Product & User Engagement

Monthly Active Users MAU

CPO VP Product CMO CEO

Monthly Active Users (MAU) counts the number of unique users who perform at least one qualifying action within a 30-day period. MAU is the broader engagement measure compared to DAU and is more appropriate for products that are not designed for daily use (e.g., tax software, travel booking, B2B tools with natural weekly or monthly workflows). MAU is commonly used as the denominator for stickiness (DAU/MAU) and as the basis for usage-based pricing.

MAU can mask declining daily engagement if returning users offset the loss of daily active users; always track both DAU and MAU together.

Formula

Number of Unique Users Performing a Qualifying Event Within 30 Days

Where It Lives

AmplitudeMAU cohort analysis and month-over-month trend tracking
MixpanelMAU with event-based active definitions
Google Analytics 4Monthly active users by product and traffic source
SegmentMAU calculation from event data across product surfaces

What Drives It

New user acquisition and activation rates
Retention rate of previously active users
Reactivation of lapsed users via marketing campaigns
Seasonal usage patterns
Product value improvements increasing return visit frequency

Benchmark

MAU benchmarks vary widely by product type; growth-stage products aim for month-over-month MAU growth of 5%–15%; established products focus on engagement quality within MAU.

Common Questions About Monthly Active Users

When should a company use MAU vs. DAU as its primary engagement metric?

Use DAU as the primary metric for products designed for daily use: messaging apps, news feeds, social networks, task managers, and any tool that is part of a daily workflow. Use MAU for products with naturally lower frequency: monthly budgeting tools, quarterly review platforms, travel booking sites, and B2B tools used primarily during specific work cycles. Using the wrong metric creates misleading benchmarks and misaligned product goals.

What is the relationship between MAU and subscription pricing?

Many B2B SaaS companies use MAU as the basis for usage-based pricing (charging per active seat per month). This aligns pricing with actual customer value realized, reduces friction for initial adoption (no need to commit to all potential seats), and creates a natural expansion revenue mechanism as active users grow. Tracking MAU is therefore a revenue-critical function in usage-based models.

How do I interpret MAU growth when DAU is flat?

Rising MAU with flat DAU means more users are engaging at least once per month but engagement frequency is not increasing. This could indicate successful re-engagement campaigns bringing back lapsed users, strong new user acquisition that is not yet translating to daily habits, or a product that serves a genuine monthly use case. Investigate by cohort: are new users starting to engage daily over time, or do they remain monthly-only?

How does churned user reactivation affect MAU?

Reactivated users (previously inactive users who return to the product) contribute to MAU in the month they return. A high reactivation rate can mask declining new user acquisition or declining retention among existing users. Always decompose MAU growth into new users, retained users, and reactivated users to understand the health of each component separately.

Related Metrics

DAU | Daily Active Users DAU/MAU Stickiness Ratio | DAU/MAU Stickiness Ratio Retention Rate | Retention Rate NPS | Net Promoter Score

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