Total users vs Active users vs New users in Google Analytics 4

In Google Analytics 4, understanding your user metrics is key to measuring the success of your website or app. These metrics include Total, Active, New, and Returning users.

You’ve likely come across all these metrics while exploring your data in GA4, and if you’ve wondered, “What is the difference between Total users vs Active users vs New users?”, then this article is for you! Let’s take a look.

Total users

Total users include all visitors that have landed on your site, no matter how short their visit. Even if someone lands on your site, stays for a second, and leaves, that would still be included in the “Total users” (if, of course, the Google Analytics 4 tracking code had enough time to load).

Active users

Active users include all users who have had an engaged session or are in their first session.

An engaged session is when a user has stayed on the site for more than 10 seconds, has a key event, or has at least two page views or screen views (on mobile).

The 10-second mark can be modified (up to 60 seconds). You can change the session timeout by going to Admin > Data streams > Choose the data stream > Configure tag settings > Adjust session timeout.

A first session is defined differently based on the device the user accesses the site with:

• Web: GA4 captures the first_visit event, or GA4 collects the engagement_time_msec parameter.
• iOS app: GA4 captures the first_open event or user_engagement event.
• Android app: GA4 captures the first_open event, or GA4 collects the engagement_time_msec parameter.

Active users will be lower than the Total users count since all active users will be counted in the Total users, but only a subset of Total users will be included in Active users. Technically, Active users can be equal to Total users, but that’s a very rare case.

The Active users metric is more common in the GA4 built-in standard reports (although personally, I prefer the “Total users” metric) and is the default metric for funnels.

New users

New users will contain any users that have entered your site for the first time in that time period, triggering the auto-collected first_open or first_visit events. The event that GA4 collects will depend on the environment where the tracking happens (web or mobile app).

Returning users

Returning users are any users who have visited that site at least once before, regardless of whether they had an engaged session. Such users will definitely be included in the Total users count, but not necessarily in the Active users count (because maybe all the previous sessions were also not engaged).

Total users is lower than Returning + New users

This is a common mistake among Google Analytics beginners, and I wanted to address it.

You may have built a report that includes Total users, Returning users, and New users. But when you take a closer look at the numbers, they don’t add up. The sum of new and returning users is larger than the total number of users. Why?

The answer is that the same user/visitor might be included in both metrics. It can be both a “new” and a “returning” visitor at the same time.

For example, if, in the selected date range, the user lands on your site for the very first time but then returns the next day, that user would be considered both a new and returning user! So, the sum of returning and new users may be more than total users (and usually, that’s the expected result).

The same applies to the comparison of Active users, Returning users, and New users. Normally, Active users will be lower than the sum of Returning and New users.

Total users vs Active users vs New users: Final Thoughts

To sum things up, here is a brief overview of each of the different user metrics available in Google Analytics 4:

• Total users: All users who’ve landed on your site.
• Active users: Users who have had an engaged session or are in their first session.
• New users: Users who have visited your site for the first time.
• Returning users: Users who have visited your site before.

The same user can be both a new and a returning user, that’s why the sum of “New users” and “Returning users” is usually higher than “Total users”