Monthly Active Users
Introduction
Monthly Active Users (MAU) is the core metric behind our pricing model. All of our subscription plans -Essentials, Growth, and Enterprise – are based on MAUs, allowing for flexible pricing that scales with your needs.
An MAU is any user for whom we process meaningful data within a rolling 30-day period. This includes actions like updating user traits, tracking events, or storing survey responses.
By using MAU as the main pricing metric, we enable powerful features such as user segmentation based on traits and behavior while offering unlimited survey responses across all plans.
Calculation method
MAU (Monthly Active Users) refers to the number of user profiles for which we track meaningful activity within a rolling 30-day window.
For most customers, this typically aligns with the number of users who logged into their app in the past 30 days.
A user is considered “Active” if any of the following occurs:
- They respond to a survey
- You identify them using our Web Client, Mobile SDKs, or APIs
- You track an event related to them using our Web Client, Mobile SDKs, or APIs
Minor events like “Saw Survey” or “Dismissed Survey” do not count toward the MAU total.
Below are a few examples based on the types of surveys you may be running.
Web App Surveys
When you are using Refiner to launch Web App Surveys, you are identifying users when they are connected to your product. In this setup, MAU corresponds to the number of unique users that are using your product in a rolling 30 days time period
When you install our Web-Client on a public website without identifying your users, we’ll only count users that responded to at least one survey in the last 30 days. In this scenario, we count Pageviews (see below) as a secondary metric for your subscription.
Mobile App Surveys
When you are using Refiner to launch Mobile App Surveys, you are identifying users when they are connected to your product. In this setup, MAU corresponds to the number of unique users that are using your product in a rolling 30 days time period
Email Surveys
All users that responded to at least one Email Survey within a 30 days time period are counted as Active Users.
Unique users are recognized using their email address or another unique identifier to prevent counting them multiple times.
If you run one single survey, the MAU number usually corresponds to the number of survey responses you are collecting.
Survey Pages
All users that respond to a Survey Pages within a 30 days time period are counted as Active Users.
Unique users are recognized either with an identifier provided in the survey URL, or with a Browser Cookie. One single user can respond to multiple surveys without being counted multiple times.
If you have only one single Survey Page, the MAU number usually corresponds to the number of survey responses you are collecting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I find my current MAU number?
You can find your current MAU number by navigating to MY ACCOUNT > SUBSCRIPTION. In the top section of the page, you’ll find the current MAU number. Clicking on the number will reveal additional usage information.
What happens if I go over the limit?
If you reach the MAU (Monthly Active Users) limit of your subscription, your account will continue to function normally for a short period. However, if the limit is exceeded for several weeks, we will stop ingesting new user data, and your account may no longer work as expected.
To help you stay on track, we’ll send automated email alerts when you reach 90% and 100% of your current MAU limit. These emails include a link to easily upgrade to a higher subscription tier.
We do not automatically upgrade your subscription or charge overage fees. It’s up to you to upgrade your plan or contact our team if needed.
How to upgrade your subscription?
You can upgrade your subscription anytime from the Refiner dashboard by navigating to Account > Subscription. Simply choose the MAU tier that fits your needs and click “Change Subscription.”
When you upgrade, the cost is prorated based on the time left in your current billing cycle—you’ll only pay the difference for the remainder of the month.
Refiner also allows you to upgrade or downgrade your monthly subscription at any time to match your current usage.
How does using integrations affect the MAU count?
If you are sending user data to your Refiner environment from third party sources (e.g. Segment or Rudderstack), all users for which we receive data within a 30 days time period are counted.
Does the MAU count reset to zero at some point?
The MAU count is a gliding metric that always represents data usage of the past 30 days. The MAU count is updated every couple of minutes. It does not reset to zero when a new billing cycle or a new month starts.
Are survey responses really unlimited?
All paid plans include unlimited survey responses—because more feedback means better insights.
We want you to collect as much valuable input as possible without worrying about limits. That said, we apply a fair usage policy and reserve the right to restrict accounts in cases of misuse or abuse.
Do you count Pageviews?
When you install our web client on a public website to survey anonymous visitors, we also track the number of Pageviews your site receives.
In most cases, Pageviews are not a limiting factor in our pricing. All plans include a generous Pageview allowance – 20x your MAU limit (e.g. a 5,000 MAU plan includes 100,000 Pageviews; a 10,000 MAU plan includes 200,000 Pageviews, etc.). If you expect to exceed this, feel free to reach out to our support team.
Pageview tracking acts as a protective measure to prevent excessive server load from high-traffic websites.
A few important notes:
- Pageviews are only tracked when the web client is installed on your public website.
- They are not counted if you’re only using In-App Surveys, Email Surveys, or Survey Links.
- Pageviews are recorded on all pages where the web client is present – even if no survey is currently running.
To reduce Pageviews, consider installing the web client only on specific pages or sections of your site.