CAC Calculator
Customer Acquisition Cost by marketing channel.
CAC = Total marketing spend / New customers acquired. Track by channel (paid, organic, referral) to see which delivers customers cheapest. Aim for CAC < CLV/3 for healthy unit economics. This calculator helps you compute CAC for any channel or blended.
Inputs
Results
CAC: $100
Target CLV (3x CAC): $300
Insights
Formula
CAC = Marketing spend / New customers Healthy: CLV >= 3 * CAC
Input Definitions
What does each input mean?
- Marketing spend
- Total marketing and sales spend for the period—ads, content, tools, salaries. Use the same period as new customers.
- New customers acquired
- Number of new paying customers in that period. Track by channel for per-channel CAC.
Related Calculators
What You’re Actually Paying to Acquire Each Customer
Customer acquisition cost is the total cost of sales and marketing divided by the number of new customers acquired — and most businesses calculate it incorrectly by leaving out salaries, tools, or agency costs. An understated CAC makes your unit economics look better than they are, which leads to over-investment in acquisition and under-investment in retention. This calculator helps you get to the honest number.
Use it when you’re building financial projections, evaluating the efficiency of specific channels, or comparing performance across periods. Your CAC should be benchmarked against your LTV — a ratio above 3:1 is the widely cited healthy baseline, and this tool gives you the data to know where you stand.