Enter your CPI, ARPDAU and retention — get your estimated LTV, payback period, break-even CPI and ROAS at day 7, 30 and 90. No signup required.
Return on ad spend (ROAS) for mobile apps is measured by cohort: the revenue users generate in their first N days, divided by what you paid to acquire them. The hard part is projecting that revenue forward. This calculator fits a power-law retention curve — the shape virtually all app retention follows — through your Day 1, Day 7 and Day 30 retention, then multiplies cumulative active days by your ARPDAU to estimate LTV at day 30, 90 and 180.
From there it derives the three numbers that actually drive UA decisions: your payback period (when a cohort covers its own acquisition cost), your break-even CPI (the ceiling you can bid to), and your projected ROAS at the standard checkpoints ad networks optimise against.
Retention and monetisation take product cycles to improve. CPI can move in weeks — it's mostly a function of how good your ad creatives are. A creative that beats your control by 30% improves ROAS on every cohort from that day forward. That's the lever we pull for clients: a systematic creative testing engine, with a result guarantee on the KPI we agree. If you want the playbook, start with how to lower CPI in 2026.
It depends on your payback window. As a rule of thumb, a D7 ROAS of 30–50% and a D30 ROAS of 70–100% put you on track to break even by day 90 for most subscription and IAP-driven apps. Hyper-casual games need much faster payback (often day 7), while high-LTV subscription apps can tolerate 6-month payback windows.
ROAS = revenue attributed to a cohort ÷ ad spend on that cohort. For apps it's usually measured by cohort day: D7 ROAS is the revenue a cohort generated in its first 7 days divided by what you paid to acquire it. This calculator estimates cohort revenue as ARPDAU × cumulative active days, using a power-law retention curve fitted to your D1/D7/D30 retention.
The maximum cost per install at which a user still pays back their acquisition cost within your target window. If your D90 LTV is $3.00, any CPI below $3.00 is profitable on a 90-day horizon. Knowing this number tells you exactly how much headroom you have to scale bids.
There are only three levers: lower CPI (better creatives and targeting), higher ARPDAU (monetisation and pricing), or better retention (onboarding and product). CPI usually moves fastest — top-performing ad creatives routinely cut CPI by 30–50% versus fatigued ones, which improves ROAS across every cohort day instantly.
Estimates are based on a fitted retention curve and constant ARPDAU; treat them as directional, not as financial forecasts. Actual LTV depends on monetisation mix, seasonality and cohort quality.