Unit economics calculator (CAC & LTV)
The single number that decides if a growth strategy actually works: how much a customer is worth over their lifetime, versus how much it costs to acquire one.
CAC (cost per customer)
$100.00
LTV (customer lifetime value)
$700.00
Average customer lifetime
20 months
LTV : CAC ratio
7x
CAC payback period
2.86 months
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How this is calculated
CAC = sales & marketing spend / new customers acquired. Average customer lifetime = 1 / monthly churn rate. LTV = average monthly revenue per customer × gross margin × average lifetime in months. LTV:CAC ratio compares the two directly — a widely cited rule of thumb is that 3x or higher signals a healthy, scalable business, while below 1x means you're losing money on every customer you acquire. Payback period is how many months of gross profit from a customer it takes to recover what you spent acquiring them.
This is an educational estimate, not financial advice.