MAU (Monthly Active Users)
Monthly Active Users
The total number of users who have used an app or site at least once within a given month.
In Simple Terms
MAU tells you how many users engaged with a service at least once during a given month. Social media platforms and game companies use it to measure the real scale and activity level of their service. Users who downloaded the app but never opened it are not counted — that's what makes this metric meaningful.
Behind the Name
MAU stands for Monthly Active Users — Monthly (the time period), Active (actually using the service), and Users (the people). The key point is that it counts people who actually opened and used the app during the month, not just those who have it installed on their device.
Take a Closer Look!
MAU is the number of users who visited a website or app at least once during a given month.
Unlike total registered member counts or total download figures, it measures how many users are actually "active" — meaning they genuinely used the service during that period.
MAU is widely used in business to gauge the health of a service. For example, a product with 1 million registered members but only 10,000 MAU makes it clear that the vast majority of users have stopped engaging.
On the other hand, a steadily growing MAU indicates that the service is lively and gaining traction.
One important rule: if the same person uses the service 10 times or 100 times in a month, they still count as just 1 in the MAU total.
Related metrics include DAU (Daily Active Users), which measures active users per day, and WAU (Weekly Active Users), which tracks weekly engagement.
Analyzing these together gives a clearer picture of how frequently users return to the service.