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Unit Economics

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LTV:CAC Calculator

The LTV:CAC Calculator projects customer lifetime value against customer acquisition cost across ecommerce, subscription, and SaaS business models. Unlike most LTV:CAC tools, ours separates gross LTV from contribution-margin LTV, so the output actually reflects unit economics, not vanity.

Instant results

No data stored

Updated 2026

LTV:CAC Calculator

Cohort-based LTV with honest inputs

Inputs

Average Order Value (AOV)

Gross Margin60%

Repeat Purchase Rate35%

Orders Per Year (avg customer)

Customer Lifetime (years)

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

OK — room to improve

LTV

$131

LTV:CAC Ratio

2.92×

Payback Period

4.2 months

Contribution / Order

$51.00

Expected Lifetime Orders

2.6

Benchmark

Solid but not exceptional. Industry benchmark for healthy DTC is 3-4×. Work on retention, raise AOV via bundles, or cut CAC through creative optimization.

Improve these numbers

Our retention + CRO engagements typically lift LTV:CAC 40-80% in 6 months.

Retention services

How to use

Get value from the LTV:CAC Calculator in 3 steps.

Enter your numbers

Input current metrics — no signup, no data saved to servers. Everything runs in your browser.

Get instant analysis

Results update live as you change inputs. See verdicts, benchmarks, and context, not just raw numbers.

Act on the output

Follow the "What this means" recommendations. Share with your team or bring to your next strategy review.

Use cases

When to use the LTV:CAC Calculator.

Validate unit economics before scaling acquisition

Set CAC caps by cohort or channel

Model subscription vs one-time purchase economics

Justify retention investment against acquisition spend

About the LTV:CAC Calculator

The 3:1 LTV:CAC ratio that everyone quotes comes from SaaS benchmarks from 2015. For DTC ecommerce, the ratio you care about depends on whether your product is consumable (high repeat, 2:1 can work) or durable (low repeat, 4:1 is the floor). For subscription, payback period matters more than the ratio itself. Our calculator asks for business model first, then applies the right framework. Input your average order value, contribution margin, purchase frequency, and retention rate, and get a cohort-adjusted LTV projection plus a payback period estimate.

WANT IT DONE FOR YOU?

The LTV:CAC Calculator is free.
The full analysis is not.

Our CRO & Analytics service takes this to the next level — full audit, strategic roadmap, and senior operators executing the work. Starts at $6k/month, quarterly contracts.

CRO & Analytics Free audit

FAQ

LTV:CAC Calculator
questions.

Got more? Ask us →

Yes — 100% free, no signup, no email wall. We built it because our operators needed it and decided to share.

No. All calculations run entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent to or stored on any server.

Reach out — we will share an embed snippet for teams that want to use this inside their own workflows.

Yes. No signup required, no data collected, nothing sent to our servers. Everything runs in your browser. We publish free tools because they build trust with operators who might eventually hire us — that's the entire business model.

The math is correct and the formulas are standard. The output is only as good as the inputs you provide — garbage in, garbage out applies here like anywhere. We recommend calibrating with at least 3 months of real data before making major decisions based on the results.

The tool lives at a stable URL that you can share with your team. We don't currently offer embeds, but the output is shareable via the copy button on calculator results. For white-label or embedded versions, contact us directly.

Three reasons. First, they help operators make better decisions even if they never hire us. Second, they let us show our thinking publicly — the frameworks behind these tools come straight from our client engagements. Third, they attract the kind of operators who later become great clients.

The free tools cover standard scenarios. For custom analysis — multi-channel attribution, cohort LTV modeling, MMM — we do this as part of paid engagements. Our CRO & Analytics service starts at $6k/month and includes custom dashboarding plus BigQuery setup if needed.