What is session frequency?
Session frequency is the average number of sessions per active user over a period. It measures how often people actually come back to use the product.
It is a depth-of-engagement signal. Two products can have the same number of users while one is opened daily and the other monthly, and session frequency is what tells them apart.
The formula.
Session frequency = total sessions divided by active users, over the same window. Define what ends a session, usually an inactivity timeout, and keep that definition stable.
The result is an average, so a frequency of 3 means the typical active user had three sessions in the period. Pair it with stickiness for the full engagement picture.
A worked example.
Over a month, the product records 45,000 sessions across 15,000 active users. Session frequency is 45,000 divided by 15,000, which is 3 sessions per user.
What is a good session frequency?
It is entirely product-dependent, so there is no universal target. A daily-use tool should see high frequency, while a tool used a few times a quarter will be low by design, and that can be perfectly healthy. The signal is the trend over time and how it compares with your stickiness, not an absolute number.
Session frequency and stickiness measure the same habit from different angles. Reading it next to the stickiness underneath it shows how ingrained the usage really is.
How to improve it.
Build genuine reasons to return, whether timely notifications, recurring value, or workflows users come back to by necessity. Frequency rises when the product earns a place in a routine.
A habit starts with the product solving a problem people have often, which is the same draw behind content that helps you build a habit worth returning to.