Subscription economics · Profitability

Subscription Break-Even Calculator

Find the active customers and recurring revenue needed to cover operating and customer-acquisition costs.

Subscription economics

CurrencyMonthly fixed costsActive customersMonthly ARPUGross margin (%)New customers / monthCAC per new customerMonthly customer churn (%)

Fixed costs should exclude the acquisition spend already represented by CAC × new customers.

Break-even results

Break-even customers—

Break-even MRR—

Monthly operating profit—

Customers above / below break-even—

CAC payback period—

Gross-profit LTV—

LTV:CAC ratio—

Expected customer lifetime—

How subscription break-even works

Monthly contribution per active customer is ARPU × gross margin. Break-even customers equal monthly fixed costs plus acquisition spend, divided by that contribution. Break-even MRR multiplies the required customers by ARPU.

CAC payback estimates how many months of gross profit recover acquisition cost. LTV uses constant monthly churn as a planning shortcut, so validate assumptions with cohort data.