DAU/MAU Ratio Calculator
User counts tell you how many people you reach; the DAU/MAU ratio tells you whether they keep coming back. Enter your daily and monthly active users to see how sticky your product really is.
DAU/MAU ratio = daily active users ÷ monthly active users × 100%. Often called stickiness, it estimates how many days in a month the average monthly user actually shows up. A ratio above 20% is generally strong, and above 50% is exceptional — the daily-habit territory of messaging and social apps. Below 10% means the product is used occasionally rather than habitually, which is fine for some categories and a warning sign for those that aim for daily use.
DAU/MAU Ratio Calculator inputs and result
| Ratio | What it means |
|---|
How to use this calculator
- Define active once, apply it everywhereDecide what counts as an active user — opened the app, performed a key action — and use the exact same definition for DAU and MAU. A loose DAU definition inflates stickiness.
- Use the same periodPair an average daily figure with the monthly unique count over the same 30-day window. Mixing a peak day with an off-month distorts the ratio.
- Read the percentage as habitThe ratio roughly equals the share of days the average monthly user shows up. 20% means about six days in thirty; 50% means about fifteen.
- Benchmark within your categoryDaily-use products (messaging, social) live above 50%; weekly or monthly tools live far lower by nature. Compare against your category, not a headline number.
- Export your numbersCopy a share link, download the CSV, or print a one-page PDF for the product review.
RGM Expert Says
DAU/MAU is the first engagement number we trust, because it is hard to fake your way to a habit. A vanity-metrics deck can show MAU climbing while the product quietly becomes a place people visit once and forget. Stickiness catches that: if MAU grows but the ratio falls, you are acquiring users who never come back, and the growth is a leaking bucket dressed up as a chart.
The mistake we correct most often is benchmarking across categories. A founder sees that a messaging app runs at 60% and panics that their B2B reporting tool sits at 12%. But a tool people use to run a monthly board pack should not be opened daily — for that product, 12% might be excellent. We anchor the target to the natural frequency of the job the product does, then push to be best-in-class for that frequency.
Where stickiness earns its keep is as a leading indicator. It moves before retention curves and revenue do, so a rising ratio is often the first proof that a new onboarding flow or habit loop is working. We wire it into the product dashboard next to the north-star metric, because the two together tell you whether you are growing reach, depth, or both.
How it works
Stickiness divides the average daily audience by the monthly audience, which approximates how often the typical user returns.
- DAU — average unique active users on a typical day.
- MAU — unique active users over the same 30-day window.
- Ratio — stickiness; roughly the share of days the average monthly user is active.
The ratio is an approximation of return frequency, not an exact count of days — it assumes daily activity is evenly distributed across the user base, which real usage rarely is.
Why stickiness beats raw user counts
Active-user counts are easy to grow and easy to misread. You can push MAU up with a marketing burst while engagement quietly rots underneath. The DAU/MAU ratio strips that out: it measures depth, not reach, and a healthy ratio is the clearest early sign that a product has become a habit rather than a one-time visit.
It also predicts the metrics everyone cares about. Sticky products retain better, monetize better and grow more efficiently, because engaged users churn less and refer more. The ratio popularized this way by Andrew Chen and others became a standard read precisely because it correlates with the outcomes that follow.
The honest caveat: the right ratio depends entirely on the job your product does. Forcing daily engagement onto an inherently weekly or monthly tool produces dark patterns, not value. Aim to be best-in-class for your natural frequency, and read stickiness alongside retention and your north-star metric, not on its own.
Stickiness benchmarks by product type
The right DAU/MAU ratio depends on how often the product’s core job naturally recurs. These bands orient expectations by category.
| Product type | Typical DAU/MAU | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Messaging / social | 40% to 60%+ | The job recurs many times a day |
| Consumer habit apps | 20% to 40% | Daily or near-daily use |
| General SaaS / productivity | 10% to 25% | Work-rhythm, often weekly |
| Low-frequency tools | Under 10% | The job recurs monthly or less |
What product leaders say about stickiness
DAU/MAU is a useful proxy for engagement, but it fails when you treat it as a universal target rather than reading it against how often your product is meant to be used.
The strongest products earn a place in a real habit loop; engagement, not installs, is what compounds into retention.