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Free CAC Payback Calculator (+ Guide)

A CAC payback calculator that shows how fast a customer pays back what they cost, on gross profit, and checks the first 30 days.

5.0(1 rating)
Navid Moazzezby Navid Moazzez·Updated Sept 29, 2026·2 min read

See how long a customer takes to pay back what they cost to get, on gross profit, and whether they do it within the first 30 days.

1

Your numbers

2

Your ratio and payback

Add your gross margin in Your numbers to see what each customer pays for.
Build a money model with these numbers
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This free CAC payback calculator shows how long a new customer takes to pay back what they cost to get, on gross profit.

Enter your price, your margin and your cost to get a customer. See your payback in months, your LTGP to CAC ratio, and whether a customer covers their cost within the first 30 days.

Here's what CAC payback is, how to work it out, and how to make it shorter.

What is CAC payback?

CAC payback is the time it takes a customer's gross profit to cover what it cost to get them, usually counted in months.

The formula: CAC ÷ (monthly price × gross margin). A customer who costs $200 to get and brings in $40 of gross profit a month pays back in 5 months.

How to use the CAC payback calculator

Work out your payback0/5

For a one-time product, leave the box unticked: payback is then counted in purchases.

Why 30 days matters

Most payback benchmarks are counted in months. Alex Hormozi aims for 30 days:

@AlexHormozi

I like to cover my costs of getting a customer within 30 days.

His reason: a month of interest-free money on a credit card can pay for a customer who pays it back inside that month. Then the same money gets the next one, without waiting.

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An example

A $49 monthly plan at an 80% margin, with customers costing $200 to get, pays back in about 5 months. Add a $297 setup program in the first month, and the first 30 days change:

The monthly plan alone
Cash in 30 days
$49
Gross profit
$39.20
Covers the cost of
0.19 customers
Plus a $297 setup program
Cash in 30 days
$346
Gross profit
$276.80
Covers the cost of
1.03 customers

The same customer now pays for themselves in the first month, and the monthly plan becomes profit.

How to shorten your payback

Bring more cash in early, from the same customers:

  • Charge more up front: a paid start, a setup fee, or a prepaid block of months.
  • Add an upsell at the moment of need, in the first 30 days.
  • Offer a payment plan instead of a discount to people who say no.
  • Bill every 4 weeks instead of monthly: 13 charges a year instead of 12.

The money model generator designs these offers for your business, and the LTV to CAC calculator shows what a customer is worth over their life.

Ready to sell it?

Not all of these are in my own stack today. Each one does a job in a money model well, and some links are affiliate links.

Checkout, upsells and billing

Courses, memberships and paid newsletters

Funnels and a CRM

Keep building it in

CAC Payback Calculator FAQs

Questions about the cAC payback calculator? Here's what to know.

A CAC payback calculator shows how long a customer takes to pay back what they cost to get.

This CAC payback calculator uses gross profit and checks the first 30 days too.

Divide what a customer costs to get by the gross profit they bring in each month: CAC ÷ (monthly price × gross margin).

The CAC payback calculator does it for you, in months or purchases.

Alex Hormozi aims to cover a customer's cost within 30 days, so the same money can get the next customer: 30-day gross profit above 2 × (the cost to get a customer + the cost of goods sold).

The CAC payback calculator shows whether your first 30 days get there.

Gross profit is what's left after the cost to deliver, the money that actually pays for getting customers.

The CAC payback calculator uses it, so a thin margin doesn't hide a slow payback.

Bring more cash in early: a paid start, a prepaid block, an upsell in the first 30 days, or billing every 4 weeks.

The money model generator designs these offers for your business.

Yes, the CAC payback calculator is free, with no login and no limit.

It runs in your browser, and nothing you enter is sent anywhere.

The LTV to CAC calculator shows what a customer is worth over their life, and the money model generator designs the offers.

See all my free tools.

Navid Moazzez

AI business strategist & AI OS builder

Navid Moazzez helps creators and founders master AI and build their own AI Operating System (AI OS) to automate their business and life.

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