---
title: "What is GA4 (Google Analytics 4)? | Kodalogic"
description: "GA4 is the current generation of Google Analytics, built on an event model: every interaction, a page view, a click, a purchase, is an event with parameters."
url: https://kodalogic.com/glossary/ga4
---

[Glossary](/glossary)/GA4 (Google Analytics 4)

Google Analytics 4 · Platform

# What is GA4 (Google Analytics 4)?

GA4 is the current generation of Google Analytics, built on an event model: every interaction, a page view, a click, a purchase, is an event with parameters. It replaced Universal Analytics, which stopped processing data in July 2023.

1. Your website
2. GA4 property
3. Report
4. Team

Events in, sessions and users out.

GA4 measures events; a report arranges them into answers.

Data source

Google Analytics 4

Type

Platform

## Why it matters

GA4’s own interface reports by event and audience; most teams reshape it into dashboards because day-to-day questions (which pages, which channels, which campaigns) sit across several of its default screens.

## How to read it

In practice the migration changed the vocabulary of reporting: [sessions](/glossary/sessions) are counted differently than in Universal Analytics, [engagement rate](/glossary/engagement-rate) replaced [bounce rate](/glossary/bounce-rate), and conversions became [key events](/glossary/key-events). Comparing GA4 numbers against pre-2023 Universal Analytics data is the classic mistake: the definitions differ, so the series are not comparable. Its free tier samples nothing for standard reports, though explorations can sample on large properties: worth knowing before quoting numbers from them.

## In a Data Studio report

In Data Studio (formerly [Looker Studio](/glossary/looker-studio)), GA4 connects natively, and dashboards typically surface sessions, engagement, conversions and channel breakdowns that would otherwise sit across several GA4 screens. Templates matter here because GA4's own interface is the part most teams find hardest: the dashboard translates the event model back into questions marketers actually ask.

## Where to find it in Google Analytics 4

analytics.google.com, then the property selector at the top left; every report lives under Reports in the left rail.

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
[See the dashboard](/template/google-analytics-4-template-for-looker-studio)

![GA4 (Google Analytics 4) 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)

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

[GA4 dashboard template](/template/google-analytics-4-template-for-looker-studio)[GA4 demo account guide](/blog/google-analytics-demo-account)

## Related terms

* [Looker Studio](/glossary/looker-studio)
* [Engagement rate](/glossary/engagement-rate)
* [Sessions](/glossary/sessions)
* [Bounce rate](/glossary/bounce-rate)
* [Key events](/glossary/key-events)
* [Referral traffic](/glossary/referral-traffic)

[← Smart Interpretations](/glossary/smart-interpretations)[All 49 terms](/glossary)[ROAS →](/glossary/roas)