---
title: "What is Active users in GA4? | Kodalogic"
description: "Active users are the distinct users who had an engaged session on a website or app during the selected period in Google Analytics 4."
url: https://kodalogic.com/glossary/active-users
---

[Glossary](/glossary)/Active users

Google Analytics 4 · Metric

# What is Active users?

Active users are the distinct users who had an engaged session on a website or app during the selected period in [Google Analytics 4](/glossary/ga4), or whose visit fired the first\_visit or engagement\_time event. It is the default user metric in every GA4 report, and the one most people mean when they say "users".

Total users8,420

Active users · 7,940

Active94%

Active users are the people who engaged, not everyone who loaded a page.

Data source

Google Analytics 4

Type

Metric

API field

[activeUsers](/reference/ga4-fields)

## Why it matters

GA4 has three user metrics: total users (anyone who fired any event), active users (anyone who engaged) and new users (first visit in the period). The interface shows active users by default, so a dashboard that says "users" without saying which one is comparing a number to itself.

## How to read it

Because active users excludes the click-and-close visits, it runs a little under total users on most sites; a big gap between the two is a sign of traffic that arrives and leaves. Users are deduplicated by the GA4 client or user ID, so the same person on two devices counts twice unless User-ID is set.

## In a Data Studio report

In a Data Studio (formerly [Looker Studio](/glossary/looker-studio)) report active users is the first scorecard of the overview, the line on the audience timeline, and the denominator of per-user metrics such as [event count](/glossary/event-count) per active user. Beside total users it tells whether the site is gaining people or gaining bounces.

## Where to find it in Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4: Reports, then Reports snapshot (the first card); the full breakdown under Engagement, then Overview, and User, then User attributes.

Shown in these dashboards

* [![Google Analytics 4 Dashboard for Data Studio dashboard](https://kodalogic.com/cdn/templates_images/0222_0WG5IECFKCHKAUTGY4O1AIO8L0YIM9D5_0000.webp)](/template/google-analytics-4-template-for-looker-studio)  
[Google Analytics 4 Dashboard for Data Studio](/template/google-analytics-4-template-for-looker-studio)$129
* [![Web & SEO Dashboard for Data Studio — GA4 + Search Console dashboard](https://kodalogic.com/cdn/templates_images/0234_OWGD0CDWC95GHLYIXC8I0K97PT5ZRQVE_0000.webp)](/template/web--seo-performance-dashboard)  
[Web & SEO Dashboard for Data Studio — GA4 + Search Console](/template/web--seo-performance-dashboard)$214
* [![GA4 + Google Ads Dashboard for Data Studio dashboard](https://kodalogic.com/cdn/templates_images/0531_BAM0ZAK8YRLTQ9O5W39RPBLKDSW1GBON_0000.png)](/template/ga4--google-ads-dashboard)  
[GA4 + Google Ads Dashboard for Data Studio](/template/ga4--google-ads-dashboard)$214
* [![All-in-One Marketing Dashboard for Data Studio dashboard](https://kodalogic.com/cdn/templates_images/0235_VE78OLDV9VA3KZRHCCPIEFB0MQ7ZW8Y7_0000.webp)](/template/all-in-one-dashboard-looker-studio-web-seo-ads)  
[All-in-One Marketing Dashboard for Data Studio](/template/all-in-one-dashboard-looker-studio-web-seo-ads)$289
[See the dashboards](/templates)

![Active users on the Web overview page of the Google Analytics 4 Dashboard for Data Studio](/informes/2026-09-02/google-analytics-4-template-for-looker-studio/01.webp)

First scorecard, labelled Total Users, with active users on the User interaction page.Page 1, Web overview, of the [Google Analytics 4 Dashboard for Data Studio](/template/google-analytics-4-template-for-looker-studio).[Open the live demo](https://lookerstudio.google.com/embed/reporting/fb97e8f9-0817-4b2b-9b0d-16cb50407e13/page/p%5Ffo1dxij6ld) to see it with real data.

## See it in a report

[Google Analytics 4 dashboard](/template/google-analytics-4-template-for-looker-studio)[GA4 fields reference](/reference/ga4-fields)

## Related terms

* [Looker Studio](/glossary/looker-studio)
* [GA4](/glossary/ga4)
* [Event count](/glossary/event-count)
* [Referral traffic](/glossary/referral-traffic)
* [Data stream](/glossary/data-stream)
* [Site search](/glossary/site-search)

[← Engaged sessions](/glossary/engaged-sessions)[All 49 terms](/glossary)[New vs returning users →](/glossary/new-vs-returning-users)