CAC calculator
Calculate Customer Acquisition Cost from sales and marketing spend over new customers added. Optionally project CAC payback period from average ACV and gross margin.
Calculate Customer Acquisition Cost
Enter your S&M spend, new customers acquired, average ACV, and gross margin. CAC and payback period update instantly.
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accts
$
Annual contract value per new customer.
%
CAC
$5,000
Payback: 6.7 months · LTV:CAC at 3y = 5.4×
CAC = S&M spend / new customers · Payback = CAC / (ACV/12 × gross margin)
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What counts in S&M spend?
- Sales team salaries + commissions
- Marketing team salaries
- Ad spend, content, events
- Sales tools (CRM, sales engagement, dialers)
- Marketing tools (automation, attribution)
Exclude product/engineering/customer success unless they directly own acquisition.
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How CAC is calculated
CAC = S&M spend (period) / new customers acquired (period).
CAC payback (months) = CAC / (ACV/12 × gross margin %). Tells you how long until that customer pays back the cost to acquire them.
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Benchmarks
- CAC payback <12 months — strong
- 12–18 months — healthy growth SaaS
- 18–24 months — acceptable for enterprise
- >24 months — capital-intensive; expect investor questions