Revenue per Subscriber Calculator
What a subscriber is worth, and what one may cost.
Revenue per subscriber
$0.74
$19.19 over their lifetime
A subscriber returns $19.19 against $2.40 to acquire, paying back in 3.3 months. That ratio is what justifies spending on list growth rather than treating email as free.
How the Revenue per Subscriber Calculator works
A subscriber's lifetime value is monthly revenue per subscriber times how long they stay. Comparing that against acquisition cost is what justifies spending money on list growth rather than treating email as a free channel.
Not financial advice. Marketplace fees change, and they vary by country, plan and seller status. Every rate here is an editable default, not a quoted price — check the platform's current fee schedule before you price a product against it. This is not tax or business advice.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate revenue per subscriber?
Monthly email revenue divided by list size. Multiplying by average subscriber lifespan gives lifetime value.
How long does a subscriber stay?
Derived from churn: one divided by the monthly churn rate gives the average lifespan in months. At 1.5% monthly churn that is around 67 months, though engagement usually decays long before the unsubscribe.
What should I pay to acquire a subscriber?
Some fraction of lifetime value, with the payback period as the real constraint. Paying £2.40 for someone worth £22 over two years is sound; paying it for someone worth £3 is not.
Does list size dilute this?
Yes — adding poorly-targeted subscribers lowers revenue per subscriber even as revenue rises. Watching the per-subscriber figure catches list growth that is destroying value.