DAU/MAU Ratio

What is DAU/MAU Ratio?

DAU/MAU ratio is a product engagement metric that divides Daily Active Users by Monthly Active Users to measure product stickiness, indicating how frequently users return to an application within a given month. This ratio reveals whether a product has become a habitual part of users' workflows or remains an occasional-use tool.

In B2B SaaS, the DAU/MAU ratio has become a critical indicator of product-market fit and long-term viability. The calculation is straightforward: divide the average DAU for a period by the MAU for the same period to get a percentage. For example, if a product has 10,000 average daily active users and 25,000 monthly active users, the DAU/MAU ratio is 40%, meaning typical users engage with the product about 12 days per month (40% of 30 days).

This metric gained prominence as product-led growth strategies emphasized engagement quality over user acquisition quantity. A high DAU/MAU ratio indicates users have integrated the product into their daily routines, suggesting strong value delivery and reducing churn risk. According to research from Sequoia Capital and industry benchmarks from companies like Facebook and Slack, world-class consumer products achieve DAU/MAU ratios above 50%, while B2B SaaS products typically range from 20-60% depending on product category. Collaboration and communication tools naturally achieve higher ratios (50-70%) since they support daily workflows, while periodic-use tools like monthly reporting platforms or quarterly planning solutions naturally exhibit lower ratios (10-30%). Understanding appropriate benchmarks for your product category prevents misinterpretation and guides realistic engagement targets.

Key Takeaways

• Stickiness Indicator: DAU/MAU ratio measures how frequently users return to a product, with higher percentages indicating greater product stickiness and habit formation

• Category-Dependent Benchmarks: Appropriate DAU/MAU ratios vary significantly by product type—daily workflow tools should achieve 40-60%, while periodic-use tools naturally show 10-30%

• Retention Predictor: Products with strong DAU/MAU ratios demonstrate significantly higher retention rates and customer lifetime value than those with sporadic usage

• Product-Market Fit Signal: Improving DAU/MAU ratios over time indicate growing product integration into customer workflows and strengthening product-market fit

• Actionable Engagement Metric: Unlike absolute user counts, DAU/MAU ratio provides clear targets for engagement improvement and reveals whether growth initiatives are building sustainable habits

How It Works

The DAU/MAU ratio operates as a composite metric combining daily and monthly engagement measurements to reveal usage frequency patterns and product stickiness.

Component Calculation requires first measuring both underlying metrics accurately. Daily Active Users (DAU) counts unique users completing defined active behaviors within 24-hour periods. Monthly Active Users (MAU) counts unique users completing those same behaviors at least once within 30-day periods. Both metrics depend on thoughtful definition of "active" usage—meaningful value-generating actions rather than mere logins.

Ratio Computation divides average DAU by MAU for the measurement period. For example, if measuring January's DAU/MAU ratio, sum all daily active user counts for January's 31 days, divide by 31 to get average DAU, then divide that average DAU by January's total MAU. The resulting decimal converts to a percentage representing the proportion of monthly users who engage daily on average.

Interpretation Framework requires understanding what the ratio reveals. A 40% DAU/MAU ratio means users engage approximately 12 days per month (40% of 30 days). A 20% ratio indicates 6 days per month engagement. A 60% ratio shows 18 days per month usage. The ratio essentially answers: "Of the people who use our product at least once per month, how many days do they typically use it?"

Trend Analysis tracks ratio changes over time rather than focusing on single data points. Teams monitor: ratio improvements as products mature and users form habits, cohort-based ratios showing how different user groups engage differently, and feature-level ratios identifying which capabilities drive daily versus occasional usage.

Segmentation Analysis breaks down DAU/MAU ratios by relevant dimensions: user characteristics (role, company size, industry), subscription tiers (free vs. paid users often show different patterns), acquisition channels (organic vs. paid users may exhibit different engagement), and lifecycle stages (new users vs. established customers typically have different frequency patterns).

Benchmark Comparison contextualizes performance against appropriate standards. B2B collaboration tools aim for 50-70% ratios, productivity applications target 40-60%, analytics and reporting tools expect 20-40%, and periodic planning tools accept 10-30%. Understanding category norms prevents misguided efforts to achieve inappropriate ratios for the product's natural use case.

