User
AnalyticsAlso: Website User · GA4 User · Active User
Quick definition
In analytics, a user is an individual visitor to your website or app. In GA4, the default 'Users' metric specifically means Active Users — people who had at least one engaged session in the reporting period.
Where it shows up in the data
What it actually means
A user is the individual person behind a visit to your website or app, as distinct from sessions (which can be multiple per person) or pageviews (which can be multiple per session). Analytics platforms use various methods to count users — most commonly cookies for anonymous visitors and User IDs for authenticated ones. GA4 changed the default user metric from Total Users (anyone who generated a hit) to Active Users (anyone who had at least one engaged session). This means GA4 user numbers are typically lower than the same period in Universal Analytics, even for identical traffic. The shift reflects a focus on genuine engagement rather than technical presence.
GA4's switch to active users made everyone's numbers look smaller. The traffic didn't change — the definition did.
The Australian context
Australian digital businesses migrating from Universal Analytics to GA4 commonly see a 20-40% reduction in reported user counts due to the active user definition change. This is normal and expected — it doesn't indicate a traffic drop. GA4 comparisons to historical UA data require adjustment for methodological differences.
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About New Rebellion
New Rebellion is a marketing intelligence consultancy. We build tools, score Australian businesses on how their marketing actually performs, and publish Debrief every day. This dictionary is part of how we work in the open.
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