---
title: "What is Source / medium in GA4? | Kodalogic"
description: "Source / medium is the pair of dimensions that describes where a session came from: the source is the site or platform (google, facebook."
url: https://kodalogic.com/glossary/source-medium
---

[Glossary](/glossary)/Source / medium

Google Analytics 4 · Dimension

# What is Source / medium?

Source / medium is the pair of dimensions that describes where a session came from: the source is the site or platform (google, facebook, newsletter) and the medium is the type of traffic (organic, cpc, referral, email). Together they are the raw material the [default channel group](/glossary/default-channel-group) is built from.

| Source / medium    | Sessions | Key events | Rate |
| ------------------ | -------- | ---------- | ---- |
| google / organic   | 6,940    | 198        | 2.9% |
| (direct) / (none)  | 2,510    | 61         | 2.4% |
| google / cpc       | 1,320    | 72         | 5.5% |
| newsletter / email | 480      | 31         | 6.5% |

Where the visit came from, and how: google / organic, newsletter / email.

Data source

Google Analytics 4

Type

Dimension

## Why it matters

Channels are a summary; source / medium is the detail. When Paid Search grows, source / medium says whether it was google / cpc or bing / cpc; when Referral spikes, it names the site.

## How to read it

For anything you control, the pair comes from UTM tags: utm\_source and utm\_medium. Keep them lowercase and consistent, because "Facebook / Social" and "facebook / social" are two rows to [GA4](/glossary/ga4). For organic and [referral traffic](/glossary/referral-traffic) GA4 fills them in itself.

## In a Data Studio report

In a Data Studio (formerly [Looker Studio](/glossary/looker-studio)) report source / medium is the drill-down table under the channel view, usually filtered to one channel at a time: the organic page lists the search engines, the paid page lists the ad platforms, each with [sessions](/glossary/sessions), [bounce rate](/glossary/bounce-rate) and [key events](/glossary/key-events).

## Where to find it in Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4: Reports, then Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition, switching the dimension to Session source / medium.

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)

![Source / medium on the Organic page of the Google Analytics 4 Dashboard for Data Studio](/informes/2026-09-02/google-analytics-4-template-for-looker-studio/10.webp)

Page 10, Organic, 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)
* [Referral traffic](/glossary/referral-traffic)
* [Sessions](/glossary/sessions)
* [Bounce rate](/glossary/bounce-rate)
* [Key events](/glossary/key-events)

[← Default channel group](/glossary/default-channel-group)[All 49 terms](/glossary)[Search intent →](/glossary/search-intent)