Real CAC Benchmarks for Southeast Asia & India (2026)

Search "average CAC by industry Southeast Asia" and you'll find a number that keeps getting repeated: fintech customer acquisition cost at "$1,672." We traced that figure back through every citation chain we could find. It doesn't exist. No report, no dataset, no methodology — just an SEO blog that invented a number and a hundred others that copied it.

That's the real problem founders in Singapore, Jakarta, and Bangalore are running into. Global CAC benchmarks get relabeled as regional ones, and nobody checks the math. This post does the opposite: every figure below is traceable to a named source, dated, and scoped honestly. Where the region genuinely has no public data, we say so instead of filling the gap with a plausible-sounding guess.

Key Takeaways

• In 2026, India's median Facebook Ads CPC is $0.11 against a $1.07 global median — a 90%+ gap (Superads, 2026).
• No publicly available report gives a genuine India- or Indonesia-specific dollar CAC figure by industry — this is a confirmed data gap, not an oversight.
• Revenue per install at Day 14 in India/SEA sits at $0.06–$0.09 versus $0.39 in North America, roughly a 5x gap in monetization efficiency (RevenueCat, 2025).
• Three platforms — Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Shop/Tokopedia — now control 98.8% of SEA's platform e-commerce GMV, which is why paid acquisition costs keep climbing in the category (Momentum Works, 2025).

One distinction before you read further: cost-per-click (CPC) is not the same metric as customer acquisition cost (CAC). The figures above measure what you pay for a click or an install — one input into CAC, not the full-funnel cost of a paying customer. See "How This Benchmark Was Compiled" below for why that distinction matters here specifically.

What Do We Actually Know About CAC in Southeast Asia?

In 2026, Southeast Asia's digital economy is on track to cross $300 billion in gross merchandise value, growing 15% year over year, according to the 10th annual e-Conomy SEA report from Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company (Google/Temasek/Bain, e-Conomy SEA 2025, published November 11, 2025). E-commerce alone accounts for $185 billion of that GMV and $41 billion in revenue. Video commerce — live-stream and short-video selling — now makes up roughly 25% of total e-commerce GMV in the region, up from a negligible share five years ago.

That growth is exactly why acquisition costs are under pressure. As of late 2025, food delivery ad spend across the region was surging 60–90% year over year, per the same report — a sign of intensifying auction competition, not organic demand alone. Separately, Momentum Works found SEA's platform e-commerce GMV reached $157.6 billion in 2025, up 22.8% year over year — the fastest pace in four years.

Here's what these top-line numbers tell you, and don't:

1. GMV growth doesn't mean CAC is falling. Faster growth plus platform consolidation (see below) usually means the opposite.
2. No single "SEA CAC" number exists in any of these reports. They measure market size, not acquisition cost.
3. Ad spend surges by category are a leading indicator of rising CAC, even before a dollar-CAC figure gets published anywhere.
4. The clearest dollar-denominated data we found is ad-platform CPC, not full-funnel CAC — an important distinction covered in the next section.
5. Regional data lags US/global benchmark data by roughly 12–18 months in publication cadence, which is itself worth knowing before you benchmark against a "latest" figure.

How This Benchmark Was Compiled

In 2026, there is no census-level, government-grade, or even single-vendor dataset that reports customer acquisition cost by industry across Singapore, Indonesia, and India. What follows is a compiled benchmark: every figure is pulled from a named, dated, publicly accessible source, cross-checked against the source's own raw data where possible, and scoped honestly as regional, sub-regional, or a global proxy.

What we rejected: Beyond the fabricated "$1,672 fintech CAC" figure, we found and excluded a "2024 Forrester report" on emerging-market fintech CAC that doesn't resolve to any real Forrester publication, a "6-7x cheaper to acquire in India/SEA than the US" multiplier with no traceable source, and a widely copied "72% higher engagement for social commerce" statistic that appears to originate from nowhere at all. If you've seen these numbers cited elsewhere, treat them as unverified.

