LTV calculator
lifetime value is how much money one user hands you before they leave. for a subscription app it comes down to three things: what they pay, how much of that you keep, and how long they stay. churn is the one founders get wrong, because it compounds.
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The formula
average lifetime in months is 1 divided by your monthly churn rate. at 5% churn a user stays 20 months. at 10% they stay 10. LTV is then monthly revenue times that lifetime, times your gross margin.
this assumes churn stays flat, which it does not. real churn is highest in month one and settles after that, so this formula tends to understate LTV for apps with a rough first month and a loyal core. use it as a floor, not a promise.
Why margin matters more for AI apps
a classic software business keeps 80% or more of revenue. an AI app pays for inference on every use, and heavy users cost the most while paying the same. that pushes real gross margin down, sometimes a lot.
if you skip margin and quote revenue LTV, you will happily pay a CAC you cannot actually afford. that is the single most common way consumer AI apps run out of money while the dashboard looks healthy.
Numbers tell you what. They do not tell you what to do.
bring your real numbers to the breakdown call and leave with a plan for them. free, no pitch deck.
Common questions
Should LTV be before or after app store commission?
after. apple and google take their cut before you see anything, so revenue you never receive should not appear in a number you use to decide ad budgets.
What churn rate is normal for a consumer app?
it varies far too much by category to give you one number honestly. what matters more is the direction: measure it monthly, and watch whether the curve flattens after month three. a flattening curve means you have a real core of users, and that is worth more than any single figure.
Other plan tools
CAC calculator
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PlanLTV:CAC and payback
free LTV:CAC calculator with payback period. find out if your unit economics work and how many months to earn a user back.
PlanBreak-even CAC
work out the most you can afford to pay for a user before you lose money, and the target CAC that leaves healthy margin.
PlanRunway and burn
free runway calculator. cash, burn, revenue and planned hires in, months of runway out, with and without the hires.
Bring one real growth problem. Leave with the fix.
the breakdown call is free. no pitch deck, no agency handoff.