Key Features

• Frequency Measurement: Quantifies how often monthly users return to the product on a daily basis

• Percentage Expression: Simple 0-100% scale makes the metric intuitive and easy to communicate across teams

• Habit Formation Indicator: High ratios signal users have integrated the product into regular workflows rather than occasional usage

• Cohort Comparability: Enables comparison of engagement patterns across different user segments and time periods

• Leading Indicator: Changes in DAU/MAU ratio often predict future retention outcomes before churn becomes apparent

• Category Contextualization: Interpretation requires understanding appropriate benchmarks for specific product categories and use cases

Use Cases

Product-Market Fit Validation

Product teams use DAU/MAU ratio trends to assess whether they're building something users genuinely need and integrate into workflows. In early-stage products, teams track ratio improvements cohort-over-cohort—if newer user cohorts achieve higher DAU/MAU ratios faster than earlier cohorts, it signals improving product-market fit as features mature and onboarding improves. For example, a productivity tool might see its first cohort achieving 25% DAU/MAU ratio after 6 months, while six months later, new cohorts reach 35% DAU/MAU in just 3 months, indicating product improvements are accelerating habit formation. Conversely, declining DAU/MAU ratios despite feature additions suggest features aren't driving engagement, prompting product strategy reassessment. Many product-led growth companies use 40% DAU/MAU as a threshold for product-market fit validation before scaling go-to-market investments.

Feature Impact Assessment

Product teams analyze DAU/MAU ratios at the feature level to understand which capabilities drive daily engagement versus occasional usage. They measure how overall product DAU/MAU changes after major feature launches, track feature-specific engagement patterns (some features might have 70% DAU/MAU while others show 10%), and prioritize development toward features that increase overall ratio. For instance, a project management platform might discover that their real-time chat feature has 65% DAU/MAU while their Gantt chart feature shows 15% DAU/MAU. This insight suggests emphasizing collaboration features that drive daily usage while positioning planning features as periodic-use tools. When launching new features, teams measure whether they attract new daily users or simply redistribute existing usage, with successful features increasing overall DAU without proportionally increasing MAU.

Customer Success Engagement Prioritization

Customer success teams use account-level DAU/MAU ratios to segment customers and prioritize engagement strategies. They establish ratio benchmarks for healthy accounts based on customer segment and use case, flag accounts with declining ratios as at-risk requiring intervention, and celebrate accounts with improving ratios as success stories for case studies. For example, a customer success organization might define: strategic accounts should maintain >50% DAU/MAU, mid-market accounts should achieve >35% DAU/MAU, and SMB accounts target >30% DAU/MAU. When an enterprise account drops from 52% to 28% DAU/MAU over two months, it triggers immediate CSM outreach to diagnose causes—perhaps a champion left the company, a competing tool was introduced, or teams aren't finding value. This early signal enables intervention 90-120 days before renewal, providing time to re-establish engagement and demonstrate value.

Implementation Example

DAU/MAU Ratio Tracking System:

DAU/MAU Ratio Calculation Framework
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CALCULATION METHODOLOGY

Step 1: Define "Active User"
Active User = User who completes meaningful action:
├─ For Collaboration Tool: Send message, share file, comment
├─ For Analytics Platform: Run query, view dashboard, export data
├─ For CRM: Log activity, update record, send communication
└─ NOT Active: Just login, receive notification, passive viewing

Step 2: Calculate DAU (Daily Average for Period)
DAU = SUM(daily_unique_active_users for all days in month) /
      NUMBER(days in month)

Example for January:
├─ Day 1: 8,420 unique active users
├─ Day 2: 9,100 unique active users
├─ ...
├─ Day 31: 8,890 unique active users
└─ Average DAU = SUM(all 31 days) / 31 = 8,750

Step 3: Calculate MAU (Monthly Unique)
MAU = COUNT(DISTINCT users active at least once during month)

Example for January:
└─ Total unique users active anytime in January = 22,300

Step 4: Calculate Ratio
DAU/MAU Ratio = (Average DAU / MAU) × 100
Example: (8,750 / 22,300) × 100 = 39.2%

Interpretation:
Users engage approximately 12 days per month (39.2% of 30)

DAU/MAU Performance Dashboard:

Cohort DAU/MAU Analysis:

Feature-Level DAU/MAU Comparison:

DAU/MAU Improvement Initiatives:

Related Terms

• DAU: Daily Active Users, the numerator in DAU/MAU ratio calculation

• MAU: Monthly Active Users, the denominator in DAU/MAU ratio calculation

• Product Stickiness: Concept measured by DAU/MAU ratio indicating habit formation

• Customer Health Score: Composite metric often incorporating DAU/MAU ratio as a key component

• Product Engagement: Broader category of metrics measuring user interaction with products

• Activation Rate: Metric measuring initial value realization often predicting future DAU/MAU patterns

• Retention Rate: Outcome metric strongly correlated with DAU/MAU ratio performance

• Product-Led Growth: Growth strategy relying heavily on engagement metrics like DAU/MAU ratio

Frequently Asked Questions

What is DAU/MAU ratio?

