CAC calculator

Use this CAC calculator to include advertising, allocated salaries, tools and other costs. Compare blended CAC with up to eight channels, payback and LTV to CAC.

Free, no sign-up. Runs in your browser, with no AI calls.

Customer acquisition cost is marketing and sales spend divided by new customers acquired in the same period. Include salaries and other acquisition costs when they belong in your scope. Blended CAC covers the whole business; channel CAC uses that channel alone. Payback months divide CAC by monthly gross profit per customer, assuming it stays constant.

Your inputs

Include the costs that belong to your acquisition scope. Blank cost fields mean excluded costs, not a complete accounting of your business. If you enter salaries, supply their acquisition share. Inputs can be up to one trillion.

Currency

Currency changes formatting only. It does not convert amounts.

Advertising spend (optional)

Sales and marketing salaries (optional)

Salary share assigned to acquisition (%)

Acquisition tools cost (optional)

Other acquisition costs (optional)

New customers acquired

Monthly gross profit per customer (optional)

Gross profit LTV per customer (optional)

Your result

Enter your figures to calculate a result. No example business values are prefilled.

Use the same period, customer definition and currency throughout. Blended totals come from the main fields; channel rows are independent and are never added to them. Avoid duplicate attribution. Payback assumes constant monthly profit and ignores churn, fixed overhead, tax and financing costs.

Compare acquisition channels

Add up to eight channels. Allocate shared salaries and tools consistently. Each channel uses its own profit and LTV inputs; blank values do not inherit the blended figures.

Method sources

Sources explain the methods. All business figures come from your inputs; no industry averages are supplied.

Baremetrics: acquisition cost scopeChecked 2026-10-12
Shopify: customer lifetime value methodsChecked 2026-10-12; Published 2026-10-08

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How to use this tool

Match spend and customer timing: Enter advertising, salaries, the share of salaries assigned to acquisition, tools and other costs such as commissions or agency fees. Blank cost fields are excluded as zero. Match these costs with new customers in the same period, allowing for your sales cycle. Repeat orders are not new customers.
Separate channel attribution: Each channel divides its own acquisition costs by its new customers. Blended CAC uses the main fields. Up to eight channel rows are independent comparisons, never added to the blended total. Assign shared costs consistently and avoid counting one customer in several channels. Channel profit and LTV do not inherit the blended inputs.
Estimate payback: Payback months = CAC / monthly gross profit per customer. Gross profit is monthly customer revenue less direct delivery costs. This assumes constant profit and retention, and excludes financing costs, fixed overhead and tax.

Baremetrics: acquisition cost scope

Questions before you start

Yes, if total acquisition spend and all new customers define your blended scope. Organic channels can still require staff and content costs. Per-channel attribution needs a consistent rule for assigning those costs and customers.

There is no per-customer denominator. Spend with no acquired customers still matters, but dividing by zero cannot give a usable CAC. Extend the observation window when customers arrive after the sales cycle.

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