Profit Geeks

Free CAC calculator · No signup

CAC Calculator.

Customer Acquisition Cost, calculated honestly. Enter the marketing and sales spend, the new customers it produced, and your average revenue and margin. Returns CAC, blended CAC, and the payback period your unit economics actually allow.

$

Media plus tools plus content production attributable to acquisition.

$

Salaries and commissions for any sales team involved in acquisition. Use 0 if you do not have one.

Net new paying customers signed in the same month.

$

Total recurring revenue divided by paying customers. Use the average order value for non-recurring businesses.

%

Revenue minus cost of goods, divided by revenue. SaaS often 70 to 90 percent. Ecommerce 30 to 70 percent.

Result

Total acquisition spend

$28,000

CAC (fully loaded)

$467

Marketing + sales ÷ new customers.

Blended CAC (marketing only)

$333

Monthly contribution per customer

$210

Payback period

2.2 months

Annual contribution after CAC

$2,053

Reading the verdict

A 2.2-month payback is healthy. The economics support reinvestment.

LTV calculatorROAS calculatorFull Ad Spend Calculator

How CAC and payback work

The CAC formula.

Total acquisition cost ÷ new customers acquired in the same period. Fully loaded includes marketing plus sales. Blended includes marketing only.

For early-stage funnels with delayed conversion, use a 28-day or 90-day cohort instead of the same calendar month, otherwise the number lags spend.

The payback heuristic.

Months to recover CAC from monthly contribution per customer. Under 6 months is healthy. 6 to 12 is workable. Beyond 12, growth is being funded by working capital and the next downturn is what surfaces it.

Frequently asked

Five questions about CAC and payback.

How is Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) calculated?

CAC = total acquisition spend ÷ new customers in the same period. Fully loaded CAC includes marketing plus sales spend. Blended CAC includes marketing only. Most $2M to $20M operators report blended CAC publicly and track fully loaded CAC internally.

What is a good CAC?

There is no universal good CAC. The number that matters is CAC vs the contribution margin per customer. A $2,000 CAC is healthy for a SaaS business with $300 ARPU and a 24-month average lifetime; the same CAC is catastrophic for a $50 average order ecommerce business.

What is a healthy CAC payback period?

Under 6 months is healthy across most categories. 6 to 12 months is workable but tight. Beyond 12 months, growth is being financed by working capital rather than retention. The calculator on this page returns the payback in months from your inputs.

Should sales costs be included in CAC?

For SaaS and B2B with sales teams, yes. Fully loaded CAC includes the sales team's salaries, commissions, and tools. For ecommerce or self-serve businesses without sales teams, marketing-only CAC is the right number.

Why is my CAC rising even though spend is steady?

Three common reasons: audience saturation in the highest-converting segments; attribution decay (the conversions are still happening but are being credited elsewhere); or the offer or funnel quietly degrading. The Tracking Audit isolates the first and second; the Profit Audit isolates the third.