Users – Who They Are and Why They Matter
GA4 offers a wide range of metrics, but today I’ll focus on the foundational metrics, along with the examples and interpretations — Users.
GA4 Users Categorized
- Active Users
- New Users
- Returning Users
- Total Users
Simple Explanations
Active Users
Users who had at least 1 engaged session within a specific time period are counted as active. It’s one of the primary metrics in GA4, as it filters the bot click, instant bounces and accidental clicks due to its engaged session condition.
New Users
Users visiting your website 1st time in a specific period of time are considered as new users. GA4 identifies users with a unique cookie, a user visiting again from a new device will also be counted as new.
Returning Users
The users who visited the website once but are visiting again are returning users. They are identified from the same device and browser cookie, if the cookie gets cleared or expired, it will count the user as new again.
Total Users
The total count of unique users who at least triggered 1 event on the website in the selected period. This includes both new and returning users but it’s not their sum due to GA4s duplication logic.
Now Let’s understand how do we interpret these metrics and derive insights —
Brand 1 – Automotive EV Scooter
The data is from a well-known electric scooter brand in India’s automotive industry.
| Month | New Users | New User % | Returning Users | Returning User % | Total Users | Active Users | Active User % |
| Jan | 138,544 | 83.27% | 50526 | 30.37% | 167877 | 166377 | 99.11% |
| Feb | 94799 | 80.74% | 37222 | 31.70% | 119041 | 117408 | 98.63% |
| Mar | 180968 | 85.73% | 60277 | 28.56% | 213588 | 211080 | 98.83% |
| Apr | 146771 | 81.58% | 57396 | 31.90% | 183480 | 179908 | 98.05% |
New User % Interpretation
New User % is consistently holding between 80–85% across all four months. This signals that acquisition efforts,organic visibility, branding campaigns, or both are stable and continuously bringing fresh audiences to the website.
Returning User % Interpretation
Returning User % sits consistently around 28–31% every month.
One in three visitors is coming back, and the consistency of this number suggests retention is neither growing nor declining, a signal that some baseline loyalty exists but retention strategies have room to grow.
ActiveUser % Interpretation
Active User % is at 98–99% across all months. Nearly every user who lands on the site is engaging, this is a strong traffic quality signal, meaning there is minimal bot or junk traffic in the mix.
Brand 2 – Baby Care Ecommerce
This data belongs to a 2–4 year-old baby care e-commerce brand with limited brand recognition and relatively low brand awareness in the market.
| Month | New Users | New User % | Returning Users | Returning User % | Total Users | Active Users | Active User % |
| Jan | 14545 | 74.59% | 6441 | 33.03% | 20548 | 19501 | 94.90% |
| Feb | 4306 | 65.85% | 2734 | 41.81% | 7142 | 6539 | 91.56% |
| Mar | 4023 | 69.02% | 2314 | 39.70% | 6294 | 5829 | 92.61% |
| Apr | 2714 | 70.94% | 1471 | 38.45% | 4052 | 3826 | 94.42% |
New User % Interpretation
New User % ranges between 65–74% and is inconsistent across months. Unlike Brand 1, acquisition here is not stable, the numbers are moving, which suggests traffic is not coming from a consistent source.
Returning User % Interpretation
Returning User % is higher than Brand 1, sitting between 33–41% and trending upward from Jan to Apr. More users are coming back relative to the automotive brand — which for ecommerce is a positive loyalty signal worth watching.
Active User % Interpretation
Active User % ranges between 91–94%, slightly lower than Brand 1. Traffic quality is still reasonable but the gap from 100% is wider, worth monitoring if paid campaigns are running, as low quality ad traffic typically shows up here first.
Why I Didn’t Use Total Users for Calculating New and Returning User %
New Users / Active Users × 100
Returning Users / Active Users × 100
Total users include all users who triggered at least one event, including passive users who may have only generated a pageview event. To better understand acquisition quality, we focused on Active Users, which includes users with at least one engaged session.
This tells from how many users who engaged with your website were new or returning.
What These Numbers Are Really Telling You
Same metrics, two completely different stories. That’s what GA4 is for, not reporting what happened, but understanding why.