Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Calculator

Find what it really costs to win one new customer.

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Enter to see your LTV:CAC ratio.

Customer acquisition cost

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the total sales and marketing spend it takes to win one new customer. Paired with lifetime value, it tells you whether your growth is actually profitable. Enter your spend and the customers it acquired — and add LTV to see your LTV:CAC ratio.

How to calculate cac

Formula

CAC = Total sales & marketing spend ÷ New customers acquired

Add up everything you spent on sales and marketing over a period — ad spend, salaries, tools, agencies — and divide by the number of new customers acquired in that period. The result is your blended CAC. It only means something next to LTV: a healthy business earns back its CAC well within the customer's lifetime, with 3:1 LTV:CAC a common target.

Example

You spent $10,000 and acquired 50 new customers.

CAC = 10,000 ÷ 50 = $200 to acquire each customer.

Frequently asked questions

There's no universal number — good CAC is defined relative to lifetime value. Aim for an LTV:CAC ratio of at least 3:1, and for CAC you can recover in under 12 months for subscription businesses. Enter your LTV above to check the ratio.

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