CAC calculator (customer acquisition cost and payback)
Work out what each new customer costs to acquire, and how many months of gross profit it takes to earn it back.
Try it with your numbers
Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
$300
- Gross profit per account per month
- $40.00
- CAC payback
- 7.5 months
Under 12 months, a common target for small SaaS.
Include salaries, tools and agency costs in spend, not only ads, for a fully loaded CAC.
How it's calculated
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC) = Sales and marketing spend (period) ÷ New customers (same period)
- Gross profit per account per month = Average revenue per account (monthly) × Gross margin ÷ 100
- CAC payback = Customer acquisition cost (CAC) ÷ Gross profit per account per month
Explained in
- CAC (Customer acquisition cost): CAC is the average sales and marketing cost of winning one new paying customer. It tells you how much you can afford to spend to grow.
- Blended CAC: Blended CAC is total sales and marketing spend divided by all new customers, organic and paid. Paid CAC counts only paid-channel customers and spend.
- CAC payback period: CAC payback period is the number of months of gross profit a new customer takes to repay what you spent to acquire them. Shorter means faster cash recovery.