Customer Lifetime Contribution Calculator

How the customer lifetime contribution calculator works

All starting customers contribute a full first month. Expected active customers in month n equal the initial cohort × (1 − monthly churn)^ (n − 1). Churn applies after each paid month. No new, reactivated or expanded customers enter the cohort, and fractional expected customer counts are retained rather than presented as observed people. Churn must be zero or at least 0.000001% to keep exact repeated arithmetic within a useful calculation range.

For each month, expected active customers multiply entered revenue and variable cost separately; each cohort amount rounds to cents before contribution. Cumulative contribution begins with the negative onboarding outlay and then adds monthly contributions. Dividing the resulting cumulative amount by initial customers gives a per-initial-customer allocation; it is undefined at zero initial customers.

The chosen horizon bounds the result, including at zero churn. This is not an infinite lifetime value or a revenue-only multiple. No customer-acquisition spend, discount rate, taxes, fixed overhead, churn estimation or expansion revenue is included. Negative unit economics remain visible, and the result does not validate the assumed retention pattern.

Worked example

An initial 100 customers paying 100 per month with 40 variable cost and 10% churn after each month give active counts of 100, 90 and 81 over three paid months. Contribution before onboarding is 6,000 + 5,400 + 4,860 = 16,260. A 20 onboarding cost per initial customer subtracts 2,000, leaving 14,260, or 142.60 each. Zero churn instead gives 16,000 after onboarding over the same horizon.

Sources and assumptions

The source material explains the underlying calculation or pricing structure. Entered prices, costs, schedules and scenario choices are your assumptions; this tool does not obtain supplier quotes or predict actual results.

• Stripe: lifetime value, customer lifespan and cost adjustments