# Monthly Active Users (MAU) > Count the unique people who use your product in a month, and track how fast that number is growing. - Type: Calculator: Unique people using you each month - Tags: Metrics - Growth levers: Retention (primary), also Activation - ~963 words --- **MAU Growth Calculator.** Monthly actives and their month-over-month growth rate. Inputs: MAU this month, MAU last month. Outputs: MoM MAU growth, Monthly active users. Monthly Active Users (MAU) is the number of unique people who take a meaningful action in your product during a calendar month. Each person counts once no matter how often they show up, so MAU measures reach, not session volume. The number that actually tells you anything is how fast it moves month to month, which is what the calculator above returns. The word doing all the work in that definition is "meaningful." A login is not active. You pick the action that signals real value (a doc created, a transaction sent, a query run) and count the unique users who did it. Pick a soft event and your MAU inflates while your retention quietly rots. ## How MAU is calculated > **Formula:** MAU = count of unique users who perform your active event in the month. MoM MAU growth (%) = (MAU this month - MAU last month) / MAU last month x 100. MAU itself is a headcount, so it has no "good" value on its own. A 200-person tool and a consumer app are not on the same scale. The benchmarkable number is the growth rate. Say you had 40,000 active users last month and 42,000 this month. That is (42,000 - 40,000) / 40,000 x 100 = 5.0% month-over-month growth, the same figure the calculator prints for those inputs. Compounded over a year, 5% a month is roughly 80% annual user growth, which is a healthy growth-stage SaaS pace. ## MAU growth benchmarks by industry | Industry | Median | Good | Great | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | SaaS | 3.0% | 6.0% | 10.0% | | Fintech | 3.0% | 7.0% | 12.0% | | Dev Tools | 3.0% | 7.0% | 11.0% | | AI/ML | 7.0% | 14.0% | 25.0% | | E-commerce | 2.0% | 5.0% | 9.0% | | Healthtech | 2.5% | 5.0% | 9.0% | | Martech | 2.0% | 5.0% | 8.0% | *MoM MAU growth (%) · MoM active-user growth bands derived from annual growth medians and dampened (user count grows slower than revenue): SaaS Capital 2025 Private B2B SaaS Growth survey (25% median YoY, equity-backed); High Alpha/ICONIQ 2025 State of Software (B2B SaaS ~40% median YoY at $1-5M ARR vs AI-native 100-110%); a16z Top 100 Gen AI Apps 2025 and SensorTower State of AI Apps 2025 (GenAI downloads +67% half-over-half, Perplexity >20% MoM); Mixpanel 2026 State of Digital Analytics (B2B SaaS DAU/MAU 31%, fintech and crypto highest). E-commerce, Healthtech and Martech rows are conservative estimates anchored to Bessemer State of Health Tech 2024 and Pushwoosh 2025 app benchmarks, not dedicated MAU-growth-by-industry cells.* There is no public report that measures "MAU growth by industry" cleanly, so these bands are built from the next-best primary data: annual growth medians, dampened, because a user count grows slower than revenue (revenue carries price increases and expansion that headcount does not). [SaaS Capital's 2025 Private B2B SaaS survey](https://www.saas-capital.com/research/private-saas-company-growth-rate-benchmarks/?utm_source=productgrowth.blog) puts the median company at 25% annual growth, down from 30% in 2023, which works out near 3% a month. [ICONIQ's 2025 State of Software](https://www.iconiq.com/growth/reports/2025-state-of-software?utm_source=productgrowth.blog) shows traditional B2B SaaS around 40% median annual growth at the $1M to $5M ARR stage versus 100% to 110% for AI-native startups, which is why the AI/ML row sits so much higher. AI products are the outlier and the data backs it up. [a16z's Top 100 Gen AI Apps list](https://a16z.com/100-gen-ai-apps-6/?utm_source=productgrowth.blog) and SensorTower's 2025 State of AI Apps report both show generative AI downloads up roughly 67% half-over-half, with Perplexity citing more than 20% month-over-month growth at one point. A 7% median MoM band for AI/ML would have looked absurd in 2022. In 2025 it is conservative. Mature categories pull the other way: e-commerce and martech are crowded and slower, so a 2% to 5% MoM band is a realistic median-to-good range there. The e-commerce, healthtech, and martech rows lean on Bessemer's State of Health Tech and Pushwoosh's 2025 app benchmarks rather than a dedicated MAU-growth study, so treat them as estimates. ## How to read your MAU growth and improve it Before you celebrate a rising MAU, check it against your stickiness. [Mixpanel's 2026 State of Digital Analytics](https://mixpanel.com/blog/mau/?utm_source=productgrowth.blog) puts the B2B SaaS DAU/MAU ratio near 31%, lower than the 40% number that floated around for years. If your MAU climbs while your DAU/MAU ratio falls, you are buying logins that do not turn into habits, and those users churn next quarter. MAU growth without retention is an early churn signal, not a win. To actually move the number, work the two ends. On the front end, tighten onboarding so a larger share of signups reach their first real outcome in week one. On the back end, win back the lapsed: target users who hit your active event last month but not this month with a specific reason to return, not a generic "we miss you" email. The same person re-activated is cheaper than a new one acquired, and it lifts MAU and stickiness at the same time. ## Related calculators - **DAU/MAU stickiness: **see what share of your monthly actives show up daily with the [DAU calculator](https://www.productgrowth.blog/calculators/daily-active-users-dau). - **Retention rate: **find out how many of last cohort's users are still around with the [retention rate calculator](https://www.productgrowth.blog/calculators/retention-rate). - **Engagement rate: **measure how deeply your actives use the product with the [engagement rate calculator](https://www.productgrowth.blog/calculators/engagement-rate). - **MRR growth: **turn that user growth into a revenue trend with the [MRR calculator](https://www.productgrowth.blog/calculators/monthly-recurring-revenue-mrr). #### What is a good monthly active users (MAU) figure? MAU on its own has no good number, since a niche B2B tool and a consumer app are not on the same scale. The figure to benchmark is MoM MAU growth. Around 3% a month is a typical median for B2B SaaS, 6% to 10% is good to great for growth-stage products, and AI-native apps often run 7% or higher. Anything flat or negative means you are replacing churned users instead of adding new ones. #### How is MAU calculated? Count the unique users who performed your chosen active event at least once during the calendar month. Each person counts once regardless of how many sessions they had. To get the growth rate, take MAU this month minus MAU last month, divide by MAU last month, and multiply by 100. #### What is the difference between MAU and DAU? MAU counts unique users over a month; DAU counts them over a single day. Dividing DAU by MAU gives the stickiness ratio, the share of your monthly users who show up on an average day. Mixpanel's 2026 data puts B2B SaaS stickiness near 31%, so MAU measures reach and DAU/MAU measures habit. #### Why is my MAU growing but my product still feels stuck? Rising MAU with falling stickiness or retention usually means you are acquiring users who never form a habit. They count once, then leave. Watch MoM MAU growth and DAU/MAU together. If the first climbs while the second drops, you have a retention leak that volume is hiding. --- All posts: https://www.productgrowth.blog/archive · Site: https://www.productgrowth.blog