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DAU/MAU Ratio

Definition

The DAU/MAU ratio is a product engagement metric that measures the stickiness of a product by dividing daily active users (DAU) by monthly active users (MAU). The result, expressed as a percentage, indicates what proportion of monthly users engage with the product on any given day. A 50% DAU/MAU ratio means half of your monthly users are using the product every day.

The metric was popularized by Facebook (now Meta) as a measure of social network engagement and has since become a standard metric for consumer and B2B SaaS products alike. It answers a question that raw user counts cannot: are your users forming a daily habit around your product, or are they checking in occasionally?

The definition of "active" is critical and should reflect genuine value creation, not vanity activity. A user who opens the app and immediately closes it should not count as active. Define active as performing a meaningful action: creating content, completing a workflow, viewing a report, sending a message. This definition should align with your product's north star metric.

Why It Matters for Product Managers

DAU/MAU is one of the strongest predictors of long-term retention and revenue durability. Products with high DAU/MAU ratios have strong daily habits, which makes them harder to churn away from. Users who check your product daily have integrated it into their workflow. Users who check it monthly are experimenting or using it for one-off tasks.

For PMs, DAU/MAU is a prioritization signal. Features that increase daily engagement (better notifications, faster load times, daily summaries) directly impact this ratio. Features that add new capabilities but do not drive daily return visits might improve MAU but not DAU. Understanding this distinction helps you make better trade-offs during prioritization. Use the RICE calculator to score engagement features against their expected impact on DAU/MAU.

How to Apply It

  • ☐ Define "active" as performing a core value action, not just logging in
  • ☐ Calculate DAU/MAU weekly and track the trend over at least 3 months
  • ☐ Segment by user type (free vs. paid, new vs. tenured, by role)
  • ☐ Benchmark against your product category, not against social media apps
  • ☐ Identify your "daily value moment" and reduce friction around it
  • ☐ Run experiments on notification triggers, daily digests, and quick-access features
  • ☐ Track DAU/MAU by cohort to see whether onboarding improvements affect stickiness

For deeper engagement analysis, pair DAU/MAU with activation rate (are new users reaching the daily value moment?) and cohort analysis (is stickiness improving for newer cohorts?). The product analytics guide covers how to build a complete engagement measurement framework.

Related Terms

DAU / MAU (Daily Active Users / Monthly Active Users)Engagement RateRetention RateActivation RateNorth Star Framework

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good DAU/MAU ratio?+
It depends heavily on the product category. Social media and messaging apps aim for 50%+ (Facebook historically maintained ~65%). Productivity tools like Slack target 40-60%. Project management tools like Jira or Linear typically see 25-40%. E-commerce and marketplace products might be 10-20% since users do not shop daily. B2B analytics tools might be 15-30% since users check dashboards a few times per week. The key is to benchmark against your product category, not against Facebook. A 20% DAU/MAU ratio for a weekly reporting tool is excellent. For a daily communication tool, it would be concerning.
How do you calculate the DAU/MAU ratio correctly?+
DAU/MAU = (Daily Active Users on a given day) / (Monthly Active Users for the trailing 28 or 30 days) x 100. The critical step is defining 'active.' A user who opens the app but does nothing is not truly active. Define active as performing a core value action: sending a message, creating a task, running a report, making a purchase. Be consistent with your definition and document it. Calculate the ratio daily, then average over a week or month for trend analysis. Do not use the arithmetic mean of daily DAU/MAU ratios. Instead, use the average DAU over the period divided by the MAU for that period.
How can product managers improve the DAU/MAU ratio?+
Focus on building daily habits. Identify your product's daily value moment (the action that brings users back every day) and reduce friction around it. For Slack, it is reading and sending messages. For Figma, it is editing designs. Build notification triggers that pull users back at the right time (not spam). Improve onboarding to help new users discover the daily value moment faster. Add lightweight daily touchpoints: a daily digest email, a morning dashboard summary, a daily standup bot. Remove barriers to quick sessions (fast load times, mobile access). Track DAU/MAU by cohort to see whether newer users are stickier than older ones.
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