💎 Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) Calculator

Estimate how much a typical customer is worth over their whole relationship with your business.

Average Purchase Value ($)

Purchases per Year

Average Customer Lifespan (years)

Gross Margin (%, optional)

The three numbers that make up CLV

The calculator multiplies your inputs and, if you give it a margin, takes a percentage of the result:

annual value    = average purchase value × purchases per year
lifetime revenue = annual value × average lifespan in years
lifetime profit  = lifetime revenue × gross margin %

With the defaults - $60 a purchase, 4 purchases a year, 3 years, 50% margin - annual value is $240, lifetime revenue is $720 and lifetime profit is $360. The margin box is optional; leave it blank or at 0 and only the revenue line appears.

Where the estimate is weakest

Lifespan comes from churn. If a steady 25% of customers leave each year, average lifespan is 1 / 0.25 = 4 years. Guessing this number is guessing the whole answer, because CLV scales with it directly.
Averages hide the shape. A handful of heavy buyers pulls the mean up while most customers sit well below it. A median, or one figure per segment, is usually more useful than one blended CLV.

This is a flat model. It assumes every customer buys at the same rate for exactly the lifespan you entered, then stops - real cohorts decay, losing most people early and keeping a long tail. It also counts a dollar received in year three as worth a dollar today, with no discounting. Both simplifications push the number up, so treat the result as a ceiling.

Frequently asked questions

How do I work out average customer lifespan?

Divide 1 by your annual churn rate. Lose 20% of customers a year and average lifespan is 5 years; lose 50% and it is 2. For subscriptions, monthly churn of 3% works out to about 33 months.

Should CLV be based on revenue or profit?

Profit, if you plan to compare it with acquisition cost. Revenue CLV counts money you never keep. Put your gross margin in the optional box and use the lifetime profit line.

What is a good LTV to CAC ratio?

Three to one is the common rule of thumb, and it only holds if the LTV side is margin rather than revenue. A ratio far above 3:1 is not automatically good news - it often means you could profitably spend more on acquisition than you are.