AppCalcsUnit economics
LTV to CAC Calculator
Find out what a subscriber is worth after fees, and how long it takes to earn back what they cost.
Free calculator
Your assumptions
Per acquired subscriber
- Net LTV
- $141.44
- Gross LTV
- $166.40
- Average lifetime
- 16.7 months
- Payback period
- 6 months
- Profit per subscriber
- $101.44
Estimate only. Net LTV is after Apple's commission, which falls to 15% once a subscriber completes a year of paid service. Lifetime is capped at 120 months. Refunds, taxes, trials, and running costs are excluded. The 3× rule of thumb is a convention, not a target that fits every business.
Reading the result
Average lifetime is the reciprocal of your churn rate: 5% monthly churn means an average subscriber stays about twenty months. Lifetime value is the revenue collected across those months, and the number that matters is the one after Apple takes its share.
That commission is not constant. It starts at 30% and falls to 15% once a subscriber completes a year of paid service, so this calculator sums month by month rather than using the usual price-divided-by-churn shortcut. Under the Small Business Program the rate is a flat 15%.
The 3× ratio is a convention, not a law. What it is really standing in for is whether you can afford to wait: a long payback period is survivable with funding and painful without it. Read the payback figure alongside the ratio.
Fee assumptions last reviewed 2026-08-25. Project growth over time or compare annual and monthly plans.