What it means
MAU counts each person once, no matter how many times they log in during the month. A user who opens an app 40 times counts the same as one who opens it once, which makes the figure a measure of reach rather than intensity.
Companies decide what counts as active, which might be a login, a purchase, a message sent or a video watched. Because the definition is chosen by the company, MAU figures are not always comparable between businesses.
One firm may count any app launch, while another counts only a meaningful action. Careful analysts always ask what activity qualifies and over which window the month is measured.
MAU is a building block for several finance measures. Dividing revenue by MAU gives average revenue per user, and comparing daily users to monthly users shows how often people come back.
Subscription and advertising businesses lean on these figures when forecasting income and setting marketing budgets. Growth in MAU is attractive, but it needs context.
A rising MAU with falling revenue per user can mean the company is acquiring low-value users, and a flat MAU can still hide churn (people leaving) offset by new sign-ups. Looking at MAU alongside retention, cost of acquiring each user and revenue gives a truer picture.
Management teams often set MAU targets for product and marketing teams. Because those targets can be gamed, for example by sending notifications that trigger empty logins, finance teams should check that active users are genuine and lead to revenue.
Public companies that report MAU usually explain their definition in the notes to their results. Reading that definition, and checking whether it changes from one year to the next, is one of the quickest ways to judge how reliable the headline number is.
A definition that quietly becomes more generous can make growth look better than it is.
In practice
Real-world examples.
Example
A mobile game studio reports 1,500,000 MAU, defined as players who start at least one game session in the month. Its finance team divides monthly in-app purchase revenue of $3,000,000 by that figure to get $2.00 per user. The number is used to decide how much the studio can afford to pay to attract each new player.
Example
A business software company counts a user as active only when they create or edit a document. Its sales team quotes MAU to prospective customers as proof that employees actually use the tool. A customer renewing a contract for 500 seats sees that only 300 seats are active and negotiates a lower price.
Example
A video streaming start-up shows investors MAU rising from 400,000 to 600,000 in a year. Investors also ask for retention, and learn that half of new sign-ups leave within two months. The company is asked to present both figures together before the funding round continues.
Formula
Calculation
MAU = number of unique users with at least one qualifying action in the 30-day window
Average Revenue per MAU = Monthly Revenue / MAU
Stickiness = Average Daily Active Users / MAU
Suppose a language-learning app has 200,000 MAU, monthly revenue of $600,000 and 50,000 daily active users on an average day. Average revenue per MAU = 600,000 / 200,000 = $3.00. Stickiness = 50,000 / 200,000 = 25%, which means the typical user is active on about one day in four.Case study
Seen in the real world.
Pocketfield is an illustrative, fictional budgeting app that grew from 80,000 to 240,000 monthly active users in a year. The founders proudly reported the figure to potential investors and expected a high valuation.
During due diligence the investors asked how Pocketfield defined an active user. The team admitted that any app launch counted, including the launches triggered by reminder notifications, and when only users who logged an expense were counted, MAU fell to 130,000.
The founders restated the number, agreed on a stricter definition and showed that revenue per active user was in fact rising. The illustrative lesson is that a transparent, defensible definition of MAU is worth more in a funding discussion than a bigger number that falls apart under questioning.
Watch out
Common mistakes.
- Comparing MAU between companies without checking what each one counts as an active user.
- Treating growth in MAU as proof of a healthy business when revenue per user, retention or profitability may be falling.
- Counting the same person several times because they have more than one account or device, which inflates the total.
Questions
People also ask.
What is a good MAU number?
There is no universal benchmark, because it depends on the market, the product and the definition of active, so compare a company with its own history and close peers.
What is the difference between DAU and MAU?
DAU counts unique users per day and MAU counts unique users per month, and the ratio between them shows how habit-forming a product is.
Does MAU show revenue?
No, it shows audience size and engagement only, so it must be combined with revenue per user to estimate income.
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