DAU/MAU Ratio
DAU/MAU ratio is the percentage of monthly active users who use your product on any given day. It measures product stickiness.
What it means
DAU stands for daily active users. MAU stands for monthly active users. Divide DAU by MAU and you get a percentage that tells you how often your users come back.
A 50% DAU/MAU ratio means the average user uses your product on 15 of the 30 days in a month. That's exceptionally sticky, the kind of number Facebook and Slack hit. A 10% DAU/MAU ratio means the average user shows up 3 days a month. That's normal for products people don't use daily, like project management or shopping.
What counts as 'good' depends entirely on what your product is for. A daily-use product (messaging, email) should aim for 50%+. A weekly-use product (project management) might be happy with 20% to 30%. A monthly-use product (taxes, expense reports) might be fine at 5%.
Why it matters
DAU/MAU ratio is the single best signal for whether users actually need your product. High ratio means you've built something habit-forming. Low ratio means users sign up but don't really come back. It predicts long-term retention better than almost any other metric.
How to calculate dau/mau ratio
DAU/MAU Ratio = (DAU / MAU) × 100
Divide daily active users by monthly active users, then multiply by 100.
Example with real numbers
Concrete example showing how this metric works in practice.
Scenario
Last month your product had 10,000 monthly active users. On an average day, 1,500 of them used the product.
Calculation
(1,500 / 10,000) × 100 = 15%
What it means
Your DAU/MAU ratio is 15%, meaning the average user uses your product about 4 to 5 days per month. For a weekly-use product, that's solid. For a daily-use product, that's a sign people aren't building a habit.
What's a good number?
Typical benchmarks. Always compare against your own historical data first, industry averages second.
Below 10%
10% to 20%
20% to 50%
Above 50%
These benchmarks assume a daily-use product. For products meant to be used weekly or monthly, much lower ratios are normal and healthy. Always benchmark against the product's intended frequency.
Common mistakes
Things people get wrong when measuring dau/mau ratio.
Mistake 01
Comparing your DAU/MAU ratio against products with different usage patterns. Slack should not be compared to a tax filing app.
Mistake 02
Defining 'active' too loosely. If 'active' means 'opened the app', your number is misleading. Define active as a meaningful action.
Mistake 03
Tracking only one number. Look at trends over time, not the snapshot.
Mistake 04
Confusing causation. A drop in DAU/MAU could be lots of new (less sticky) signups, not necessarily existing users churning.
How to track it
Most analytics tools track DAU and MAU automatically once you define what counts as 'active'. Calculate the ratio weekly. Watch the trend more than the absolute number.
Related concepts
Other terms worth learning if you're studying this one.
Common questions about dau/mau ratio
For daily-use products, 20% is good and 50%+ is exceptional. For weekly or monthly-use products, much lower ratios are normal. Compare to your product's intended frequency, not industry averages.
Divide your daily active users by your monthly active users for the same period, then multiply by 100. If 1,500 of your 10,000 monthly users were active today, your ratio is 15%.
Yes. DAU/MAU ratio is often called the stickiness ratio. It measures how often users come back, which is a proxy for how habit-forming your product is.