---
title: "Monthly Tracked Users (MTU)"
canonical_url: https://ampl.webclat.com/glossary/monthly-tracked-users
description: "MTU counts every unique user recorded by an analytics tool in a month - how it differs from MAU, and its role in analytics pricing history."
source: Webclat | Amplitude Solutions (official Amplitude partner, independent consultancy)
---

# Monthly Tracked Users (MTU)

**Definition:** Monthly tracked users (MTU) counts every unique user an analytics platform records in a calendar month - including anonymous visitors who never sign in. It matters chiefly as a billing unit: analytics vendors have priced by MTUs, and the count is always higher than your MAU, because 'tracked' includes everyone the SDK saw, not just engaged users.

## Why is MTU always bigger than MAU?

Three inflators: anonymous traffic (every landing-page bounce is a tracked user), identity fragmentation (one human counted as several IDs across devices or before merge), and bot traffic that slips filters. On MTU-billed contracts these inflators are billable - which made identity hygiene a literal cost control.

## Does Amplitude still bill by MTU?

Amplitude's public self-serve plans are event-based at the time of writing (checked against amplitude.com/pricing): tiers are sized by events per month, not tracked users. But MTU billing is not extinct - Amplitude's billing documentation still maintains an MTU guide for MTU-priced plans, and its startup program quotes MTU caps - so check which unit your own agreement uses before comparing quotes, and see our pricing guide for the current structure.

## FAQ

### How do I reduce a tracked-user or event bill without losing data?

Identity hygiene first (merge fragmentation is pure waste), bot filtering second, then taxonomy pruning - unqueried events and never-identified bounce traffic are the classic cuts. An audit typically finds double-digit percentage waste in mature instances.

In practice: The pricing guide covers the current event-based math and how to forecast your volume. (https://ampl.webclat.com/amplitude-pricing-guide)