Overview

Understanding data freshness is important for effectively interpreting and using analytics reports in GA4. This guide provides an overview of data freshness intervals, property categories, limitations, and considerations relevant to standard GA4 properties or free GA4 properties.

What is Data Freshness?

• Data freshness refers to how recently collected data has been processed and made available for analysis within your GA4 property. It indicates the timeliness of information in your reports.
  • Freshness varies because data is processed at different intervals. For example, intraday data is updated throughout the day for quicker access to some of your data, while daily data is more complete (drawing on more data sources) and available once per day for data with longer processing times.
  • This may take 24-48 hours to process data. During that time, data in your reports may change.

👍

For additional details, you can refer to the official Google Support article on Analytics Data Processing.

Intervals of Data Freshness

Google Analytics 4 operates with distinct intervals of data freshness, each catering to different processing times and availability of data sources:

Realtime:

Realtime data provides immediate insights into user interactions as they occur, ideal for monitoring live campaigns or events.

• Typical Processing Time: Less than 1 minute
• Properties: Standard GA4
• Data Limits: None
• Query Coverage: Limited dimensions and metrics

Intraday:

Intraday data updates multiple times a day, offering insights into the previous day's activities quicker than daily data.

• Typical Processing Time: About 1 hour
• Properties: Standard GA4
• Data Limits: All reports and API queries, except specific cases
• Query Coverage: Comprehensive, updates throughout the day

Daily:

Daily data represents a comprehensive snapshot of activities within a 24-hour period, suitable for detailed analysis and reporting.

• Typical Processing Time: 24-48 hours
• Properties: Standard GA4
• Data Limits: All reports and API queries
• Query Coverage: Complete data from the entire day

Property Categories

Properties in GA4 are categorized based on the volume of events processed, influencing data processing times and feature availability:

• Normal: Less than 25 billion events.
• Large: 25 billion or more events.
• XLarge: 250 billion or more events.

Limitations

Data Sync:

• Differences may exist between data viewed in explorations and final reporting due to ongoing processing and updates.

Offline Events:

• GA4 accommodates offline events but excludes events arriving more than 72 hours after they were triggered.

Additional Information on Features with Non-Standard Data Processing

Certain GA4 features operate outside standard processing SLAs. These features may have varying processing times and availability, impacting their usability for timely insights and reporting.

• Realtime: Immediate, best effort
• Unsampled Exploration: Approximately 1 hour
• Conversions: 4-8 hours
• User-Lifetime Technique: 24 hours
• Insights, Expanded Data Sets: 24 hours
• BigQuery Daily Export: Available 24 hours after midnight in property timezone
• Data Import: Processing time ranges from 24 to 48 hours

🚧

Note:

For users of Google Analytics 360, who typically have direct support from Google representatives, specific SLAs and support mechanisms may differ. It's essential for GA4 users to consult the Analytics Data Processing article for comprehensive details on SLAs and data processing specifics.