---
title: "What is Sessions in GA4? | Kodalogic"
description: "A session is a group of interactions one user has with a website within a period of time; in Google Analytics 4 it starts with a session_start event and ends."
url: https://kodalogic.com/glossary/sessions
---

[Glossary](/glossary)/Sessions

Google Analytics 4 · Metric

# What is Sessions?

A session is a group of interactions one user has with a website within a period of time; in [Google Analytics 4](/glossary/ga4) it starts with a session\_start event and ends after 30 minutes of inactivity. Sessions count visits, not people: one user can have many sessions.

Users8,420

Sessions11,960

Engaged sessions7,530

One visit is one session; the same person can open several.

Data source

Google Analytics 4

Type

Metric

API field

[sessions](/reference/ga4-fields)

## Why it matters

It is the unit most reports are built on. Sessions per channel, per [landing page](/glossary/landing-page), per country, per day: almost every table in a web analytics dashboard has sessions as its first metric, because it answers "how many visits" before anything else.

## How to read it

GA4 does not start a new session at midnight or when the campaign source changes, both of which Universal Analytics did, so session counts are lower than the old ones for the same traffic. And because GA4 estimates sessions from the session\_id parameter, small differences against other tools are normal, not a bug.

## In a Data Studio report

In a Data Studio (formerly [Looker Studio](/glossary/looker-studio)) report sessions is the headline scorecard of the overview, the y-axis of the traffic timeline, and a column in every breakdown table. Read it next to total users: the ratio tells you how often the same people come back.

## Where to find it in Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4: Reports, then Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition (the Sessions column); the total under Reports snapshot.

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)

![Sessions 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)

Second scorecard, and the line of the timeline below it.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)
* [Landing page](/glossary/landing-page)
* [Referral traffic](/glossary/referral-traffic)
* [Data stream](/glossary/data-stream)
* [Site search](/glossary/site-search)

[← Unique keywords](/glossary/unique-keywords)[All 49 terms](/glossary)[Bounce rate →](/glossary/bounce-rate)