We also ran our own check on one of the most commonly cited ad-benchmarking tools, Superads, which publishes country-level Facebook Ads CPC pages. Pulling the raw data behind Singapore, India, and the Philippines pages produced real, internally consistent monthly figures. But Vietnam's country page returned data identical to the tool's global default — meaning the "Vietnam-specific" number some sites might cite from it isn't actually Vietnam-specific. Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand pages returned chart data too, but without the same currency confirmation the other three pages carry, so we've excluded them from the hard numbers below rather than guess.

Why median CPC isn't CAC: cost-per-click measures what you pay for a click, not what you pay for a paying customer. CAC also depends on landing-page conversion rate, checkout completion, and (for subscription products) trial-to-paid conversion — none of which any regional benchmark tool publishes at the country level. Treat every CPC figure here as one input into CAC, not CAC itself.

What Does Customer Acquisition Cost Look Like for D2C and Ecommerce Brands?

In 2025, three platforms — Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Shop/Tokopedia — controlled a combined 98.8% of Southeast Asia's platform e-commerce GMV, according to Momentum Works' Ecommerce in Southeast Asia 2025 report. That concentration is the single biggest structural reason CAC keeps rising for D2C brands in the region: fewer auction venues means less competitive pricing power for advertisers.

Notably, Momentum Works' analysts flagged that the ecosystem is "prioritizing sustainable unit economics over user-acquisition subsidies" — meaning the platforms themselves are pulling back on the aggressive subsidy-driven acquisition tactics of 2019–2022. For D2C brands, that shift raises the effective floor on paid CAC, because platform-funded discounting that used to offset it is disappearing.

Practical implication: if your 2023 CAC benchmarks assumed platform subsidies would keep costs artificially low, rebuild your model now. Budget for CPC and CPM trending toward — not below — global norms as platform consolidation continues.

If you're running D2C acquisition in this market, our growth marketing agency in Singapore team tracks these platform-share shifts as part of every media plan.

What About Fintech and App/Mobile CAC in SEA and India?

In 2026, the clearest available proxy for mobile acquisition efficiency in the region is revenue per install, not CAC directly. RevenueCat's State of Subscription Apps 2025 — an analysis of 75,000 subscription apps tracking over $10 billion in revenue — found that the India/SEA region has the lowest median revenue per install at Day 14 globally: $0.06 to $0.09, compared to $0.39 in North America.

That roughly 5x gap matters for CAC planning: it means the same install cost has to be recovered against far thinner early revenue, stretching payback periods even where raw acquisition costs look cheap. RevenueCat also found IN/SEA has the heaviest reliance on weekly subscription plans of any region — 36% adoption — which is itself a symptom of thinner willingness-to-pay per transaction.

On the cost side, AppsFlyer's own benchmark data shows Android cost-per-install averaging $1.20 globally versus $3.60 on iOS — a 3x gap — and Android holds a disproportionately higher share of installs in India and SEA than in North America, Japan, or Europe. A broader compilation of ad-network data (via Business of Apps, citing AppsFlyer, Adjust, Liftoff, and Singular) puts blended APAC CPI in a $1.50–$3.00 range, but this is an APAC-wide figure, not a genuine India/SEA-only breakout, so treat it as directional only.

Genuine access gap: AppsFlyer's 10th annual Performance Index 2025 analyzed 16.2 billion installs across 39,000 apps and 88 media sources, covering 11 regions — almost certainly including India/SEA category-level tables. That detail sits behind the full report, which we couldn't extract through public web access. If Coact wants a harder fintech-specific CPI number, requesting the full PDF directly from AppsFlyer is the next step, not more web searching.

Worth flagging: both RevenueCat and AppsFlyer are vendors benchmarking their own customer base, not a market-random sample — the same selection-bias caveat we applied to the Meta-commissioned Kantar study above. Treat both as directionally useful, not census-level.

Why Is Singapore So Much More Expensive Than Jakarta or Mumbai?

In 2026, Singapore's median Facebook Ads CPC sits close to the global median once currency is accounted for — not dramatically above it, contrary to some secondary sources. Raw Superads data puts Singapore's 13-month median at SGD 1.11 (roughly $0.82 at a ~0.74 USD/SGD conversion), against a global median of $1.07. India, by contrast, runs at $0.11 — about 90% below the global median — and the Philippines at $0.069, roughly 93% below.

