order" and enter your average order, orders per customer a year and years a customer keeps buying. For example, $65 orders three times a year for 2.5 years at 55% margin is about $268 of gross profit, so a 3:1 ratio allows up to about $89 to win each customer.
06Is the LTV:CAC calculator free?
Yes, completely free, with no sign-up and no email. It runs in your browser and nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
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