Customer Acquisition Cost Calculator
Calculate customer acquisition cost (CAC) from marketing spend and new customers. Free, instant and mobile-friendly.
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Formula
CAC = Marketing and sales spend ÷ New customers acquired
How to use this result
Use the result to compare scenarios, set targets and identify the number that most affects your decision. Recalculate when prices, costs, customer volume or campaign performance change.
This calculator provides an estimate based on your inputs and is not accounting, tax, legal or investment advice.
Understand your Customer Acquisition Cost Calculator result
Customer acquisition cost, or CAC, estimates how much sales and marketing spend is required to win one new customer during a defined period.
Worked example
If marketing and sales cost €12,000 and produce 80 new customers, CAC is €150. Each customer must generate more than this amount in contribution over time to create value.
How to interpret it
CAC is most useful when calculated consistently by channel and compared with customer lifetime value. Rapid growth with weak retention can make an apparently acceptable CAC unprofitable.
Practical next steps
- Use customers acquired in the same period as spend.
- Include sales tools, salaries and agency fees.
- Compare CAC by channel and customer segment.
Questions to ask before deciding
Are all relevant costs included? Is the time period consistent? How would the result change if volume, price or cost moved by 10%? Save your assumptions so you can compare the estimate with actual performance later.