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Threads now has 500 million monthly active users, according to Meta's June 2026 announcement. That makes 500 million the most current official answer to "how many people use Threads?" The latest official daily-user disclosure is older: Meta reported 150 million daily active users in October 2025.
Those two figures shouldn't be divided to produce a current "stickiness" rate, because they describe different reporting periods. This guide keeps registrations, downloads, monthly users, daily users, ad reach, and third-party estimates separate, a distinction many Threads statistics roundups miss.
Threads statistics at a glance
| Threads statistic | Latest figure | Date and definition | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly active users | 500 million | Global MAU, June 2026 | Meta |
| Daily active users | 150 million | Meta's latest official DAU disclosure, October 2025 | Engadget, reporting Meta's Q3 earnings call |
| Mobile daily active users | 141.5 million | Similarweb estimate for iOS and Android, January 7, 2026 | TechCrunch |
| Growth from 400M to 500M MAU | +25% | August 2025 to June 2026; calculated from Meta milestones | Meta |
| U.S. adult adoption | 8% | Share saying they use Threads; nationally representative 2025 survey | Pew Research Center |
| U.S. adoption among ages 18–29 | 15% | Share of U.S. adults in this age group who use Threads | Pew Research Center |
| Median engagement rate | 3.6% | Median for Threads posts in Buffer's 2025 dataset | Buffer |
| Engagement associated with creator replies | +42% | Within-account association; not proof that replies caused the lift | Buffer |
| Users following at least one business | 3 in 4 | Meta internal data, January 2025 | Meta |
| Increase in time spent | +20% | Lift attributed to Q4 2025 product optimizations; no absolute minutes disclosed | Meta |
How many users does Threads have in 2026?
Threads has 500 million monthly active users worldwide as of June 16, 2026. This is an official Meta figure and the newest company disclosure available at the time of writing.
The milestone is more meaningful when placed in context:
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Threads reached 100 million sign-ups within five days of its July 2023 launch. That was a cumulative registration figure, not monthly active users.
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Meta reported roughly 100 million monthly active users in October 2023.
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The platform reached 200 million monthly active users in August 2024.
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It passed 300 million monthly active users in December 2024.
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Monthly users rose to 320 million in January 2025 and 350 million in April 2025.
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Threads reached 400 million monthly active users in August 2025.
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It reached 500 million monthly active users in June 2026.
In other words, Threads expanded from approximately 100 million MAU in October 2023 to 500 million in June 2026, a fivefold increase in about 32 months. Its most recent 100 million-user increase took roughly ten months, from August 2025 to June 2026.
Threads user growth timeline
| Date | Reported milestone | Metric | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 2023 | 100 million | Cumulative sign-ups in five days | TIME |
| October 2023 | About 100 million | Monthly active users | Associated Press |
| August 2024 | 200 million | Monthly active users | TechCrunch |
| December 2024 | 300 million | Monthly active users | TechCrunch |
| January 2025 | 320 million | Monthly active users | TechCrunch |
| April 2025 | 350 million | Monthly active users | TechCrunch |
| August 2025 | 400 million | Monthly active users | Buffer, citing Adam Mosseri |
| June 2026 | 500 million | Monthly active users | Meta |
Registrations are not active users
Threads' launch record is frequently described as "100 million users in five days." More precisely, it was 100 million sign-ups. A person who registered once but didn't return still counted toward that launch total. Monthly active users count people who used the product during a given month, so the two metrics answer different questions.
The same caution applies to downloads. One person can install Threads on multiple devices, reinstall it, or download it without becoming active. Downloads measure distribution, not audience retention.
How many daily active users does Threads have?
Meta's most recent official disclosure put Threads at 150 million daily active users in October 2025. Earlier, Meta had reported 100 million DAU in December 2024.
That's a 50% increase in officially reported daily users over roughly ten months. However, Meta didn't publish a new DAU figure alongside the June 2026 announcement of 500 million MAU.
