DAU/MAU stickiness
Engagement metric. How often and how deeply do they use it?
What is DAU/MAU stickiness?
DAU/MAU stickiness is the share of a month's active users who use the app on a typical day: average daily active users divided by monthly active users.
WAU: weekly active users: unique users active in a 7-day period.
How to calculate DAU/MAU
Stickiness = Average DAU ÷ MAU × 100- Average DAU
- the mean of daily active users over the same month
- MAU
- unique users active in that month
Where definitions differ
| Variant | Formula | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Average-DAU version | Mean DAU over the month ÷ MAU | The recommended form; one day's DAU is noisy. |
| DAU/WAU | Average DAU ÷ Weekly active users | For apps used a few times a week. |
| WAU/MAU | Average WAU ÷ MAU | For weekly-use apps such as many fintech products. |
DAU/MAU calculator
Example inputs: change them to your own numbers. The examples only make the calculator show a worked answer; they are not benchmarks or targets. Runs in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere.
- DAU/MAU stickiness
- 25%
- Average active days per monthly user (30-day month)
- 7.5
What does a DAU/MAU of 20% mean?
It means the average monthly user is active on about 6 days in a 30-day month. It says nothing about whether those users stay next month, which is why stickiness is read alongside retention.
How DAU/MAU differs by vertical
| EdTech | Daily-habit products (language, practice) aim high; course platforms used weekly will read lower. |
|---|---|
| Fintech | Payments apps can be daily; investing and lending apps are naturally less frequent. |
| OTT and streaming | Rises with series releases and falls between them. |
| Gaming | A standard health metric for live games. |
Common mistakes
- Comparing stickiness across apps with different natural usage frequency.
- Using a single day's DAU, which swings with weekends and promotions.
Questions
How do you calculate DAU/MAU?
Divide average DAU for the month by MAU for the same month and multiply by 100. 15k average DAU and 60k MAU is 25% stickiness.
Is DAU/MAU the same as retention?
No. Stickiness measures how often this month's users come back within the month; retention measures how many users from a cohort are still active after n days.
What is a good DAU/MAU ratio?
It depends on how often the product is meant to be used. Compare with your own history and with apps of the same usage pattern rather than a general figure.
Why do tools report different values for the same metric?
Because definitions differ: what counts as active, which attribution window applies, whether organic users are included and how days are cut by timezone. Align the definition before comparing numbers.
Which currency do the calculators use?
The calculators show US dollars, but every formula works in any currency: enter your own figures in the currency you report in and read the results in that currency.
What is the difference between a metric and a KPI?
A metric is any measured quantity; a KPI is a metric a team has chosen as a target for judging performance. Most metrics here become KPIs only for the teams whose work moves them.