Customer acquisition cost calculator
Spend divided by new customers, per channel.
FreeRuns in your browserNo signupUpdated 2026-10-29
Channels for the period
Blended CAC
$129
$6,200 channel spend ÷ 48 new customers
Fully loaded CAC
$160
Including the shared overhead
| Channel | Spend | Customers | CAC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | $3,200 | 24 | $133 | |
| Meta Ads | $1,800 | 9 | $200 | Most expensive |
| SEO and content | $1,200 | 15 | $80 | Cheapest |
Use the same period for spend and customers, and count only new customers. Channels like SEO have a lag, so judge them over a quarter rather than a month.
About this tool
How it works and how to read the result.
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Web app & SaaS development
SaaS products and web apps, from first version to scale.
See the serviceWhat it does
A CAC calculator divides what you spent to win customers by how many you won. Add a row for each channel with its spend and new customers for the period, and the page shows the cost per customer for each, marks the cheapest and most expensive, and works out the blended figure across all of them. A separate overhead field adds shared sales and marketing costs to give a fully loaded CAC. Everything is calculated in your browser.
How to use it
- Pick a period, usually a month or a quarter, and use it for every number.
- For each channel, enter the spend and the number of new customers it produced. Add or remove rows as needed.
- Enter shared overhead: salaries, tools and retainers not tied to one channel.
- Read the channel table and the two headline figures.
- Copy the summary for your report.
How to read the result
Suppose Google Ads cost $3,200 and brought 24 customers, Meta Ads cost $1,800 for 9, and SEO and content cost $1,200 for 15. The channel CACs are $133, $200 and $80. Blended CAC is $6,200 divided by 48, about $129. With $1,500 of shared overhead, the fully loaded CAC is about $160.
The table marks SEO as cheapest and Meta as most expensive. That does not mean moving all the budget to SEO; a channel's CAC usually rises as you spend more on it, and SEO cannot be scaled by spending alone. It does suggest testing a smaller Meta budget and a larger content budget next period.
A CAC is only good or bad next to what a customer is worth. If customers bring $400 of gross profit over their lifetime, a $160 fully loaded CAC is healthy; if they bring $150, every channel is losing money.
We build the tracking that makes channel attribution possible as part of web app development. Set CAC against customer value with the customer lifetime value calculator.
Questions
Frequently asked.
What should spend include?
For a channel figure, the ad spend plus any cost tied only to that channel, such as a freelancer who writes the ads. For the fully loaded figure, add shared costs in the overhead field: salaries of the marketing and sales team, tools, agency retainers and content production. Both figures are useful; label which one you are quoting.
Why is blended CAC different from the channel figures?
Blended CAC is total spend divided by total customers, so it is weighted by where the money went. A cheap channel that brings few customers barely moves it. Use channel CAC to decide where to shift budget and blended CAC to judge the business as a whole.
How do I handle channels with a delay, such as SEO?
Match the spend and the customers over a longer window, usually a quarter or more, because content published this month brings customers for a long time afterwards. Monthly SEO figures swing wildly and often look worse than they are in the early months.
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