Complete Guide to Google Analytics 4 Sessions

Google Analytics 4 sessions definition differs from the one used in Universal Analytics. Many GA4 standard reports use session-based metrics. Therefore, diving deeper into what sessions stand for and how it’s calculated is essential. This article will cover everything about GA4 sessions. 

What is a session in GA4?

Unlike Universal Analytics, Google Analytics 4 uses a simplified way to determine a session.

GA4 session is a website visit (or app open) that starts with a “session_start” event and lasts until the user breaks to use your website or app for more than 30 minutes. 

Google Analytics automatically generates a “session_start” event whenever someone visits your website or opens your app. 

30 minutes of inactivity is called session timeout and can be adjusted in Google Analytics 4 settings.

How to adjust session timeout (session duration) in GA4?

Some businesses can consider adjusting session timeout because users spend more time on their website without inactivity. For instance, an excellent example of such websites or apps are products that are based on games or movies. 

Netflix, for instance, can consider adjusting GA4 session timeout because most users spend much more on their platform without activity. If someone watches a 2-hour movie, it’s still one Netflix visit, but with GA4 standard setup, it can generate two or four sessions instead of one. Therefore, Netflix can think about increasing session timeout in GA4 to 2 or 3 hours. 

So, to adjust session timeout in Google Analytics 4, you should take the following steps:

After you adjust the standard settings, Google Analytics 4 will apply to all subsequent sessions on your website or app. It won’t be applied to the historical data. 

As you can see in the screenshot above, this window also has the option to adjust a default timer for an engaged session.  Therefore, let’s discuss the following most crucial definition in GA4 – an engaged session. 

What is an engaged session in GA4?

Google Analytics 4 is all about user engagement, and there are many dimensions, metrics, and events that help this tool calculate user engagement efficiently. 

For instance, the “user_engagement” event, average engagement time, engaged sessions, active users, and many more. 

The basis for all engaged definitions in GA4 is engagement time which was discussed in detail in my other article, “Complete guide to User Engagement in Google Analytics 4”. I highly recommend you spend 5 minutes reading it. 

In this article, let’s focus on the engaged session definition. 

A session is considered engaged if it meets at least one of the following criteria:

• the minimum engagement time threshold

• the session has two pageviews (screenviews) or has at least one conversion. 

By default, the minimum threshold is 10 seconds. However, if your business requires to adjust it, you can do it on the same page we mentioned above and use it to adjust the session timeout. 

Where to find session data in GA4?

Of course, using the tool daily is the best way to learn about GA4. Therefore, let’s look at a few reports where you can find sessions and session-related metrics in GA4.

One of the most essential reports for every business is acquisition. So “User acquisition” and “Traffic acquisition” reports include sessions metric. 

The first includes “engaged sessions” while the last includes “sessions” metric. 

Apart from these reports, you can also find sessions-related metrics in other standard GA4 reports such as:

• Landing Page report
• Demographic details report
• Tech details report

However, my analysis found that Google Analytics 4 standard reports are not the best option for looking at sessions. Therefore, I check these metrics in GA4 Explore. 

For instance, if you want to see how many visits or sessions you receive per day with the default channel breakdown, you can build a tabular view report in Google Analytics 4 Explore Free Form and check them daily. You can also consider using Google Looker Studio for the dashboards.

Other session-related metrics and events used in GA4

As mentioned in the article early, many session-based definitions exist in Google Analytics 4. Knowing them and applying them to your report will help you get a better business and user understanding. I collected them in one place for you. 

Final Word

Unlike Universal Analytics, Google Analytics 4 has a simple session definition. The session starts with “session_start” event and ends with 30 mins of user inactivity. 30 minutes is a standard setting that you can adjust in GA4 Admin section following the instructions mentioned above.

The session is considered an engaged session if one of the following conditions is true:

• the minimum engagement time threshold (10 seconds)
• the session has two pageviews (screenviews) or has at least one conversion. 

You can find session and engaged session metrics in multiple standard reports in GA4. However, if you want a complete view of GA4 sessions, I encourage you to build reports using GA4 Explore. 

That’s all about sessions. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to comment below. 

Frequently Asked Questions