What is the DAU/MAU ratio and what is a good one?
DAU/MAU divides daily active users by monthly active users to estimate how many days a month the average user shows up. 20% is a common baseline, 50%+ is exceptional. It only means something for products people should use daily — applying it to a tax product or a job board produces nonsense.
What it actually estimates
If 200,000 people used your product yesterday and 1,000,000 used it in the last 30 days, your ratio is 20% — meaning the average monthly user shows up roughly six days a month. It's a rough proxy for habit.
The reference points people quote: 20% is a reasonable consumer baseline, 50%+ puts you in the company of messaging and social products, and the very top of the market sits higher still. TikTok's early ratios were extraordinary precisely because the recommendation feed removed the need to have a reason to open the app.
Where the metric lies
Products with legitimate low frequency. A hiring tool, a tax filer, a travel booking product — nobody should use these daily, and a 5% ratio is not a failure. Measuring them this way creates pressure to add engagement mechanics that make the product worse.
Averages hiding bimodality. A 20% ratio can mean everyone uses it six days a month, or that 20% use it every day and 80% never return. Those are completely different companies. Always look at the distribution.
Spikes driven by scarcity. Clubhouse posted remarkable engagement while invitations were scarce and the format was novel. Both were temporary conditions, and the ratio measured the moment rather than the habit — which is exactly the mistake the metric invites when it's read as a verdict rather than a signal.
How to use it well
Track it as a trend against your own history, segmented by cohort and platform. A ratio moving from 18% to 24% over two quarters tells you something real about whether recent work built habit. The absolute number compared to somebody else's absolute number usually tells you nothing at all.
Seen in practice
Case studies where this shows up as a real decision, not a definition.
Related questions
What counts as an 'active' user?
Whatever you define, which is the metric's weakness. An app that counts a push notification open as active will report a far better ratio than one requiring a meaningful action. Define it as the action that represents value, and never change the definition quietly.
Is a high DAU/MAU always good?
Not necessarily. It measures frequency, not value or satisfaction, and products that engineer compulsion can score extremely well while producing users who resent the habit. Read it next to retention and qualitative feedback, not alone.
What is a good ratio for B2B software?
It varies enormously by category. A team chat or ticketing tool used in daily workflow can exceed 50%; an analytics dashboard checked weekly might sit at 15% and be perfectly healthy. Compare against your category and your own trend, never against a universal benchmark.
More on metrics
Last reviewed 2026-09-07