--- id: "dashboard-and-metrics/charts/realized-ltv-per-paying-customer-chart" title: "Realized LTV per Paying Customer Chart" description: "This page describes Charts v3." permalink: "/docs/dashboard-and-metrics/charts/realized-ltv-per-paying-customer-chart" slug: "realized-ltv-per-paying-customer-chart" version: "current" original_source: "docs/dashboard-and-metrics/charts/realized-ltv-per-paying-customer-chart.md" --- > **AI agents:** This is the Markdown version of a RevenueCat documentation page. For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://www.revenuecat.com/docs/llms.txt). :::info[Charts version] This page describes **Charts v3**. This chart is also available in our legacy Charts v2. See [Charts v2 and v3 differences](https://www.revenuecat.com/docs/dashboard-and-metrics/charts/real-time-charts). ::: Realized LTV (Lifetime Value) per Paying Customer (sometimes also called Average Revenue per Paying User, ARPPU) shows the actual revenue (minus refunds) generated by a cohort of paying customers, divided by the number of paying customers in that cohort. This includes purchase revenue and ad revenue from customers who become paying customers within the selected Customer Lifetime. Therefore, this chart tells you how much revenue you generate from each paying customer, as opposed to each new customer of your app, which [Realized LTV per Customer](https://www.revenuecat.com/docs/dashboard-and-metrics/charts/realized-ltv-per-customer-chart) measures. ### Available settings - Filters: Yes - Segments: Yes - Customer Lifetime: Yes ## Customer cohorts This chart considers customers that made a paid purchase. Customers whose first paid purchase is refunded within the selected Customer Lifetime are removed from the paying-customer count. Customers are cohorted by the earliest date that they: 1. Was "first seen" (first opened your app), or 2. Made their first purchase (for purchases made outside of your app, like promoted purchases in the App Store) ### Example If a customer first opened your app on April 15th, 2022, but didn't make a purchase until May 21st, 2022, they would be included in the April 15th cohort. ### Customer Lifetime Using the “Customer Lifetime” selector, you can define the time period after the customer's cohort date that revenue should be counted within. For example, with a Customer Lifetime of 30 days, revenue generated on calendar days 0 through 30 of each customer's lifetime is included. Revenue generated from day 31 onward is excluded. Month-based Customer Lifetime options use calendar months rather than a fixed number of days. For example, a customer first seen on January 15 has a 3-month window that runs up to, but does not include, April 15. :::info Switch to "Unbounded" for a view of all revenue for that customer cohort. ::: ## Incomplete periods In addition, since the Customer Lifetime setting determines how long each customer cohort is given before it’s considered fully mature, the periods which are marked as incomplete will change based on that setting. For example, by setting the “Customer Lifetime” selector to 3 months, all periods which are less than 3 months old will be marked as incomplete, since new revenue generated by those customer cohorts would still be added to the measurement. Distinguishing between complete and incomplete periods is important for accurately interpreting the behavior of your cohorts and understanding whether a change is simply due to one cohort being less mature than another, or a true underlying performance difference. ## How to use Realized LTV per Paying Customer in your business Realized LTV per Paying Customer gives you an overall view how the monetization of customer cohorts has developed over time. A common use case is to compare a certain customer lifetime (e.g. 30 days) for users acquired in different months. You can then connect the results with what happened in your product or marketing during those months to compare impact. Realized LTV per Paying Customer can also be used as a tool to understand the profitability of (paid) acquisition. By comparing the Realized LTV per Paying Customer for a given cohort with the average cost to acquire a new paying customer for that cohort, you can calculate the acquisition profitability. ## Calculation For each period, we measure: 1. New Paying Customers: The count of customers whose customer cohort date falls within the period and who made their first payment within the selected Customer Lifetime, minus customers whose first payment was refunded within that same Customer Lifetime. 2. Realized LTV: The amount of revenue generated by that cohort of paying customers within the selected Customer Lifetime, minus refunds processed within that same Customer Lifetime. ### Formula [Realized LTV] / [New Paying Customers] = Realized LTV per Paying Customer ### How lifetime periods are calculated RevenueCat calculates lifetime periods starting from day 0, which represents the earliest date that a customer was first seen (first opened your app) or made their first purchase (for purchases made outside of your app, like promoted purchases in the App Store). Because we start counting at zero rather than one, each lifetime period contains one more unique day than its name suggests. For example, a 7-day lifetime actually encompasses 8 unique days (day 0 through day 7). If a customer starts a 7-day trial on Tuesday, they typically convert to paid on the following Tuesday, which is the 8th unique day but day 7 when counting from day 0. The same logic applies to the 14-day and 30-day lifetime periods: a 14-day lifetime includes 15 unique days and a 30-day lifetime includes 31 unique days. This calculation method aligns with standard subscription billing cycles and ensures accurate revenue attribution for each customer cohort. ## FAQs | Question | Answer | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Is a paying customer cohorted by their first seen date or first paying date? | Paying customers are grouped by their customer cohort date: the earliest date they were first seen or made their first purchase. This may be earlier than when they became paying customers. If your app offers a trial, set the Customer Lifetime longer than the trial so paid conversions can be included. This differs from **New Paying Customers** in the [Cohort Explorer](https://www.revenuecat.com/docs/dashboard-and-metrics/charts/cohort-explorer), which cohorts customers by first purchase date. | | Does Realized LTV measure revenue before or after store commissions, fees, and taxes? | Realized LTV is calculated using the total revenue generated from each customer cohort, minus refunds, and therefore it does include revenue that the stores may deduct from your Proceeds due to commissions, taxes, or fees. Ad revenue is always reported as the revenue reported by the SDK, taxes and commissions are not estimated. | | How do refunds affect a fixed Customer Lifetime? | A refund is deducted only when its refund date falls within the selected Customer Lifetime. For example, revenue from a purchase on day 4 that is refunded on day 10 remains in 7-day Realized LTV but is removed from 14-day Realized LTV. | | Does a refund remove a customer from New Paying Customers? | A refund of the customer's first paid purchase removes them from New Paying Customers only when the refund date falls within the selected Customer Lifetime. For example, a first purchase on day 4 that is refunded on day 10 remains in the 7-day count but is removed from the 14-day count. | | Are customers who have subscribed to a free trial included as Paying Customers? | No, a customer who has only subscribed to a free trial and not yet made a purchase is not included in the measure of Paying Customers. |