Customer Lifetime Value Calculator

Work out what a customer is worth in revenue and in gross profit, how much you can afford to pay to acquire one, and what a lift in repeat purchases is worth. The maths runs in your browser.

Inputs

Average order value (AOV)

Revenue ÷ orders over the last 12 months, net of discounts. Purchase frequency (orders per customer per year) Orders ÷ unique customers over the same 12 months. Monthly subscriptions: 12. Gross margin

After cost of goods, shipping and payment fees if you can get them.

How long customers stay

Lifespan (years) Annual churn rate (%)

Average years between a customer's first and last order. If you don't know it, start conservative: over-estimating lifespan is the most common way CLV gets inflated.

Customer acquisition cost (CAC), optional

Paid media spend ÷ new customers acquired in the same period. Lift in repeat purchases to model

+ %

Applied to repeat orders only. The first order stays fixed.

Lifetime value

Customer lifetime value (revenue)

0 orders over 0 years

Margin-adjusted CLV (gross profit)

The number to compare against CAC

LTV:CAC ratio

–

Enter a CAC to calculate

Uplift from more repeat purchases

+$0

Extra gross profit per customer

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Note: this is a simple average-customer model. Averages hide a skewed distribution (a small share of customers usually carries most of the value), and it ignores returns and the time value of money. For planning, run it per acquisition channel or per first-purchase cohort rather than once for the whole store.

Want a real audit on these numbers?

Drop your store URL and email. We'll review your actual Klaviyo account (read-only) and send you a written 90-day roadmap, free, within 24 hours.

How This Calculator Works

Customer lifetime value (revenue) = AOV × purchase frequency per year × lifespan in years. If you pick the churn option, lifespan is estimated as 1 ÷ annual churn rate, so 40% churn gives a 2.5-year lifespan.

Margin-adjusted CLV = revenue CLV × gross margin. This is the version that matters for acquisition decisions, because you pay CAC out of profit, not revenue.

LTV:CAC = margin-adjusted CLV ÷ CAC. A ratio around 3:1 is the commonly quoted rule of thumb for a healthy business. Below 1:1 you lose money on every customer you acquire. The right target depends on your cash position and how fast CAC pays back.

Repeat-purchase uplift takes the orders after the first one and increases them by the percentage you enter, then shows the extra gross profit per customer and per 1,000 customers. That is the lever email and SMS pull hardest: post-purchase, replenishment and win-back flows exist to create the second, third and fourth order.

For the full method, including cohort-based CLV and worked ecommerce and supplement subscription examples, read our customer lifetime value guide. To see what your subscriber list is worth, try the email list value calculator. To check whether your Klaviyo program pays for itself, use the Klaviyo ROI calculator.