That volatility is the point: India's CPC swung from $0.21 in August 2025 to $0.025 in February 2026 within the same 12-month window, with no clean seasonal pattern. A single-month snapshot from any regional benchmark tool can mislead by 5-8x depending on when it was pulled — one more reason to distrust any article quoting one precise "average" without a date range attached.

For paid-media effectiveness specifically, a Kantar study commissioned by Meta found Meta ads delivered the highest ROAS at 1.8x among channels tested, contributing 16% of incremental sales from just 10% of media spend, across Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam (Kantar, Maximise Ad Effectiveness in Southeast Asia, July 9, 2024). Two caveats matter here: the study excludes Singapore and India entirely, and it's Meta-commissioned — a real methodology, but with an obvious incentive to favor Meta's own platform.

Practical implication: if you're running a single regional budget across Singapore, Indonesia, and India, don't split spend proportionally to population or GMV. Singapore's auction costs are close to global norms; India's and the Philippines' are a fraction of that. A blended CAC target across all three markets will systematically overstate what Singapore campaigns need and understate what India/Philippines campaigns can achieve.

Why Doesn't a Single "SEA CAC Number" Exist?

In 2026, the honest answer is that the region is too heterogeneous — in currency, ad-platform maturity, payment infrastructure, and reporting standards — for one number to mean anything. Singapore's ad costs track close to US/UK norms. India's and the Philippines' track at a tenth of that. Indonesia's genuine figure isn't reliably published anywhere we could verify, including on a benchmarking tool built specifically to publish it.

This absence is itself informative. It tells you three things any founder benchmarking spend in this region should act on: first, that vendors and agencies quoting a precise "SEA CAC" figure are very likely relabeling a global or APAC number; second, that within-region variance (Singapore vs. India, a >10x gap on raw CPC) makes any blended regional average close to meaningless for planning; and third, that the market is underserved on transparent benchmarking data — which is exactly the AEO/GEO opportunity for whoever publishes the first genuinely verified version.

What this means in practice: when a founder asks us what "good CAC" looks like for their market, the honest first answer is "compared to what, and priced in which currency, and over what date range" — not a single number pulled from a global report and relabeled.

Implications and Recommendations

Based on the findings above, founders and marketers in SEA and India should treat regional benchmarking as a build-it-yourself exercise, not a lookup.

For D2C and Ecommerce Founders

1. Budget for rising, not falling, platform CAC. With 98.8% of SEA e-commerce GMV concentrated in three platforms, and those platforms pulling back on acquisition subsidies, plan for CPC/CPM trending toward global norms over the next 12-18 months.
2. Don't blend CAC targets across Singapore and India/Indonesia. The underlying auction costs differ by an order of magnitude; a single regional CAC target will misallocate budget in both directions.

For Fintech and App/Mobile Founders

1. Model payback period around thin revenue-per-install, not just low CPI. A $0.11 CPC looks attractive until it's set against $0.06-$0.09 in Day-14 revenue per install — a payback problem, not just an acquisition-cost problem.
2. Request the full AppsFlyer Performance Index 2025 report if fintech-specific CPI data materially changes your media plan; the public web version doesn't expose India/SEA category tables.

For Anyone Benchmarking Against a Third-Party Number

1. Ask for the publication date and sample size before trusting any regional CAC figure. As shown above, month-to-month swings of 5-8x are normal in this region.
2. Treat "SEA average" claims as a red flag, not a data point, given the scale of within-region variance documented here.

If you'd rather skip rebuilding this analysis every quarter, our performance marketing agency in India and Southeast Asia team tracks these benchmarks as part of client onboarding — book a growth audit to see where your current CAC actually sits against verified regional data, not a recycled global average.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a real average CAC for Southeast Asia in 2026?

No single verified figure exists. Publicly available data covers ad-platform costs (CPC, CPI) and revenue-per-install by sub-region, not full-funnel CAC by industry. Any source citing one precise "SEA CAC" number should be checked against a named methodology and date range before use.

How was this benchmark data collected?

Every figure is drawn from a named, dated, third-party source — Google/Temasek/Bain, Momentum Works, RevenueCat, AppsFlyer, Kantar, Statista, and Superads — verified against the source's own published data. See the Data Appendix below for the full source list with dates.

