Growth calculator

CAC Payback Calculator

Estimate how long it takes to recover customer acquisition cost from monthly gross profit after support and payment processing costs.

Inputs

Currency *Applies to CAC, revenue, support cost, and profit outputs.CAC *Customer acquisition cost to recover from customer gross profit.Monthly revenue per customer *Average monthly recurring or recognized revenue per customer.Gross margin rate *Gross margin percentage before payment processing and support cost, such as 75%.Monthly churn rateExpected monthly customer churn. Leave at 0% for a simple payback model.Monthly expansion rateExpected monthly revenue expansion for retained customers.Onboarding revenueOne-time onboarding or implementation revenue credited against CAC.Onboarding gross margin rateGross margin on onboarding revenue, such as 50%.Payment processing rateRevenue percentage consumed by payment processing or similar fees.Support cost per customer per monthMonthly support or success cost per customer.Maximum projection monthsMaximum months to accumulate expected profit before reporting no payback.Start dateOptional YYYY-MM-DD date used to estimate the payback date.

Results

Results are deterministic scenario outputs, not guarantees.

Enter values and calculate to see the summary, supporting metrics, warnings, and interpretation.

Example

Example: CAC payback

If CAC is $1,200, monthly revenue is $250, gross margin is 75%, processing is 3%, and support costs are $25, monthly gross profit is $155 and simple payback is about 7.7 months before churn or expansion effects.

Want help interpreting the model?

Use this calculator as a deterministic planning tool, then talk with Propel Collective about which assumptions are worth validating first.

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