Monthly active users (MAU) are the number of unique visitors who were active in your app over the last 30 calendar days.
Unique visitors and how they contribute to MAU
In general, a unique visitor is counted as an active user if they engage with your app(s) at least once within a specified time period. In the case of MAU, a unique visitor is counted if they interact with your app at least once within the last 30 days.
Note: Unique visitors are based on Visitor ID values, which your developers configure in the Pendo install script. If you make any changes to your Visitor ID format, this results in the creation of new unique visitors in Pendo, leading to a temporary increase in MAU. If you plan to make any changes to your Visitor ID format, we recommend notifying your Pendo account representative in advance so they can be aware of the update and provide any necessary guidance or support.
MAU impact on billing
Pendo subscription plans differentiate by feature and MAU limit. You can learn more about our plans on our Pricing page.
MAU with multiple apps
If you have multiple apps on your subscription, MAU is calculated differently depending on your pricing model:
- Application Unique Users. Unique visitors are identified at the application level. For example, if your subscription has two apps and a single visitor engages with both of those apps in a 30-day period, it would count as 2 MAU.
- Subscription Unique Users. Unique visitors are identified at the subscription level. For example, if your subscription has two apps and a single visitor engages with both of those apps in a 30-day period, it would count as 1 MAU.
View your pricing model and MAU usage
You can find out your pricing model by navigating to Settings > Subscription Settings and locating the two Monthly Active Users fields at the bottom of the General section. The value that contains (Contractual MAU) determines your pricing model and shows your current MAU used for billing.
In the example below, the subscription has Subscription Unique Users as its pricing model and is billed for 7829 MAU.
Excluded users and MAU
Excluded visitors and accounts aren't included when calculating your subscription's MAU limit. Pendo still collects and saves events associated with excluded visitors, and excluded visitors still receive guides (if they're eligible), but the associated analytics aren't reflected in Pendo.
Visit the Pendo Academy for a video on Monthly Active Users, which includes information about exclude and include lists. If you're on our US domain, visit the US Pendo Academy. If you're on our EU domain, visit the EU Pendo Academy.
Anonymous visitors and MAU
Anonymous visitors are only included in your subscription's MAU limit if you have Show Anonymous Visitor Data enabled in your subscription settings.
To learn more about how anonymous visitors impact the MAU metric and how you can make necessary changes, see our Pendo Academy video for Monthly Active Users: Anonymous Visitors. (If you're on our EU domain, use this video link.)
What happens when you exceed your MAU limit
If you're on our Starter, Growth, or Portfolio plan and your subscription exceeds the MAU limit, your Pendo account representative will contact you. They will seek to understand whether the exceeding MAU count is due to expected growth and requires a contract adjustment or if there's a potential configuration issue that we can help you resolve. No features are disabled.
If your Free subscription exceeds the MAU limit, aggregate data is presented as generalized trends based on a daily random sampling of 500 visitors. You also can't create new guides, NPS surveys, or segments until you upgrade to a paid plan. To learn more, see MAU limits for Pendo Free.
Track your MAU
There are two main places in Pendo Engage where you can track the number of MAU are trending.
The first place you can track MAU trends is with the Weekly Visitors dashboard widget.
- To add this widget to your dashboard, navigate to your desired dashboard, select Add Widget, then select Weekly Visitors.
- For Metric, select the first dropdown menu and choose Monthly. If monthly isn't available, modify your date range to cover at least 60 days.
- Update the Name to your preference, update the other fields as needed, then select Save.
The second place you can track MAU trends is on the Visitors page.
- Navigate to Products > Visitors.
- Update your filters to the Everyone segment, a date range that covers at least 60 days, All Accounts, and All Apps (if applicable).
- Locate the first line chart. By default, it shows weekly events. Select the dropdown menus to choose Monthly and Visitors.
Note: If you have multiple apps in your subscription and are on our Application Unique Users pricing model, it's important to exclude the Total count from the charts above because it won't provide the expected MAU count. Instead, review each application line individually and manually calculate the total of those counts to obtain an accurate MAU count. If you're on our Subscription Unique Users pricing model, you can rely on the Total count for accurate MAU calculation.
If you're not sure which pricing model your subscription uses, see View your pricing model and MAU usage.
Learn more about MAU
We recommend watching our Pendo Academy video on Monthly Active Users: Overview to learn more about how the MAU metric is calculated and how to monitor that metric in your Pendo subscription. (If you're on our EU domain, use this video link.)