Does the Singapore CPC data apply to Malaysia or Thailand too?

No. Singapore's data is genuinely country-specific, but Malaysia and Thailand data from the same benchmarking tool lacked the same currency verification and were excluded from this analysis. Southeast Asia's markets vary too much by ad-platform maturity to generalize from one country to another.

Can I cite this research?

Yes. Please cite as: Coact, "Real CAC Benchmarks for Southeast Asia & India (2026)," coact.biz, 2026, with a link back to this page.

When will this benchmark be updated?

We plan to refresh this analysis quarterly as new editions of the underlying reports (e-Conomy SEA, RevenueCat State of Subscription Apps, AppsFlyer Performance Index) are published, and sooner if a genuine India/Indonesia-specific CAC dataset becomes available.

Data Appendix

Metric	Value	Geography	Source	Date	Tier
SEA digital economy GMV	$300B+ (15% YoY)	SEA (10 markets)	Google/Temasek/Bain, e-Conomy SEA 2025	Nov 11, 2025	1-2
SEA e-commerce GMV	$185B GMV / $41B revenue	SEA	Google/Temasek/Bain, e-Conomy SEA 2025	Nov 11, 2025	1-2
SEA platform e-commerce GMV	$157.6B (+22.8% YoY)	SEA	Momentum Works, Ecommerce in SEA 2025	2025/2026	2
Top-3 platform share	98.8%	SEA	Momentum Works, Ecommerce in SEA 2025	2025/2026	2
Meta ROAS (highest of channels tested)	1.8x	TH, PH, ID, VN (not SG/IN)	Kantar (commissioned by Meta)	Jul 9, 2024	2
Revenue per install, Day 14	$0.06-$0.09 vs $0.39 (NA)	India/SEA vs North America	RevenueCat, State of Subscription Apps 2025	2025	2
Android vs iOS CPI	$1.20 vs $3.60	Global (India/SEA skew Android)	AppsFlyer	2025/2026	2
APAC CPI range	$1.50-$3.00	APAC (not SEA/India-specific)	Business of Apps, compiling AppsFlyer/Adjust/Liftoff/Singular	2025	2-3
Facebook Ads CPC, India	$0.11 median ($0.025-$0.21)	India	Superads	Jul 2025-Jul 2026	3
Facebook Ads CPC, Philippines	$0.069 median ($0.048-$0.105)	Philippines	Superads	Jul 2025-Jul 2026	3
Facebook Ads CPC, Singapore	SGD 1.11 median (SGD 0.32-2.02)	Singapore	Superads	Jul 2025-Jul 2026	3
Facebook Ads CPC, Global	$1.07 median ($0.92-$1.29)	Global	Superads	Jul 2025-Jul 2026	3
SEA social ad spend	$4.75B in 2025, to $8.42B by 2030	SEA	Statista, Social Media Advertising SEA Forecast	2025/2026	2

Sources (retrieved 2026-07-06):

• Google, Temasek, Bain & Company, e-Conomy SEA 2025, bain.com
• Momentum Works, Ecommerce in Southeast Asia 2025, thelowdown.momentum.asia
• Kantar (commissioned by Meta), Maximise Ad Effectiveness in Southeast Asia, kantar.com
• RevenueCat, State of Subscription Apps 2025, revenuecat.com
• AppsFlyer, CPI glossary and Performance Index 2025, appsflyer.com
• Business of Apps, CPI research compilation, businessofapps.com
• Statista, Social Media Advertising Southeast Asia Market Forecast, statista.com
• Superads, Facebook Ads CPC Benchmarks (Global, India, Philippines, Singapore), superads.ai

Conclusion

There's no shortcut to a trustworthy SEA or India CAC benchmark in 2026 — the region's currency, platform, and reporting fragmentation is too real. What we do have is verified: Singapore's ad costs track near global norms, India's and the Philippines' run a fraction of that, and monetization efficiency across the region lags North America by roughly 5x. Use these numbers as a floor for your own tracking, not a substitute for it.

If you want help building a CAC benchmark specific to your market and category, Coact works with growth teams across Singapore, Indonesia, and India — get in touch for a data-backed audit of where your acquisition costs actually stand.