DAU/MAU Engagement

Daily active users as a share of monthly active users. Interpret it alongside the intended use frequency.

When to use this

You have a consumer or prosumer product with a daily use case (messaging, social, news, fitness tracking) and you want a single number for stickiness. The ratio is most useful tracked over weeks and compared inside your product category, not across categories.

Limits

For weekly, episodic, or one-time tasks, daily use may not be the goal. DAU/MAU can still describe frequency, but use weekly activity, task completion, or suitable retention measures to assess value.

Inputs

DAU: distinct users who took a value-delivering action on a given day. Not "opened the app." A specific action.
MAU: distinct users who took the same action in a rolling 30-day window.
Category: messaging, social, productivity, B2B daily-use, etc. The benchmark depends on it.

Defining "active" matters more than the math. Picking a real value action (sent a message, completed a workout, paid a bill) over a vanity event (app open) keeps the ratio honest.

The math

Stickiness (%) = DAU / MAU x 100

The result is a percentage between 0 and 100%. For one measured day, 100% means all users in the matching monthly window were active that day. It does not show that they returned every day.

A worked example

A consumer app has 250,000 MAU and 80,000 DAU.

Stickiness = 80,000 / 250,000 x 100 = 32%

This means 32% of the monthly active population was active on the measured day. Whether that fits the product depends on expected use. Compare repeated observations and user cohorts before deciding to change notifications, content, or onboarding.

In PM Toolkit

The calculator returns the ratio and an interpretation tier. Tier labels are built-in heuristics, not evidence that a particular frequency is good for your product. Keep the activity definition and time windows consistent when reviewing trends.

Common mistakes

Setting daily-use goals for a product that solves an occasional need.
Counting sessions instead of unique users. Five sessions from one person still count as one DAU.
Comparing a single unusually busy day with a monthly average from another period.
Assuming a higher ratio proves better outcomes. Unsuccessful retries can also create activity.

Benchmarks (illustrative)

Compare products with similar use patterns and matching activity definitions. The toolkit's category ranges are heuristics, not independently sourced industry percentiles. A single global threshold cannot establish whether a daily news reader or a weekly planner meets its users' needs.