You may see Threads described as having a 30% DAU-to-MAU ratio, based on 150 million divided by 500 million. That calculation isn't a valid current retention measure: the DAU figure is from October 2025 while the MAU figure is from June 2026. Using the contemporaneous late-2025 figures (150 million DAU and 400 million MAU) produces an approximate 37.5% ratio for that period, but even that is a rough comparison rather than a full cohort-retention analysis.
Official users versus third-party audience estimates
Similarweb estimated that Threads had 141.5 million daily active mobile users across iOS and Android on January 7, 2026. This is close to, but not interchangeable with, Meta's 150 million DAU disclosure.
The figures can differ because Meta measures activity inside its own products, while Similarweb models mobile usage from its own data sources and methodology. The January estimate shouldn't be read as evidence that Threads lost users after October.
Threads vs. X: which platform is bigger?
The answer depends on whether "bigger" means mobile-app use or web traffic.
According to Similarweb estimates reported by TechCrunch, Threads had more daily mobile users than X in January 2026, but X had dramatically more daily web visits.
| Platform and channel | Threads | X | Measurement date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily active mobile users, iOS + Android | 141.5M | 125.0M | January 7, 2026 |
| Daily web visits | 8.5M | 145.4M | January 13, 2026 |
Source: Similarweb estimates reported by TechCrunch.
These rows shouldn't be added together to create a "total daily audience." Mobile active users and web visits are different units, the dates differ, and the same person may use both channels.
The more useful conclusion is structural: Threads is now highly competitive on mobile, while X remains much stronger on the open web. This matters to publishers and brands. An X post may fit established browser-based news and link-sharing behavior, while Threads benefits from Meta's mobile ecosystem and in-app discovery.
Threads demographics
No public source offers a complete, audited demographic census of all 500 million monthly Threads users. The strongest public evidence comes from representative country surveys and clearly labeled third-party audience models.
Threads usage by age in the United States
Pew Research Center surveyed 5,022 U.S. adults from February 5 to June 18, 2025. The survey used address-based sampling and was weighted to represent the U.S. adult population.
| Age group | Share who use Threads |
|---|---|
| All U.S. adults | 8% |
| Ages 18–29 | 15% |
| Ages 30–49 | 10% |
| Ages 50–64 | 6% |
| Ages 65+ | 3% |
The clearest demographic pattern is age: U.S. adults ages 18–29 were five times as likely to use Threads as adults 65 and older.
Threads usage by gender and ethnicity in the United States
Pew found little gender difference in reported adoption: 8% of U.S. men and 9% of U.S. women said they used Threads.
Adoption varied more by race and ethnicity:
| U.S. demographic group | Share who use Threads |
|---|---|
| White adults | 6% |
| Black adults | 18% |
| Hispanic adults | 10% |
| Asian adults* | 12% |
*Pew's Asian adult sample represents English speakers only. Source for all U.S. demographic figures: Pew Research Center's social media fact sheet.
The survey also found higher adoption in urban communities (11%) than suburban (9%) or rural communities (4%). These figures describe the percentage of each U.S. group that uses Threads. They do not describe the composition of Threads' global audience.
What global audience models suggest
Third-party web and app measurements commonly estimate that ages 25–34 are the largest Threads audience segment, followed by ages 18–24. Similarweb-based estimates summarized by Statista put the 25–34 group at about 29% and the 18–24 group at about 20% in early 2025.
Treat these as modeled audience shares rather than Meta-verified demographics. They can also appear to conflict with the Pew gender result because they measure different geographies, populations, and behaviors. A global estimate of audience composition can't be directly compared with the share of U.S. men or women who say they use an app.
Which countries have the highest Threads usage?
Meta doesn't publish a complete country-by-country table of monthly active Threads users. Its advertising tools do provide estimated audience reach, which Kepios uses to calculate adult ad-reach rates.
