Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) Calculator
Calculate how much a customer is really worth over their lifetime — then see exactly what raises it most. Free, private, no sign-up.
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LTV Calculator: What a Customer Is Actually Worth
Why Use This LTV Calculator?
Customer lifetime value is the number that decides how much you can afford to spend acquiring a customer. Get it wrong and every marketing decision downstream is wrong with it. The Parix.ai LTV calculator works it out from three inputs you already have.
How LTV Is Calculated
LTV = average revenue per customer × gross margin × average customer lifetime
For subscription businesses, lifetime is usually expressed as 1 divided by your monthly churn rate. A 5% monthly churn means an average customer stays 20 months. The Churn Rate Calculator gives you that figure.
Use Margin, Not Revenue
The most common error is calculating LTV on revenue instead of gross margin. A customer paying £100 a month at 40% margin is worth £40 a month to you, not £100. Using revenue inflates LTV by more than double and makes unprofitable acquisition look sustainable.
The LTV to CAC Ratio
LTV on its own means little. Against acquisition cost, it tells you whether the business works.
| Ratio | What it means |
|---|---|
| Below 1:1 | You lose money on every customer |
| 1:1 to 3:1 | Thin. Growth is expensive and fragile |
| 3:1 | The standard benchmark for a healthy business |
| Above 5:1 | Often means you are underspending on growth |
That last row surprises people. A very high ratio is not a trophy — it usually means you could profitably acquire more customers than you are. The LTV:CAC Ratio Calculator does that comparison directly.
What LTV Does Not Tell You
It is an average, and averages hide the interesting part. If 20% of your customers account for 80% of lifetime value, the average describes almost nobody.
It is also a projection built on your current churn rate. If churn changes, every LTV figure you calculated changes with it — which is why LTV should be recalculated quarterly rather than set once.
Who Uses It
Founders setting an acquisition budget. Marketers defending one. Finance teams modelling a subscription business properly. Pair it with the CAC Calculator so both halves of the ratio come from the same set of assumptions.
Calculate Your LTV Now
Enter revenue, margin and churn above. Use margin, not revenue, and the number will be one you can actually plan against.