Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Calculator

Customer acquisition cost, or CAC, is total acquisition spend divided by the number of new customers gained over the same period. Adding a Customer Lifetime Value figure extends the analysis with the LTV to CAC ratio.

Marketing Spend covers paid advertising, content production, sponsorships, and agency fees for the period. Sales Spend covers base salaries, commissions, sales tooling, travel costs, and lead generation expenses. Other Spend covers shared software subscriptions, allocated overhead, customer onboarding tools, or partner referral fees not captured elsewhere. New Customers Acquired counts only net new customers for the period; renewals, expansions, and returning buyers are excluded, since they were not acquired anew. Customer Lifetime Value, calculated separately as average revenue per customer multiplied by expected customer lifespan, adds the LTV to CAC ratio when supplied.

Settings holds the currency symbol and a step-by-step formula display for full calculation transparency.

CAC equals total spend divided by new customers acquired, where total spend sums marketing, sales, and other spend. The LTV to CAC ratio divides customer lifetime value by CAC. A ratio of 3 to 1 or higher generally indicates healthy unit economics; a ratio below 1 to 1 means the business spends more to acquire each customer than that customer generates over their lifetime. A blended CAC treats every acquisition channel as one combined pool of spend and customers; running the same formula against a single channel's spend and customers instead narrows it to a per-channel CAC. Numeric inputs accept decimals, fractions, mixed numbers, currency symbols, and commas, all stripped automatically before calculation.

Marketing, sales, finance, and operations teams apply CAC to evaluate acquisition efficiency, plan budgets, and report performance. Customer acquisition cost analysis matters to any organization that invests in attracting new customers, from early-stage startups to large enterprises.

• SaaS and Subscription Businesses: monthly or quarterly CAC across paid search, content marketing, partnerships, and outbound sales, compared against the LTV to CAC ratio and the 3 to 1 industry benchmark, confirms whether unit economics support continued growth.
• E-commerce Operators: acquisition cost per campaign, channel, or seasonal promotion, computed from total ad spend against the resulting new customer count, shows whether holiday sales, influencer partnerships, or paid social campaigns delivered profitable results.
• Startup Founders: CAC trends from pre-launch through scaling stages demonstrate efficiency improvements to investors, since combined marketing and sales spend that produces predictable customer counts at sustainable cost signals a maturing acquisition engine.
• Marketing Teams: CAC compared across acquisition channels, run as separate calculations per source, identifies which channels deliver the lowest cost per acquired customer and where budget should shift.
• Financial Planning Teams: the LTV to CAC ratio sets acquisition budget ceilings; a customer lifetime value of 900 against a target ratio of 3 to 1 caps acceptable CAC at 300 per customer.
• Agencies and Consultants: clear CAC figures for client reports follow from campaign costs and customer counts, with the step-by-step formula display available to include the full derivation in presentations and dashboards.
• Subscription and Membership Services: CAC held below first-year subscriber revenue confirms a viable payback period; monthly subscription revenue multiplied by average retention months, entered as LTV, gives the ratio directly.