The October 2025 data shows that Threads' deepest advertising penetration was concentrated in East Asia, not only in the United States.
| Country or market | Estimated adult ad reach | Estimated reachable adults |
|---|---|---|
| Taiwan | 31.9% | 6.65M |
| Hong Kong | 22.9% | 1.55M |
| Mongolia | 15.6% | 0.40M |
| Malaysia | 12.2% | 3.60M |
| Kazakhstan | 11.9% | 1.85M |
| Japan | 11.6% | 12.95M |
| South Korea | 9.3% | 4.40M |
| United States | 8.3% | 24.60M |
Source: Kepios, Digital 2026 Global Overview Report, based on Meta advertising resources in October 2025.
Advertising reach isn't the same as MAU. It's an estimate of how many adults an advertiser could potentially reach under Meta's ad-planning definitions. It may include modeled data, exclude users who can't receive ads, and change when Meta revises its tools. Use it to compare market penetration, not to reconstruct Threads' total user count.
Meta's June 2026 decision to introduce native-language community tags first in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan fits this geographic pattern. It suggests that East Asian communities are strategically important to Threads' next phase of growth.
How much time do people spend on Threads?
There is no current official figure for average minutes per user on Threads.
Two older third-party measurements are often repeated as if they were 2026 statistics:
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Similarweb data summarized by Statista estimated about 34 minutes per month for the average global Threads user in August 2024.
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DataReportal later reported about 39 minutes per month for the typical Android user in November 2024.
Neither number describes usage in 2026. They're historical benchmarks measured by third parties, with different dates and possibly different device scopes.
The latest reliable directional update comes from Meta: product optimizations produced a 20% increase in time spent on Threads in Q4 2025. Meta didn't disclose the underlying number of minutes, so it isn't possible to convert that lift into a current daily or monthly average.
This is also why claims such as "the average Threads user spends four minutes per day" need a methodology and date before they're cited. Session length, time per active day, and monthly time per user are not equivalent.
Threads engagement statistics
Buffer's 2026 State of Social Media Engagement report analyzed more than 52 million posts across ten platforms, including posts published through Buffer during 2024 and 2025. For Threads, Buffer counted likes, reposts, replies, and quotes and used engagement divided by reach where reach was available.
The median Threads engagement rate was approximately 3.6% in 2025, down from 4.4% in 2024, an 18% year-over-year decline in Buffer's dataset.
This newer estimate supersedes the widely repeated 6.25% Threads engagement rate from an older Buffer analysis. The change doesn't prove that the platform is declining. Buffer notes that year-over-year movement can reflect algorithm changes and a changing mix of accounts publishing through its service.
Threads engagement rate by post format
| Threads post format | Median engagement rate in Buffer's 2025 dataset |
|---|---|
| Video | 5.55% |
| Image | 4.55% |
| Text | 2.79% |
| Link | 2.34% |
Visual posts led the median, but Buffer found substantial overlap between formats. A strong text post can outperform an average video, so format alone is not a content strategy.
Replying is the strongest actionable signal
Posts where the creator replied were associated with 42% more engagement on Threads than that account's own baseline. About two-thirds of the Threads accounts in Buffer's analysis performed better when they replied.
This was an observational result, not a randomized experiment. Better posts may attract more replies in the first place, so it would be wrong to promise that replying causes a 42% lift. Even so, the within-account comparison makes conversation a more defensible priority than chasing one universal "best time to post."
For brands, a practical Threads workflow is therefore:
- Publish a clear opinion, question, or useful visual that gives people something specific to respond to.
- Monitor early replies and answer with substance rather than a generic emoji.
- Track reply rate and non-follower reach, not likes alone.
- Test text, image, and short-video versions of the same topic before declaring one format the winner.
The most-followed Threads accounts
Follower counts change daily, but a July 2026 snapshot from ThreadLook found:
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Instagram (@instagram): 37.9 million followers, the largest account in its dataset.
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Neymar Jr.: 26.1 million, the largest individual account.
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Selena Gomez: 20.8 million.
