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Customer Acquisition Cost Calculator

Calculate CAC from the full acquisition investment—not just ad spend. Include sales and marketing costs, count new customers, and compare the result with your chosen target.

Build your scenario.

All starting values are illustrative examples. Replace them with your own figures. USD is used throughout.

01 · Acquisition costs for one period

Acquisition advertising spend ($)Advertising allocated to acquiring new customers in your selected period.

Acquisition marketing labor ($)Acquisition share of marketing salaries, benefits or contractor costs.

Acquisition agency fees ($)Management fees allocated to customer acquisition. Do not also include them under labor.

Acquisition creative costs ($)Production, content or design costs allocated to acquisition.

Acquisition software costs ($)Acquisition share of software and reporting tools.

Acquisition sales costs ($)Acquisition share of sales labor, commissions and related expenses.

Other acquisition costs ($)Other customer-acquisition costs not counted above.

02 · Customers and your target

New customers acquiredFirst-time customers in the matched period and acquisition scope. Use customers, not leads or repeat orders.

Target CAC ($)A cost ceiling you choose based on contribution, retention, cash flow and payback.

No signup required. These calculators process your entries in your browser; the calculator does not send or save your input values.

Your acquisition economics.

Customer acquisition cost—All included acquisition costs ÷ new customers.

Included acquisition costs—For the reporting period you selected.

Cost reduction to target—Holding the new-customer count unchanged.

New customers needed at target—Holding the included costs unchanged.

Acquisition cost breakdown
Advertising	—
Marketing labor	—
Agency fees	—
Creative	—
Software	—
Sales	—
Other costs	—
Total included costs	—

Ad-spend-only cost per entered new customer: —. Total cost allowed at your target and current customer count: —.

The ad-spend-only figure uses the same entered new customers. It is not automatically a platform CPA or paid-channel CAC. Neither number proves advertising caused the acquisitions.

How to calculate customer acquisition cost.

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) divides the sales and marketing costs allocated to acquiring customers by the number of new customers acquired in a matched period and scope. This calculator separates the cost categories so you can make that allocation visible.

CAC = included acquisition sales and marketing costs ÷ new customers.
Budget at target CAC = target CAC × new customers.
Customers needed at target = included acquisition costs ÷ target CAC, rounded up.

A worked example

The starting example includes $5,000 advertising, $2,000 marketing labor, $1,000 agency fees, $500 creative, $500 software, $2,500 sales and $500 other costs. The total is $12,000. At 100 new customers, CAC is $120. To reach a $100 target, the scenario needs either $2,000 less cost at the same customer count or 120 customers at the same cost. These are arithmetic alternatives, not forecasts.

The cost-to-new-customer definition follows Shopify’s customer acquisition formula. Allocation and timing still require judgment: a long sales cycle may produce customers after the period when acquisition costs were incurred.

CAC and CPA answer different questions

An advertising platform’s cost per action may count leads, purchases or other configured events. CAC should use new customers and the acquisition costs included in your model. Repeat purchases, duplicate conversions or lead submissions are not interchangeable with newly acquired customers.

Make the scope explicit

For blended CAC, match total acquisition costs to all new customers in the same business scope. For a channel or cohort model, allocate both costs and customers consistently. Avoid counting a shared expense twice, and distinguish acquisition investment from retention or general business overhead. Record how salaries, creative and tools were allocated.

What is a good CAC?

A useful ceiling depends on customer contribution, retention, payback timing and cash availability. The target field is your chosen ceiling. A universal dollar amount or LTV:CAC ratio cannot establish fit for every business.

Should I count leads or all orders as new customers?

Count newly acquired customers. Leads may never become customers, and a customer can place repeat orders. If you want cost per lead or order, label and calculate that metric separately.

Why include salaries, agency fees and software?

They can be part of the work required to acquire customers. Include an appropriate acquisition allocation to avoid judging the business only by media spend. Keep a clear record of what is included and excluded.

What if I acquired no new customers?

CAC cannot be calculated with a zero denominator. The tool asks for a positive customer count; it does not display zero CAC or imply the acquisition work was free.

Does the target tell me how many customers I will acquire?

No. It shows the customer count that would be needed at unchanged cost to meet your chosen ceiling. It does not predict demand, conversion rates or future sales.

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