What does Realtime show in GA4?
GA4's Realtime report shows the last 30 minutes of activity on your site. What it's good for, how it differs from standard reports, and why numbers don't match.
GA4's Realtime report shows what's happening on your site in the last 30 minutes: active users, pages, events and where people came from. It's perfect for checking that tracking works or watching a launch, but its numbers don't match the standard reports, which take hours to process.
What it shows
Reports → Realtime overview:
- Active users in the last 30 minutes (and the last 5)
- Users by source, page or screen, country
- Events and key events as they happen
What it's good for
- Checking tracking. Open your site and see yourself appear. How.
- Watching a launch. See the spike from a post or newsletter as it happens.
- Testing events. Sign up on your own site and watch
sign_uparrive.
Why it doesn't match other reports
Realtime counts the last 30 minutes as they come in. Standard reports are processed first (usually hours later) and can include visits that arrived late. Don't add up Realtime numbers to get a day's total.
In SimpleDash
Right now shows the same last-30-minutes data: a live count, the last number of the overview, and a click opens a globe with the places, the pages people are on (by page title, because that's what Google's realtime data has), devices and actions. It updates every 20 seconds while the page is open, and you can add it to your public stats page.
Sources
- Google: Realtime report
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