CAC calculator
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is what you spend on sales and marketing for each new customer. Enter one period of spend and new customers to get blended CAC (all spend, all customers) and paid CAC (paid spend, paid customers). The numbers you enter stay in your browser.
Your numbers
All spend divided by all new customers.
Paid spend divided by paid customers.
How it is calculated
Paid CAC = paid spend / paid customers
Use the same period for every input. Count each new customer once, and do not count upgrades from existing customers as new customers.
Reading the result
CAC tells you little on its own. Compare it with what a customer is worth and how long it takes to earn the cost back.
David Skok's SaaS metrics guide gives two guidelines: the best SaaS businesses have a lifetime value more than 3 times CAC, and profitability suffers when recovering CAC takes longer than 12 months. Use the LTV calculator for the first part.
Watch the trend by channel as well as the total. A rise in paid CAC can be fine if you are reaching new audiences, but it should have an explanation.
For more on reading CAC in context, see CAC beyond the basic formula.
Common questions
What is the difference between blended and paid CAC?
Blended CAC divides all sales and marketing spend by all new customers, whatever the channel. Paid CAC divides paid-channel spend by the customers attributed to paid channels. Blended shows what growth costs overall; paid shows what a paid customer costs.
Should salaries be included?
For blended CAC, yes: include the salaries of people whose job is winning customers (sales, marketing, growth), plus agencies, tools, content and events. Leave out people who serve existing customers.
Which period should I use?
Any period, as long as spend and customers cover the same one. If your sales cycle is long, spend in one quarter may produce customers in the next, so a longer window or a lag gives a steadier number.
Why did my CAC go up?
Usually one of: ad prices rose, a free channel (search, referrals) brought fewer customers, you hired sales staff whose deals have not closed yet, or you spent on a launch that has not paid off yet. Look at each channel separately before drawing a conclusion.
Sources
- David Skok, SaaS Metrics 2.0 (forEntrepreneurs), read 24 September 2026
Work it out from your own data
clariBI connects Google Ads, Meta Ads, HubSpot and Stripe. On Starter and up you can ask for CAC in plain English; it calculates the figure from your connected data and shows the numbers it used.