What is monthly active users (MAU)?

When people ask what is monthly active users are, they’re talking about how many unique people actually use your app in a 30-day window, not how many once downloaded it and forgot you exist.

The standard monthly active users definition in product analytics is:

The number of unique users who perform at least one qualifying action (for example, opening the app, starting a session, or completing a key event) during a rolling 30-day period or calendar month.

Most teams identify those users with a stable identifier like user ID, email, or login rather than device only, so one person doesn’t get counted multiple times across devices. MAU is treated as a headline health metric because it combines reach + retention in a single number.

When you hear people talk about monthly active users meaning “is this thing actually alive?” − that’s exactly it.

How to calculate Monthly Active Users for an app

At its core, MAU is a unique user count over 30 days. The trick is to define what “active” means for your app.

1. Define “active”
   • For a utility app: “opened the app at least once.”
   • For a finance app: maybe “logged in OR completed a transaction.”
   • For a game: “started at least one session or level.”
2. Pick the window. Rolling 30 days (e.g., last 30 days from today), or Calendar month (e.g., all activity in April).
3. Count unique users who meet the rule based on user ID/email, not raw sessions.

The MAU formula is:

MAU = count of unique users who performed at least one ‘active’ event in the last 30 days

If you also want a MAU rate (how many of your total user base are active this month):

MAU rate (%) = (MAU ÷ total registered / install base) × 100

Example of MAU calculation for an app

Say you run a freemium productivity app:

Total registered users: 200,000

In the last 30 days:

• 38,000 unique users opened the app at least once
• Of those, 30,000 completed at least one “core action” (created or edited a document)

You decide “active = opened OR did a core action,” so you use the 38,000 unique users.

Monthly Active Users (MAU) = 38,000

If you want to see your MAU rate against your total user base: MAU rate = 38,000 ÷ 200,000 × 100 = 19%

That 19% sits close to global benchmarks where average MAU rates hover around ~19% on iOS and ~34% on Android, depending on category. (Source pushwoosh.com)

Don’t mix up MAU with DAU (Daily Active Users)

MAU and DAU are related, but they answer different questions:

MAU (Monthly Active Users)

• Timeframe: last 30 days / calendar month
• Question: How many unique users touched us this month?
• Use: overall app health, scale, trend lines, revenue potential

DAU (Daily Active Users)

• Timeframe: a single day (or average per day)
• Question: How many users come back today, and how sticky are we?
• Use: habit strength, daily engagement, impact of campaigns or releases

Most teams also track the DAU/MAU ratio, often called “stickiness”:

DAU/MAU (%) = what share of your monthly users show up on an average day.

Social and messaging apps often sit in the 20–50% DAU/MAU range, and Facebook has historically stayed above 50%. E-commerce and finance apps tend to be closer to 10–22%.

So DAU tells you frequency, MAU tells you scale. Together they explain if you’re a daily habit, a once-a-week utility, or a “downloaded and disappeared” story.

Why does calculating Monthly Active Users matter for apps?

MAU isn’t just “a big number for the slide deck.” It’s a leading indicator of whether your app is growing, flat, or slowly dying.

• Retention is hard; MAU tells you if you’re beating gravity
  Global D30 retention rates sit in the 7–8% range for many mobile apps − meaning over 90% of new users have churned by day 30. If your MAU is stable or rising month over month, you know new users are actually sticking around.
• MAU connects directly to revenue potential
  Most app monetization models − ads, in-app purchases, subscriptions − scale with how many people are active in a given month. MAU is widely used as a primary KPI for product “health, reach, and engagement,” and it’s so core that investors watch it as a proxy for business strength.
• MAU + DAU = a true engagement picture
  On its own, a big MAU with a weak DAU/MAU ratio means casual or sporadic use. A moderate MAU with high DAU/MAU means a smaller but very loyal audience. Benchmarks suggest that a 20%+ DAU/MAU stickiness is generally considered good, with top consumer apps going higher.
• MAU exposes lifecycle problems
  If installs look great, but MAU is flat, you likely have onboarding or early-retention issues. Combined with D1 / D7 / D30 retention benchmarks, MAU helps you see where users are leaking from the funnel.

So the monthly active users meaning in practice is: “Of everyone who could be using us, how many actually came back this month − and are we gaining or losing ground?”

FAQs

What does "monthly active users" (MAU) mean in an app?

Monthly active users (MAU) is the number of unique users who completed at least one "meaningful" thing in your app in the last 30 days. This could include launching the app, logging in, or finishing a crucial event. It's a picture of how many genuine users used your app this month.

What does it mean to be an "active" user for MAU?

Based on your product, you select what "active" means. "Opened the app or created/edited a note" might be enough for a notes app. "Logged in or made a transaction" might be an action for a finance app. The most important thing is to choose actions that reflect real use, write down the rule, and stick to it throughout time.

What is the difference between MAU and downloads or installs?

Everyone who ever installed the program gets counted in downloads, even if they only opened it once and then left. MAU is the number of people who actually came this month. That's why MAU (and MAU rate) is a much better measure of how well a product is doing and how many people are using it than just the number of installs.