DAU/MAU Ratio

Why it matters

DAU/MAU is a stickiness proxy: it tells you whether your product is a habit or an occasional errand. Benchmarks: 20% is good for most consumer and prosumer products, and 50%+ is exceptional, mostly limited to social, messaging, and daily-workflow tools (WhatsApp has reported around 70%). The catch is that the metric is simply wrong for many products: an invoicing tool used every Friday can be a great business at 14% DAU/MAU, because a weekly-use product has a mathematical ceiling near 14-16% no matter how much users love it. If your natural cadence is weekly or monthly, measure WAU/MAU or cohort retention instead, and resist the urge to spam notifications to force daily opens. Also define active as a value action, not an app open, or the ratio will flatter you.

Formula

DAU/MAU = average daily active users / monthly active users x 100

Worked example

A product with 6,000 MAU and an average of 1,500 DAU has a 25% DAU/MAU ratio, meaning the typical user is active 7-8 days a month. A weekly time-tracking tool with the same 6,000 MAU would top out near 14% (about 4.3 active days out of 30) even with perfect retention, so holding it to the 20% benchmark would be measuring the wrong thing.

Common mistakes

• Applying the 20% benchmark to weekly-cadence products; their ceiling is about 14-16% by arithmetic, not by failure.
• Counting app opens or logins as active instead of a value action, which inflates the ratio without meaning anything.
• Pumping DAU with streaks and notifications; engagement theater raises the ratio while burning user trust and driving churn.

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