Growth tool
What a customer costs, and what they return.
Acquisition cost against lifetime value, with the payback period that decides whether you can afford to grow quickly or have to grow out of cash flow.
- Free, no sign-up
- LTV:CAC ratio
- Payback in months
CAC and LTV calculator
FreeWorth knowing
The two numbers that decide growth.
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01
Put LTV in gross profit, never in revenue
A customer who spends $1,440 over three years at a 60% margin is worth $864 to you, not $1,440. Comparing revenue-based LTV against CAC is the most common way a business convinces itself that unprofitable acquisition is working. This calculator applies margin for exactly that reason.
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02
The 3:1 rule is a rule of thumb, not a law
Below roughly 3:1 you are usually buying growth at a loss once overheads are counted. Far above it — 8:1, 10:1 — often means the opposite problem: you are under-investing and leaving reachable customers to competitors. A very high ratio is a prompt to spend more, not a trophy.
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03
Payback period is the number that governs cash
Ratio tells you whether the model works eventually; payback tells you whether you can survive the wait. Recovering CAC in one month lets you reinvest almost immediately. Eighteen months means you need financing to grow at all, however healthy the ratio looks.
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While you are here.
Growth that funds itself.
We build acquisition and retention around the payback period, not the vanity metric.