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Real Madrid: 19.4 million, the largest sports organization in the dataset.
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The top ten accounts had about 207 million combined followers.
The same analysis found a median engagement rate of only 0.02% among the 20 most-followed accounts during June 2026. That tiny rate shouldn't be compared directly with Buffer's 3.6% platform median: the sample contains only celebrity-scale accounts and may use a follower-based denominator rather than reach.
The useful insight isn't that one benchmark is "wrong." It's that follower count and typical post engagement measure different things. Very large inherited audiences can produce enormous reach while still generating a low percentage of interactions per follower.
Source: ThreadLook's July 2026 leaderboard analysis.
Threads statistics for businesses and advertisers
Threads is no longer only an experimental organic channel. Meta began testing ads in January 2025 and expanded Threads feed ads to eligible advertisers globally in April 2025. Threads placement can be included in Meta's automated Advantage+ campaigns and in manual placement campaigns.
Meta also reported that three out of four Threads users followed at least one business as of January 2025. This suggests branded participation is already normal behavior on the platform, although following a business doesn't equal purchase intent.
Several widely circulated reports project billions of dollars in Threads revenue. These are analyst forecasts, not reported Threads revenue. Meta doesn't currently break out Threads revenue, ad impressions, ARPU, or profit in its public results. Any "Threads revenue in 2026" figure should therefore be labeled as an estimate, not company financial performance.
For advertisers, the most useful facts are:
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Threads has a large addressable audience inside Meta's ad system.
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Organic conversation and paid reach should be measured separately.
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Meta ad-reach estimates are planning numbers, not audited active-user totals.
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Incremental reach, cost per result, and conversion lift matter more than placement-level impressions alone.
How many times has Threads been downloaded?
AppMagic estimates reported by Statista put cumulative Threads downloads at approximately 828 million through December 2025. This is a third-party estimate across Apple App Store and Google Play distribution, not an official Meta figure.
Download milestones help explain acquisition velocity but say little about current retention. The 828 million estimate is higher than the platform's 500 million MAU because:
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one person can download the app more than once;
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inactive and churned users remain in cumulative download totals;
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some people use Threads on the web;
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Meta's MAU and AppMagic's downloads use different time periods and methods.
Source: Statista's Threads download dataset, as reported by Sprout Social.
Four insights the headline Threads stats miss
1. Audience growth and per-post engagement are moving in different directions
Threads grew from 400 million to 500 million monthly users between August 2025 and June 2026, a 25% increase. Meanwhile, Buffer's median engagement rate fell from 4.4% in 2024 to 3.6% in 2025.
Those periods and datasets don't align well enough to claim that growth caused the decline. But the divergence is strategically important: a larger network doesn't guarantee that every publisher will receive more interactions per person reached. As Threads broadens beyond early adopters, competition in the feed and the mix of accounts both change.
2. Threads is mobile-first; X is still web-strong
Treating Threads and X as interchangeable text networks hides the biggest channel difference. Threads led X in Similarweb's January 2026 mobile DAU estimate, while X received roughly 17 times as many daily web visits.
That means link distribution, search visibility, and desktop news behavior may still look different on X, while Threads has the advantage of Meta's mobile identity, recommendation, and discovery systems.
3. Threads is more geographically diverse than the "U.S. X alternative" story suggests
Taiwan and Hong Kong had much higher adult ad-reach penetration than the United States in late 2025. Meta's decision to localize community tags in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan reinforces the point: Threads' growth story is also an East Asian community story.
Brands should avoid using a single global posting calendar or English-only topic strategy when their audience is international.
4. Threads' real advantage may be its ecosystem, not just its app
People create Threads profiles with an Instagram identity, and Meta can recommend eligible Threads posts on Instagram and Facebook. That lowers the friction of joining and gives public posts distribution beyond the Threads follower graph.
This also complicates measurement. A Threads account can inherit social proof from Instagram, receive recommendation traffic from other Meta apps, and buy reach through Meta Ads. Analysts shouldn't assume every impression reflects a standalone Threads habit.
