CPI

Abbreviation with 4 meanings

CPI
Stands forConsumer price index
Meanings4
CategoriesBusiness & Finance

CPI has four meanings. The most common are Consumer price index (economics) and Cost per install (marketing & advertising); it can also stand for Cost performance index and Collateral protection insurance.

Meanings of CPI at a glance

#CPI stands forContext
1Consumer price indexBusiness & Finance › Economics
2Cost per installBusiness & Finance › Marketing & Advertising
3Cost performance indexBusiness & Finance › Project Management
4Collateral protection insuranceBusiness & Finance › Insurance

1. Consumer price index

Business & Finance · Economics Abbreviations

Measure of the average change over time in the prices consumers pay for a basket of goods and services, such as food, housing, transportation, clothing and medical care. The annual change in the CPI is the most widely quoted measure of inflation.

Example: The CPI rose 3.1 percent from a year earlier, slightly above economists' forecasts.

In the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the CPI monthly; its CPI-U covers about 93 percent of the population, and "core CPI" excludes volatile food and energy prices. Social Security benefits are adjusted using a related index, CPI-W. The UK's CPI is published by the Office for National Statistics, and the eurozone uses the HICP. US CPI inflation peaked at 9.1 percent in June 2022.

2. Cost per install

Business & Finance · Marketing & Advertising Abbreviations

Price an advertiser pays each time a user installs a mobile app after seeing or clicking an ad, used both as a pricing model and as the campaign's average cost. Gaming and consumer apps buy installs at scale through ad networks.

Example: Our CPI on Android is $1.40, but iOS installs cost nearly double.

Attribution became harder after Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework arrived with iOS 14.5 in 2021, requiring opt-in for cross-app tracking, so marketers increasingly rely on aggregated measurement. In economics, CPI means the Consumer Price Index.

3. Cost performance index

Business & Finance · Project Management Abbreviations

Measure of cost efficiency equal to earned value divided by actual cost. A CPI below 1.0 means the project is getting less work done than it is paying for, so it is over budget.

Example: With a CPI of 0.83, every dollar spent is delivering only 83 cents of planned work.

Research on US defense contracts by David Christensen found that the cumulative CPI rarely improves much once a project is about 20% complete, making it a strong early predictor of final cost. In economics, CPI means the Consumer Price Index.

4. Collateral protection insurance

Business & Finance · Insurance Abbreviations

Auto insurance a lender buys and charges to a borrower whose required physical damage coverage on a financed vehicle has lapsed, protecting the lender's interest in the car.

Example: The finance company added CPI to my loan payment when it couldn't confirm my coverage.

In 2017 Wells Fargo acknowledged charging hundreds of thousands of auto borrowers for CPI they did not need and agreed to pay refunds. In economics, CPI means Consumer Price Index.

More economics abbreviations

  • CAD – Current account deficit
  • CBA – Cost-benefit analysis
  • CCI – Consumer Confidence Index
  • COLA – Cost-of-living adjustment
  • DSGE – Dynamic stochastic general equilibrium
  • DWL – Deadweight loss
  • ECB – European Central Bank
  • EMU – Economic and Monetary Union

See all 81 economics abbreviations →

More marketing & advertising abbreviations

  • CPA – Cost per acquisition
  • CPC – Cost per click
  • CPCV – Cost per completed view
  • CPE – Cost per engagement
  • CPL – Cost per lead
  • CPM – Cost per mille
  • CPP – Cost per point
  • CPQ – Configure, price, quote

See all 111 marketing & advertising abbreviations →