Learn the Difference: Total, Active, New & Returning Users in GA4

💡 The most accurate definitions of Total, Active, New and Returning users in GA4. So now you know the difference within seconds.👇

GA4 User - A GA4 user can be a user ID, client ID, app Instance ID, user who turned on Ads Personalization and/or modelled user.

GA4 Total Users - It represents the overall number of unique User IDs, Device IDs, users who have turned on Ads Personalization and/or modelled users who have triggered any event on your website or app within the specified date range.

GA4 Active Users - Users who, within the specified date range, either triggered an engaged session, are considered new users, or triggered an event with the 'engagement_time_msec' parameter.

GA4 New Users - Users who don't have a pre-existing GA4 cookie ('_ga') on their device or app within the specified date range.

GA4 Returning Users - Users who do have a pre-existing GA4 cookie ('_ga') on their device or app within the specified date range.

The classification of a user as "new" or "returning" is dependent on the date range of the report.

This dual classification means:

1) New users can also be reported as returning users and vice versa.

2) The sum of new users and returning users can exceed the total number of users in a given date range.