See where your app stands against 2026 industry ranges — retention by category, CPI by category, market and platform. No signup required.
The ranges mirror our published research — 2026 retention benchmarks by category and CPI benchmarks by platform, country and category — built from consumer-app accounts we run or audit, cross-checked against public datasets. CPI ranges describe broad-targeted, conversion-optimised campaigns at meaningful spend; niche audiences and small test budgets price differently.
A benchmark answers one question: is our market position sane? It does not answer "are we doing well?" — that comes from your own cohort economics. If your numbers look fine here but growth still feels stuck, the next step is payback maths: our free ROAS calculator turns your CPI, ARPDAU and retention into LTV, payback period and break-even CPI.
It varies enormously by category. Casual games typically keep 2–5% of users at day 30, subscription lifestyle apps 6–12%, and social or fintech apps with real network effects or stored value 15–25%. Comparing yourself to a global average is meaningless — compare against your own category and monetisation model.
There is no useful single average: real CPI varies roughly 10x by country, 3x by platform and 5x by category. US iOS installs for a subscription app commonly cost $2.50–6.00, while the same app buys Android installs in Southeast Asia for under $1. This tool combines category, market tier and platform to give you a range that actually applies to you.
Only if those users retain and monetise. A below-benchmark CPI with weak day-30 retention means you're paying less per user to lose money on each one. Always read CPI together with cohort payback, never alone.
For CPI, the highest-leverage input is creative velocity — apps testing 30+ genuinely different ad concepts a month consistently pay 30–40% below their category benchmark. For retention, the first session matters most: cohorts that reach a real value moment in their first hour retain at multiples of those that don't.
Ranges are directional, based on 2026 market data. Your specific audience, creative quality and optimisation event can move real numbers outside any published band.