are your unit economics
actually healthy?
enter your acquisition costs, revenue per user, margin, and churn. instantly see your LTV, CAC, LTV:CAC ratio, payback period, and whether your economics are sustainable.
How to use this unit economics calculator
Enter your monthly ad spend and the number of new paying customers you acquired from that spend to calculate your CAC. Then add your average revenue per user (ARPU), gross margin percentage, and monthly churn rate. The calculator outputs your LTV, CAC, LTV:CAC ratio, and payback period with an instant health verdict.
If your CAC includes non-paid channels (organic, referrals), either include only paid spend, or allocate a portion of your time and tool costs to the acquisition spend field. The most accurate CAC includes all costs that contribute to acquiring a customer.
What are unit economics?
Unit economics measures the revenue and cost associated with a single customer. The two core metrics are LTV (Customer Lifetime Value) — how much revenue a customer generates over their entire relationship — and CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) — how much you spend to acquire that customer.
The relationship between LTV and CAC determines whether your business model is sustainable. If LTV > CAC, every customer you acquire is profitable over their lifetime. If LTV < CAC, you're paying more to acquire customers than they'll ever be worth — and no amount of growth can fix that.
Unit economics benchmarks for solo founders
- LTV:CAC > 3:1 — Healthy. You're generating strong returns on acquisition spend.
- LTV:CAC 1.5–3:1 — Workable but tight. Focus on reducing churn or increasing ARPU.
- LTV:CAC < 1.5:1 — Unsustainable. You're losing money on every customer you acquire.
- Payback period < 12 months — Healthy for bootstrapped SaaS.
- Payback period 12–18 months — Acceptable if you have runway.
- Payback period > 18 months — Risky for bootstrapped founders.