Quick Answer: DAU/MAU ratio is a product engagement metric that divides Daily Active Users by Monthly Active Users to measure product stickiness, showing how frequently users return to an application within a given month.

The ratio is expressed as a percentage indicating what proportion of monthly users engage daily on average. A 40% DAU/MAU ratio means users typically engage about 12 days per month. This metric reveals whether a product has become a habitual part of users' workflows or remains an occasional-use tool, serving as a key indicator of product-market fit and retention potential.

How do you calculate DAU/MAU ratio?

Quick Answer: Calculate DAU/MAU ratio by dividing the average Daily Active Users during a period by the Monthly Active Users for that same period, then multiplying by 100 to express as a percentage.

For example, if your product has 8,000 average daily active users over a month and 20,000 total monthly active users during that month, the DAU/MAU ratio is (8,000 / 20,000) × 100 = 40%. This means typical users engage with the product approximately 12 days per month. Both DAU and MAU must use identical definitions of "active" user behavior for the ratio to be meaningful.

What's a good DAU/MAU ratio?

Quick Answer: Good DAU/MAU ratios vary by product category: collaboration tools should achieve 50-70%, productivity apps target 40-60%, analytics tools expect 20-40%, and periodic planning tools typically show 10-30%.

There's no universal benchmark—appropriate ratios depend on product use cases and natural usage patterns. Communication tools used throughout the workday naturally achieve higher ratios, while monthly reporting platforms have inherently lower ratios despite being highly valuable. More important than hitting specific percentages is tracking trend direction—improving ratios over time indicate strengthening product-market fit and habit formation, while declining ratios signal engagement problems requiring investigation.

Why is DAU/MAU ratio important?

DAU/MAU ratio is important because it measures product stickiness and habit formation, predicts retention and customer lifetime value more accurately than absolute user counts, provides early warning of engagement problems before they affect revenue, validates product-market fit by showing whether users integrate products into regular workflows, and enables comparison of engagement patterns across customer segments and cohorts. Unlike vanity metrics, DAU/MAU ratio reveals usage quality and depth. Products with strong ratios demonstrate they've become essential tools for users, making them much harder to replace and significantly reducing churn risk.

How can you improve DAU/MAU ratio?

Improve DAU/MAU ratio by enhancing onboarding to establish daily usage habits early, building features that support daily workflows rather than periodic tasks, implementing notification and reminder strategies that bring users back without being intrusive, creating user value that compounds with frequency (like collaboration tools where value increases with daily participation), reducing friction in daily use cases through performance optimization and streamlined workflows, and segmenting users to understand why high-engagement users return daily and replicating those conditions. Focus on making the product valuable enough that users want to return daily rather than manipulating them into meaningless daily visits that don't deliver value.

Conclusion

The DAU/MAU ratio has emerged as one of the most insightful metrics in B2B SaaS product management, providing clear visibility into product stickiness, habit formation, and long-term retention potential. By measuring how frequently monthly users return to the product on a daily basis, this ratio reveals whether companies have built solutions that become indispensable parts of customer workflows or remain nice-to-have tools used occasionally.

For product teams, DAU/MAU ratio serves as a North Star metric guiding development priorities toward features that drive daily engagement and habit formation. Marketing teams use ratio trends to validate acquisition channel quality—channels bringing users who achieve high DAU/MAU ratios deliver better lifetime value than those attracting sporadic users. Customer success organizations leverage account-level ratios as early warning signals for churn risk, intervening when ratios decline before renewal conversations begin. Executive teams track DAU/MAU as a leading indicator of business health, recognizing that strong engagement today predicts retention and expansion revenue tomorrow.

As product-led growth strategies emphasize engagement quality over acquisition quantity, the shift from measuring total users to measuring engaged users makes DAU/MAU ratio increasingly central to SaaS strategy. Companies that instrument products to track this metric accurately, establish appropriate benchmarks for their product category, analyze ratio trends across cohorts and segments, and build features that genuinely support daily workflows create sustainable competitive advantages rooted in customer value rather than vendor lock-in. Explore related concepts like DAU and product engagement to build comprehensive frameworks for measuring and improving product stickiness that drives long-term business success.

Last Updated: January 18, 2026