Free Tool

What Is Each Customer
Actually Worth Over Time?

Enter your average revenue per customer, gross margin, and churn rate to get your Customer Lifetime Value. Add CAC to see your unit-economics ratio. Add your customer count to see the total lifetime value of your entire base.

Your Numbers

Three required inputs. Two optional inputs unlock the deeper analysis.

Total annual revenue ÷ total customers, or your best estimate. Use the same period you use for churn.
$
The portion of revenue left after direct costs (cost of goods, fulfillment, support). Leave blank to calculate on revenue.
%
The percentage of customers you lose per period. Pick whether you measure churn monthly or annually below.
%

Adding CAC unlocks the CLV:CAC ratio — the single best gauge of whether your acquisition is healthy. Customer count unlocks the total lifetime value of your entire base.

If unknown, run our CAC Calculator first.
$
How many active customers do you have? Unlocks total LTV across your entire base.

Your Customer Lifetime Value

Updates instantly as you type.

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Enter ARPU and churn rate to see your CLV. Add margin for a true margin-based CLV.

Now find out what improving CS would do to your CLV.

Customer service quality affects retention. Retention affects churn. Churn affects CLV. Run the Customer Service ROI Calculator to see what a churn reduction would mean for your unit economics.

Use the CS ROI Calculator →

How CLV Is Calculated

This calculator uses the standard formulas for Customer Lifetime Value.

Expected customer lifespan:

Lifespan = 1 ÷ Churn rate

If your annual churn is 10%, your average customer stays 10 years. If your monthly churn is 5%, your average customer stays 20 months. The calculator converts whatever period you provide into years for the CLV math.

Customer Lifetime Value (margin-based):

CLV = ARPU × Lifespan × Gross margin

If you leave gross margin blank, the calculator returns customer lifetime revenue instead — useful, but less precise than true margin-based CLV. Margin-based CLV is the version most operational and investment decisions need.

CLV:CAC ratio is the relationship between what a customer is worth and what they cost to acquire. The widely-cited benchmarks:

  • Under 1:1 — you lose money on every customer acquired. Unsustainable.
  • 1:1 to 3:1 — marginal. You are not bankrupting yourself but you have little room to invest in growth.
  • 3:1 — healthy. The classic target ratio for most service businesses.
  • 5:1 to 10:1 — strong unit economics. You may even be under-investing in growth.
  • Above 10:1 — almost certainly under-investing. You could spend more to acquire and still come out ahead.

For the full operational framework around CLV, see What Is Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)?

What this calculator does not show:

  • Predictive CLV (machine learning models that forecast per-customer CLV based on behavior)
  • Cohort CLV (CLV trended by acquisition cohort to detect retention curve drift)
  • Discount-adjusted CLV (applying time-value-of-money discount to future revenue)
  • Segment CLV variation (high-tier customers usually have 5-10x the CLV of low-tier customers)

The aggregate number is a starting point. Segment-level analysis is where most of the actionable insight lives.

CLV not where it should be?

The fastest lever on CLV is retention — reducing churn rate. Better customer service is one of the strongest retention drivers available. Free 30-minute conversation, no pitch.

Book a Free Consultation