The unit economics test
Traditional software costs almost nothing to run once it is built, so more users always meant more profit. AI broke that rule. Every action calls a model that costs real money, which means a project can go viral and lose money faster. Put in your numbers and find out where yours stands.
Ballpark rates for a rough read. If you know your real number, type it in the field above instead.
Rough benchmarks for lean, self-serve acquisition. Sales-led and enterprise CAC runs far higher, into the hundreds or thousands. Type your own number above if you know it.
Healthy
The math works.
Each customer pays back their acquisition cost and earns a real margin on top.
Monthly profit once you stop spending to acquire, at each user count. If contribution margin is negative, this is the trap: every new user makes the number worse.
How to read this. Contribution margin is the money left from one customer after the cost of serving them. Cost to land one folds in both what you spend to acquire a customer and any intro offer or lead magnet you give away to win them, since both are money spent before that customer ever pays full price. If margin is negative, growth deepens the loss. If it is positive but payback runs past a year, you are in the pricing danger zone: too cheap for anyone to sell for you, too expensive to spread for free. Aim for positive margin, LTV above 3x cost, and payback under 12 months.