Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Calculator
Calculate CAC from marketing and sales spend over new customers, and check it against LTV with the 3:1 benchmark. Runs in your browser.
Customer acquisition cost
- Total acquisition spend
- $30,000.00
- New customers
- 120
- CAC (cost per customer)
- $250.00
- LTV : CAC ratio
- 3.60 : 1
✓ Healthy: LTV is at least 3× CAC
CAC = (marketing + sales costs) ÷ new customers acquired in the same period. Include all fully-loaded acquisition costs (ad spend, salaries, tools). A widely cited benchmark is LTV ≥ 3× CAC, with CAC ideally recovered within ~12 months. Informational.
About this tool
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is what it costs, on average, to win a new customer — the total sales and marketing spend in a period divided by the number of new customers it produced. It is one of the most important numbers in any business with paid growth, because acquisition is only sustainable if a customer is worth more than they cost to acquire. This calculator computes CAC from your fully-loaded acquisition spend (ad budget, plus sales and marketing salaries and tools — not just media cost) and, if you supply an average customer lifetime value (LTV), it computes the LTV:CAC ratio and judges it against the widely cited benchmark that LTV should be at least three times CAC. A ratio below 1 means you lose money on every customer; 1–3 is marginal; 3 or above is healthy, with very high ratios sometimes signaling underinvestment in growth. CAC is also best paired with a payback period — how many months of revenue recover the cost, ideally under about a year. It is informational, not financial advice. Everything runs in your browser.
How to use it
- Enter marketing spend and sales costs for the same period.
- Enter the number of new customers that spend acquired.
- Optionally enter average customer LTV.
- Read CAC and the LTV:CAC ratio against the 3:1 benchmark.
Frequently asked questions
- How is CAC calculated?
- CAC = total acquisition cost ÷ new customers acquired, over the same period. Acquisition cost should be fully loaded: ad spend plus the salaries, commissions, and tools used for sales and marketing — not just media cost.
- What is a good LTV:CAC ratio?
- The widely cited benchmark is at least 3:1 — a customer is worth three times what they cost to acquire. Below 1:1 you lose money per customer; 1–3 is marginal. Note that a very high ratio (e.g. 5:1+) can mean you are under-spending on growth.
- What costs go into CAC?
- All sales and marketing costs to acquire customers in the period: paid ads, content, events, sales salaries and commissions, marketing software, and agency fees. Leaving out salaries (a common shortcut) understates CAC and overstates how healthy your unit economics are.
- What is CAC payback period?
- How many months of a customer's gross-margin revenue it takes to recover the CAC. Under ~12 months is generally considered healthy for SaaS; longer paybacks strain cash flow even if LTV:CAC looks fine.
- How is CAC different from CPM or CPC?
- CPM is cost per 1,000 impressions and CPC is cost per click — upper-funnel reach and engagement metrics. CAC is the bottom-line cost per actual paying customer, which is what determines profitability.
- Is this financial advice?
- No. It is an informational metric calculation. Use it with LTV, margins, and payback for real decisions.