Finance & Strategy
CAC Payback Period
How fast you recover what you spent to win a customer.
Calculate the months required to recover customer acquisition cost. Critical for capital efficiency — anything over 18 months drains cash.
Inputs
Adjust to model your scenario
$650
$
$180
$
75%
%
Payback period
4.8 mo
Monthly gross profit per customer
$135
Formula
Payback = CAC ÷ (Monthly ARPU × Gross margin)
Benchmarks
< 6 moElite — scale aggressively
6–12 moHealthy SaaS benchmark
12–18 moAcceptable for sticky SaaS
> 18 moCash-intensive — diagnose
FAQ
How operators use this calculator.
Always use gross-margin-adjusted revenue. CAC is paid in real dollars, so payback must be in real margin dollars.
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Need more than the math?
Get the SAZ team running this for your business.
Email info@Sedighi.ca or call (604) 632-4959. A senior partner responds within one business day.
Responding to inquiries within 1 business day