Daily, Weekly, Monthly Active Users
DAU, WAU, and MAU measure the number of unique users who engage with your product daily, weekly, or monthly.
- Active users are unique users who perform a meaningful action in your product within a specific time window (day, week, or month).
- Common Mistakes:
- Not clearly defining what 'active' means for your product.
- Counting bots, test accounts, or employees in active users.
- Using a definition of 'active' that's too easy (just logging in) or too hard (power user behavior).
- Not deduplicating users across the time window.
- Comparing DAU/MAU across products with different usage patterns.
- Ignoring the quality of active sessions—some DAU may have low engagement.
Definition
Active users are unique users who perform a meaningful action in your product within a specific time window (day, week, or month).
Increasing user engagement and product adoption.
Stable user base; focus on retention or acquisition.
User churn or declining engagement; investigate causes.
Formula
DAU = Unique users active on a given day MAU = Unique users active in the past 30 days WAU = Unique users active in the past 7 days
Variables
What counts as 'active'—login, key action, or meaningful engagement.
Deduplicated count of users meeting active criteria.
Examples
MAU calculation for June
| User ID | Active Days in June |
|---|---|
| user_1 | 15 days |
| user_2 | 3 days |
| user_3 | 1 day |
| user_4 | 28 days |
- 1Count unique users active at least once in June
- 2MAU for June = 4 users
Track in Daymark
Data Sources
Required Fields
- user_id
- event_date
- event_type
Sample Questions
- What is current DAU, WAU, and MAU?
- Show DAU/MAU trend over the last 6 months
- Calculate DAU/MAU ratio (stickiness)
- Compare MAU growth rate month over month
- What percentage of MAU are also DAU?
- Show WAU by user cohort or segment
- How many MAU performed a key action this month?
Dashboard Template
Active users over time
Engagement ratio
Retention over time
Days active per month
Common Mistakes
- •Not clearly defining what 'active' means for your product.
- •Counting bots, test accounts, or employees in active users.
- •Using a definition of 'active' that's too easy (just logging in) or too hard (power user behavior).
- •Not deduplicating users across the time window.
- •Comparing DAU/MAU across products with different usage patterns.
- •Ignoring the quality of active sessions—some DAU may have low engagement.
FAQ
20-30% is strong for most products. Social apps often exceed 50%; enterprise tools might be 10-20%.
It depends on your product. Daily habit products (social, messaging) target DAU; periodic tools (analytics, billing) focus on MAU.
Choose an action that indicates real product value—not just login, but completing a core workflow or using key features.