CAC Calculator
Find your customer acquisition cost. Enter marketing spend and sales spend in dollars for a period, the new customers acquired in that same period, and optionally a customer lifetime value — you get CAC, total acquisition spend, and the LTV:CAC ratio with a read on its health.
Example: with Marketing spend ($) 25000 · Sales spend ($) 15000 · New customers acquired 200 · Customer lifetime value (optional, $) 800 → Customer acquisition cost: $200.
- LTV : CAC ratio4.0 : 1
- How that readsHealthy — at or above the common 3:1 benchmark
- Total acquisition spend$40,000
Computed by the calculator below using its default values. Change any input to see your own numbers.
CAC = (sales + marketing spend) ÷ new customers, all from the same period. Include salaries, tools, and agencies — not just ad spend.
What belongs in CAC
Customer acquisition cost is all the money spent to win new customers in a period, divided by the new customers won in that same period. The honest version includes ad spend, agency and tool costs, and the loaded salaries of the marketing and sales people doing the acquiring. Teams that count only ad spend produce a flattering number — useful for channel decisions, misleading for unit economics.
Keep the numerator and denominator on the same clock. If your sales cycle is long, this month's spend creates next quarter's customers; either use a trailing window that covers the cycle or accept the noise in any single month.
Reading CAC through the LTV lens
A CAC is only high or low relative to what a customer is worth. The LTV:CAC ratio compares lifetime gross profit to acquisition cost; 3:1 is the benchmark most SaaS investors and operators quote. Below 1:1 you lose money on every customer. Between 1 and 3 the model works but payback is slow. Far above 5:1 often means you are underinvesting in growth — you could profitably buy more customers than you are.
How it’s calculated
CAC = (marketing spend + sales spend) ÷ new customers acquired, with spend and customers from the same period. LTV : CAC ratio = customer lifetime value ÷ CAC. Bands: under 1:1 unprofitable, 1–3 thin, 3–5 healthy (the widely used 3:1 rule of thumb), above 5 possibly underinvesting.
A blended CAC across all channels — it ignores organic vs paid mix, sales-cycle lag between spend and signup, and uses LTV as you define it (gross-margin LTV is the stricter, better input).
LTV : CAC ratio bands
| Ratio | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Under 1 : 1 | Losing money on every customer acquired |
| 1–3 : 1 | Viable but thin; payback is slow |
| 3–5 : 1 | Healthy — the common SaaS target zone |
| Over 5 : 1 | Strong; may signal underinvestment in growth |
The 3:1 target is a widely used SaaS and venture rule of thumb — a convention for screening unit economics, not a regulation.
Common mistakes
- Counting only ad spend — salaries, agencies, and tools usually double the real acquisition cost.
- Dividing by all active customers instead of new customers acquired in the period.
- Mismatching windows: this quarter's spend with customers actually sourced by last quarter's pipeline.
- Comparing your blended CAC (all channels, organic included) against a competitor's paid-only CAC.
Frequently asked questions
What is the CAC formula?
CAC = (sales spend + marketing spend) ÷ new customers acquired, all measured over the same period. Spending $40,000 to win 200 customers is a $200 CAC.
What costs should I include?
Everything spent to acquire: advertising, agencies, marketing tools, content production, and the loaded salaries and commissions of sales and marketing staff. Excluding people costs is the most common way CAC gets understated.
What is a good CAC?
There is no universal dollar figure — $200 is great if customers are worth $800 and fatal if they are worth $150. Judge CAC by the LTV:CAC ratio (3:1 is the common benchmark) and by how many months of gross profit it takes to pay back.
What is the difference between blended and paid CAC?
Blended CAC divides all acquisition spend by all new customers, organic included; paid CAC divides paid-channel spend by customers from those channels only. Blended flatters you when organic is strong — track both.
Is a very high LTV:CAC ratio always good?
Not necessarily. Ratios far above 5:1 often mean you are spending too little on growth — competitors can buy the customers you are leaving on the table. The goal is efficient growth, not a maximal ratio.