Monthly Active Users (MAU)
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.
Benefits of MAU-based pricing:
- Flexibility: Your plan grows with you.
- Unlimited survey responses: Collect as much feedback as you need without worrying about hitting survey limits.
- Fair value exchange: Larger user bases generate more data, which requires more processing power – this model ensures pricing stays proportional to the value you get from Refiner.
How exactly is MAU calculated?
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.
Examples
Web App Surveys
When you use Refiner to launch Web App Surveys, users are typically identified whenever they use your product.
In this setup, your MAU corresponds to the number of unique identified users who were active in your web app within a rolling 30-day period.
A user can visit your app multiple times, use it on multiple days, or respond to multiple surveys without being counted more than once.
Mobile App Surveys
When you use Refiner to launch Mobile App Surveys, users are typically identified whenever they use your mobile app.
In this setup, your MAU corresponds to the number of unique identified users who were active in your mobile app within a rolling 30-day period.
A user can open your app multiple times, use it on multiple days, or respond to multiple surveys without being counted more than once.
Email Surveys
Users who respond to at least one Email Survey within a rolling 30-day period are counted as Active Users.
We identify unique users using their email address or another unique identifier. This means that:
- A user who submits multiple Email Survey responses within 30 days is counted only once.
- A user who was already identified through one of your apps is not counted again when they respond to an Email Survey.
- Only users who actually submit a response are counted. Simply sending or opening an Email Survey does not generate MAU.
If you run a single Email Survey and each user can respond only once, your MAU count will usually be close to the number of responses collected. If users can submit multiple responses, or if some respondents are already active through your app, the MAU count can be lower than the number of responses.
Survey Pages
Users who respond to at least one Survey Page within a rolling 30-day period are counted as Active Users.
We identify unique users either through a unique identifier provided in the Survey Page URL or, when no identifier is provided, through a browser cookie. This means that:
- A user who submits multiple Survey Page responses within 30 days is counted only once.
- A user who responds to multiple Survey Pages is counted only once, as long as Refiner can recognize them as the same user.
- Only users who actually submit a response are counted. Simply visiting or opening a Survey Page does not generate MAU.
If you run a single Survey Page and each user can respond only once, your MAU count will usually be close to the number of responses collected. If users can submit multiple responses, the MAU count can be lower than the number of responses.
Website Popup Surveys
When you install our JavaScript SDK 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.
Data integrations
A user is counted as an Active User if Refiner receives activity for that user through one of your integrations within a rolling 30-day period.
This includes, for example:
- Identifying or updating a user
- Tracking an event for a user
If the same user is also active through another source, such as the Refiner SDK installed in your app, they are still counted only once—as long as the same unique user identifier is used across both sources.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly counts as a Monthly Active User?
Any user for whom Refiner receives meaningful tracking data is counted as a Monthly Active User.
This can include users identified through our SDKs, API, or third-party integrations. Please refer to the section above for a detailed explanation of what activity counts towards MAU.
Are users counted if they don’t reply to a survey?
Yes. “Active” means that Refiner received meaningful tracking data for the user – for example, because they logged in to your application.
A user does not need to view, interact with, or respond to a survey to count as an MAU.
When does a user stop counting as an MAU?
If we stop receiving data for a user, they automatically drop out of the MAU count after 30 days.
Because MAU is calculated using a rolling 30-day window, there is no monthly reset.
Is the same user counted more than once?
No. Each user is counted only once, regardless of how much data we receive for them or how many different sources send us data.
Users coming from different sources are matched using their unique user ID or email address when they are identified. Learn more about identifying users.
Why is my Refiner MAU count different from my own analytics?
Different tools can use different definitions of an “active user.”
In Refiner, a user is considered active when we receive meaningful tracking data for them. Other analytics tools may use different activity criteria.
The time period can also differ. Refiner uses a rolling 30-day window, while some tools calculate MAU based on a fixed calendar month and reset their count at the beginning of each month.
Where can I find my current MAU count?
You can find your current MAU count under My Account > Subscription. Your current usage is displayed at the top of the page.
Click the MAU count to view more detailed usage information.
Can I see a MAU breakdown by environment and time period?
Yes. Click your account-wide MAU count on the Subscription page to see the current MAU count for each environment, along with snapshots from previous months.
How often is the MAU count updated?
Your MAU count is calculated on a rolling basis and is typically updated every couple of hours or more frequently.
Does the MAU count reset at the beginning of each month?
No. MAU is a rolling 30-day metric and does not reset at the beginning of a calendar month or billing cycle.
As users become inactive for more than 30 days, they automatically drop out of the MAU count.
What happens if I exceed my MAU limit?
Exceeding your MAU limit for a short period does not affect your account. Refiner will continue to ingest user data, and your surveys will keep running.
We do not automatically upgrade your subscription or charge overage fees.
We’ll notify you by email when you reach 90% and 100% of your MAU limit. A red banner will also appear in your Refiner dashboard, prompting you to upgrade your subscription.
If you expect your MAU count to drop below the limit soon, you can temporarily ignore the banner.
If your usage stays above the limit for several weeks, we may pause ingestion of new user data until you upgrade. This may affect survey delivery, targeting, and other features that rely on this data.
Can I get a temporary increase in my MAU limit?
Yes. If you accidentally import a large number of users during your initial setup or during data maintenance, we can usually provide a temporary MAU limit increase free of charge. Please contact our support team if this happens.
Can I reduce my MAU usage by deleting users?
Deleting users who were recently active may lower your MAU count.
However, we recommend contacting us before deleting users purely to reduce your MAU usage. In many cases, a temporary MAU limit increase is the simpler solution.
Do staging and development environments count towards MAU?
Yes. Users active in any of your Environments count towards your account-wide MAU limit.
You can see the MAU usage of each individual environment from the usage details on your Subscription page.
How do integrations affect my MAU count?
Users sent to Refiner through third-party integrations (e.g. Segment or RudderStack) count towards your MAU usage.
If Refiner receives meaningful user data through an integration during the last 30 days, that user is considered active.
If the same user is also tracked through another source, such as our JavaScript SDK, they are still counted only once as long as the same user identifier is used.
Do you also count pageviews?
If you install Refiner’s JavaScript SDK on a public website to survey anonymous visitors, we also track Pageviews as a secondary usage metric.
Learn more about how Pageviews are counted and how they affect your subscription in our Pageviews documentation.