DAU (Daily Active User) measures the number of unique users who engage with a product or service within a 24-hour window.
It answers: “How many people used our product today?”
DAU is a core user engagement metric used by product, growth, and analytics teams to track stickiness, retention, and product health.
What counts as “active”?
It depends on the product and must be defined clearly. Common DAU criteria include:
| Product Type |
What Counts as “Active” |
| SaaS |
Logging in, using a core feature, completing a workflow |
| Social Media |
Posting, commenting, liking, messaging |
| Fintech |
Logging a transaction, checking balance |
| Productivity tool |
Creating/editing a document, task, or project |
| Marketplaces |
Searching, viewing, adding to cart, transacting |
Activity must be meaningful, not just passive page views.
DAU vs MAU vs WAU
| Metric |
Time frame |
Use case |
| Daily active user (DAU) |
1 day |
Real-time engagement tracking, virality, and app stickiness |
| Weekly active user (WAU) |
7 days |
Weekly cohort health, early-stage product rhythm |
| Monthly active user (MAU) |
30 days |
Long-term retention, customer base breadth |
DAU/MAU ratio (aka “stickiness ratio”) is a key engagement KPI.
DAU ÷ MAU → tells you how often users return.
A DAU/MAU ratio of 20–30% is average for SaaS.
50%+ is excellent-think Slack, WhatsApp, Notion.
Why DAU matters
| Benefit |
Insight |
| Engagement health |
Are users forming habits and returning daily? |
| Retention predictor |
Higher DAU = lower churn risk in most SaaS models |
| Product-market fit signal |
Sharp DAU growth often reflects resonance with a core use case |
| Revenue forecasting |
DAU trends correlate with usage-based pricing and expansion revenue |
| A/B testing |
Fast feedback loop on new features, nudges, or UX changes |
How to segment DAU for deeper insight
- By cohort: New vs existing users
- By persona or role: Admin vs end user
- By platform: Mobile vs web
- By feature use: Core vs fringe functionality
- By geography or account tier: Free vs paid users, US vs global
Common DAU traps
| Mistake |
Fix |
| Counting bot/API hits as activity |
Always de-dupe and qualify actions |
| Not defining “active” properly |
Align definition with core value moment |
| Over-optimizing for DAU |
DAU ≠ long-term success if usage is shallow |
| Ignoring DAU quality |
Segment by depth of engagement, not just clicks |
Final takeaway
DAU is your product’s daily heartbeat. But it’s important to remember that it is about the quality of engagement and the consistency of value delivered. Great teams segment it, learn from it, and use it to power sustainable growth.
GPT prompt: Analyze DAU drop
Act as a product manager at a productivity SaaS company. Your DAU dropped by [put percentage] over the past week. Write a quick root-cause analysis using funnel data, user feedback, and cohort insights. Include hypotheses and next-step experiments.
Note: Please provide funnel data, user feedback, insights