What marketers should measure on Threads in 2026
Follower growth is easy to report, but it isn't enough to evaluate Threads. A more useful measurement framework includes:
| Goal | Primary metric | Useful diagnostic |
|---|---|---|
| Awareness | Unique reach | Share of reach from non-followers |
| Conversation | Replies per 1,000 people reached | Brand reply rate and response time |
| Resonance | Quotes + reposts per 1,000 reached | Topic and format |
| Community growth | Returning engagers | Follow conversion after engagement |
| Traffic | Quality link visits | Engaged sessions or qualified visits |
| Revenue | Incremental conversions | Cost per incremental result |
Use a rolling 28- or 30-day view for trend analysis, then compare posts within the same account, market, format, and objective. A global platform benchmark is useful for context, but your account's own median is the better operating baseline.
How we evaluated these Threads statistics
We prioritized sources in this order:
- Official Meta disclosures for monthly and daily active users, product changes, ads, and time-spent lifts.
- Representative research, particularly Pew Research Center, for U.S. adoption and demographics.
- Large, documented datasets, such as Buffer's post-level engagement analysis.
- Third-party measurement, including Similarweb, Kepios, AppMagic, and ThreadLook, only when the metric, date, and scope were identifiable.
We didn't treat registrations, downloads, MAU, DAU, web visits, ad reach, and followers as interchangeable. Calculations in this article are explicitly described as calculations, and forecasts are not presented as actual revenue.
Frequently asked questions about Threads stats
How many people use Threads in 2026?
Threads has 500 million monthly active users worldwide, according to Meta's June 2026 announcement.
How many daily active users does Threads have?
The latest official figure is 150 million daily active users, disclosed in October 2025. Meta didn't provide an updated DAU number with its June 2026 MAU announcement.
Is Threads bigger than X?
On mobile, Similarweb estimated 141.5 million daily active users for Threads versus 125 million for X in January 2026. On the web, X was far larger, with 145.4 million daily visits versus 8.5 million across Threads.com and Threads.net. "Bigger" therefore depends on the channel and metric.
Is Threads still growing?
Yes. Monthly active users increased from 400 million in August 2025 to 500 million in June 2026, a 25% rise.
What is the average Threads engagement rate?
Buffer found a 3.6% median engagement rate for Threads posts in its 2025 dataset. The rate included likes, reposts, replies, and quotes relative to reach where reach was available. Your results will vary by account, audience, topic, and format.
What type of post gets the most engagement on Threads?
Video had the highest median rate in Buffer's 2025 Threads dataset at 5.55%, followed by images at 4.55%, text at 2.79%, and links at 2.34%. The distributions overlapped, so a strong text post can still outperform an average video.
Does replying increase Threads engagement?
In Buffer's observational analysis, posts where the creator replied were associated with 42% higher engagement than the same account's baseline. The study shows a strong association, not guaranteed causation.
What age group uses Threads the most?
Among U.S. adults surveyed by Pew in 2025, ages 18–29 had the highest adoption at 15%, followed by ages 30–49 at 10%.
How much time does the average user spend on Threads?
There's no up-to-date official absolute figure. Older third-party estimates measured 34 minutes per month in August 2024 and 39 minutes per month among Android users in November 2024. Meta later reported a 20% increase in time spent during Q4 2025 but didn't disclose the new minutes-per-user value.
How much money does Threads make?
Meta doesn't report standalone Threads revenue. Figures in the billions of dollars circulating online are analyst forecasts, not audited or company-reported Threads revenue.
Is Threads good for businesses?
Threads offers a 500-million-user monthly audience, and Meta says three in four users follow at least one business. Brands should still judge performance using replies, qualified reach, traffic quality, and incremental conversions rather than audience size alone.
Sources
MMarshall Sun
Building CommentGrid to decode social conversations. Exploring the signal within the noise of the global social web.
