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Customer Lifetime Value Calculator

Calculates customer lifetime value from order value, purchase frequency, margin and retention, with the CLV to CAC ratio and payback period.

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In short Customer Lifetime Value Calculator is a free online tool on inputtesthub.com that calculates customer lifetime value from order value, purchase frequency, margin and retention, with the CLV to CAC ratio and payback period. It needs no account, no download and no payment, and there is no daily usage limit. Everything is processed inside your own browser, so the data you paste is never uploaded to a server.

How to use the Customer Lifetime Value Calculator

  1. Enter your figures in the input fields.
  2. The result updates as you type, together with the full working.
  3. Check the breakdown table to see exactly how the number was reached.

About the Customer Lifetime Value Calculator

The Customer Lifetime Value Calculator calculates customer lifetime value from order value, purchase frequency, margin and retention, with the CLV to CAC ratio and payback period. It runs as plain JavaScript inside the page, which means there is no upload step, no queue and no size limit imposed by a server — the only limit is your own device.

What people use it for

  • Setting a ceiling on what you can pay to acquire a customer.
  • Comparing two channels on payback rather than on cost per click.
  • Deciding whether a loss-making first order is a problem.

Details

Healthy ratioCLV to CAC of 3:1 or better
Under 1:1You lose money on every customer
Over 5:1You are probably underspending on growth
PaybackUnder 12 months for most ecommerce
60% retentionImplies a 2.5-year average lifetime

The maths behind it

This tool uses with retention r and discount rate d, CLV = yearly gross profit × r ÷ (1 + d − r). The fixed-lifespan version is simply yearly gross profit × years. Every intermediate value is shown on screen, so the result can be checked by hand.

Lifetime value is a forecast built on retention you have not observed yet, so it is least reliable exactly when it matters most — for a young business with a few months of data. Payback period is the sturdier figure because it is measured rather than projected, and it is what determines whether growth has to be funded.

Where this tool stops

Gross margin here is product margin only; support, refunds, discounting and overheads are not deducted. Nor is any revenue from referrals a happy customer brings, which pushes the true figure the other way.

Frequently asked questions

Why use a retention rate instead of a number of years?
Because customer lifetimes are not uniform — they decay. A 60% yearly retention rate means most of the value arrives in the first two years and the tail contributes little, which the geometric series captures and a flat "three years" does not. The fixed-lifespan version is here for comparison, and it usually reads high.
What is a good CLV to CAC ratio?
Around 3:1 is the usual benchmark: enough headroom for the overheads this model ignores, without leaving obvious growth unbought. Below 2:1 the business is fragile to any rise in acquisition cost. Well above 5:1 usually means the marketing budget is the constraint rather than the market.
Are there any usage caps on the Customer Lifetime Value Calculator?
No charge and no sign-up. There is no free tier to run out of because there is no paid tier — inputtesthub.com is funded by advertising rather than by metering the utility.
Is what I paste into the Customer Lifetime Value Calculator stored?
No. The Customer Lifetime Value Calculator runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Nothing is transmitted, logged or stored, which you can verify yourself in the Network tab of your browser's developer tools.
Can I check the maths myself?
It uses with retention r and discount rate d, CLV = yearly gross profit × r ÷ (1 + d − r). The fixed-lifespan version is simply yearly gross profit × years. The full working is printed under the result, so you can follow every step rather than trusting a black box.
What is the Customer Lifetime Value Calculator used for?
In practice it gets used for three things: setting a ceiling on what you can pay to acquire a customer. Comparing two channels on payback rather than on cost per click. Deciding whether a loss-making first order is a problem. It is built for exactly those cases rather than being a general-purpose tool with this bolted on.
What are the limits of the Customer Lifetime Value Calculator?
Gross margin here is product margin only; support, refunds, discounting and overheads are not deducted. Nor is any revenue from referrals a happy customer brings, which pushes the true figure the other way. Knowing where a tool stops being trustworthy matters more than the cases where it works.
What are the reference figures here?
Healthy ratio is CLV to CAC of 3:1 or better. Under 1:1 is You lose money on every customer. Over 5:1 is You are probably underspending on growth. These are printed on the page itself, so you do not have to take them on trust.
Is the number rounded?
The calculation runs in double precision and the result is shown to ten significant figures, so converting a value and converting it back returns the original. What is displayed is rounded for readability; what is copied is not.

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