[GA4] Data freshness

Data freshness describes how recently data has been collected, processed, and reported in your property. For example, if processing takes 20 minutes, then the data freshness is 20 minutes.

Freshness varies because data is processed at different intervals. For example, intraday data is updated throughout the day, providing quicker access to some of your data. Meanwhile, Daily data, which draws on more data sources, is more complete but is available only once per day due to longer processing times.

Data processing can take 24-48 hours. During that time, data in your reports may change.

Data freshness intervals

Google Analytics has the following typical intervals of data freshness for Google Analytics 360 and standard properties:

About the intervals

Data is processed daily in intervals: realtime, intraday, and daily. These intervals provide faster access to some of your data as it becomes available.

Realtime

Realtime data is the most up-to-date data set, which allows you to monitor activity as it happens, but it covers fewer features than other intervals.

Intraday

Intraday data provides some data from the previous day, refreshing multiple times throughout the day so you can quickly access data from the previous day. For 360 properties, intraday data is continuous. It's typically available before daily data in reports and API queries. When the intraday data is available before the daily data, you can expect the following:

• Temporary gaps in some event-scoped traffic source dimensions, such as source, medium, campaign, and default channel group. These temporary gaps can happen due to delays in receiving data for example from third-party conversion sources.
• If event-scoped traffic source dimensions are available, the Paid and organic last click attribution model is used by default until the daily data is available.
• Stricter cardinality limits may be applied until the daily data is available. As a result, you're more likely to experience the "(other)" row during this period if your property has high-cardinality dimensions.

Daily

Daily data represents all the data for a day. If your report uses daily data, you can expect the following:

• The attribution model selected for the property will be used if event-scoped traffic source dimensions are made available.
• Attribution credit for key events can change for up to 12 days after the key event is recorded, as Google Analytics' key event modeling improves.

Prior day data processing timeline

The following table lists when data is typically available* in the property’s timezone for the prior day for most properties. Actual processing times can vary.

Property categories

Properties are categorized based on the number of events collected and processed. A property can be categorized as:

• "Normal" if the property has collected and processed fewer than 25 billion events
• "Large" if the property has collected and processed 25 billion or more events
• "XLarge" if the property has collected and processed 250 billion or more events

These measurements are taken from the previous 31-day period, excluding the current day in the property's timezone.

Limitations

Data may not be synchronized between Explorations and Reporting.

Offline events

When a user's device goes offline, Google Analytics stores event data on their device and sends the data once their device reconnects. For instance, the user loses their internet connection while browsing your mobile app. Google Analytics ignores events that arrive more than 72 hours after the events are triggered.