What is DAU / MAU?
DAU (Daily Active Users) and MAU (Monthly Active Users) count the unique users who engage with a product in a given day or month. What qualifies as "active" depends on the product and must be defined deliberately — opening the app, completing a key action, or some other meaningful event.
The DAU/MAU ratio (the "stickiness ratio") estimates how many days in a month the average monthly user shows up. A ratio of 0.5 means a typical user engages about 15 days a month — very sticky for many categories; under 0.1 suggests infrequent use.
PMs use these to gauge habit formation and engagement health. The right benchmark varies wildly by product type: a daily-use app (messaging, social) should aim for a high ratio, while a tool used occasionally (tax software, travel booking) reasonably has a low one.
Examples
- An app with 300k DAU and 1M MAU has a stickiness ratio of 0.30 (~9 active days/month).
- A PM defines "active" as "completed at least one core workflow" rather than just opening the app.
Where PMs use this
Related terms
Retention
The degree to which users keep coming back to a product over time — the foundation of sustainable growth.
North Star Metric
The single metric that best captures the core value a product delivers to its customers.
KPI (Key Performance Indicator)
A quantifiable measure used to track progress toward a specific business or product objective.
Cohort Analysis
Grouping users by a shared trait (often signup date) to compare how their behavior evolves over time.