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How to Find Total Sessions in Google Analytics 4

Cody Schneider•

Trying to find the total number of sessions in Google Analytics 4 can feel like a game of hide-and-seek you didn't sign up for. In the old Universal Analytics, it was a headline metric you couldn't miss. In GA4, things have shifted. This guide will show you exactly where to find total sessions in GA4, how to build custom reports around it, and what this metric actually means now.

What is a "Session" in Google Analytics 4, Anyway?

Before we jump into finding the metric, it’s important to understand that a "session" in GA4 is slightly different from what you might be used to in Universal Analytics (UA). Understanding this difference is key to interpreting your data correctly.

In short, GA4 calculates sessions based on events. When a user first arrives on your site, GA4 automatically logs a session_start event. That user’s session is considered active until there's a 30-minute period of inactivity (you can adjust this timeout setting). Unlike the old analytics, a new day starting at midnight or the person arriving from a new campaign source will not automatically trigger a new session.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the core differences:

  • Universal Analytics (UA) Sessions: A new session would start if a user was inactive for 30 minutes, if the clock passed midnight, or if they came back to the site via a different traffic source (like switching from a Google search to a Facebook ad link).

  • Google Analytics 4 Sessions: A session starts with the session_start event and primarily ends after 30 minutes of inactivity. New campaign sources or midnight rollovers no longer create new sessions, which often results in slightly lower session counts in GA4 compared to UA.

This streamlined approach means GA4 sessions are a more accurate reflection of a single period of engagement from a user, without being inflated by technicalities like the time of day.

How to Find Total Sessions in Reports (The Quick Way)

For a fast, straightforward look at your total sessions, the standard "Reports" section in GA4 has you covered. The most common place to find this is in the Traffic Acquisition report.

Follow these simple steps:

  1. Log into your Google Analytics 4 property.

  2. On the left-hand navigation menu, click on Reports.

  3. Under the "Life cycle" collection, navigate to Acquisition > Traffic acquisition.

  4. You'll see a table of data broken down by "Session default channel group" (e.g., Organic Search, Direct, Paid Search). The Sessions metric will be one of the main columns in this table, giving you the total for each channel.

You can see the grand total of sessions for all channels by looking at the summary cards at the top of the report, or you can find totals in the summary row at the bottom of the data table. Don’t forget to adjust the date range in the top right corner to view the specific period you're interested in.

How to Build a Custom Report for Sessions in GA4 Explore

While standard reports are great for a quick overview, you’ll eventually want to slice and dice your session data in more specific ways. For this, you need to head over to the "Explore" section of GA4, which allows you to build custom reports from scratch.

Let's build a simple custom table showing sessions broken down by the specific pages users are landing on.

Step 1: Create a New Free Form Exploration

In the left-hand navigation, click Explore and select Blank from the "Create a new exploration" section. This gives you a clean slate to work on. Give your exploration a name, like "Sessions by Landing Page."

Step 2: Import Your Dimensions

Dimensions are the attributes you use to categorize your data - the "what," "where," or "how." In the "Variables" column on the left, click the (+): icon next to "Dimensions."

Use the search bar to find and import the dimensions you need. For this report, we'll want Landing page + query string. Check the box next to it and click the blue Import button in the top right. A few other useful dimensions you might want to bring in for analyzing sessions are:

  • Session default channel group

  • Device category

  • Country

Step 3: Import Your Metrics

Metrics are the quantitative measurements - the numbers you want to count. In the "Variables" column, click the (+): icon next to "Metrics." Search for Sessions, check the box, and click the Import button. You can also import other relevant metrics like Engaged sessions, Average engagement time, and Conversions to get more context.

Step 4: Build Your Report

Now you have all the building blocks ready. In the "Tab Settings" column, you just need to tell GA4 how to arrange them.

  • Drag your Landing page + query string dimension from the "Variables" column and drop it into the Rows or Columns box in "Tab Settings." For a simple vertical table, use Rows.

  • Drag your Sessions metric and drop it into the Values box.

The empty canvas on the right will instantly populate with a table showing your top landing pages and the number of sessions that started on each one. You can sort this table by clicking the column headers to find your most popular entry points.

Common Questions You Can Answer with Session Data

Simply finding the number of sessions is just the start. The real value comes from using that data to understand user behavior and marketing performance. Here are a few common questions you can answer using custom session reports in GA4 Explore:

Which marketing channels drive the most traffic?

Use Session default channel group as your dimension in Rows and Sessions as your metric in Values. This will quickly show you whether your valuable traffic is coming from SEO, paid ads, social media, or elsewhere.

Are we getting more mobile or desktop visitors?

Use Device category as your dimension. Seeing that 80% of your sessions are on mobile might tell you to double down on optimizing your mobile site experience or adjust your ad targeting.

From which country are most of our sessions coming?

Use Country as your dimension. This can help you identify new markets or confirm your targeting strategies are working as expected.

By swapping out different dimensions, you can transform a simple session count into a powerful diagnostic tool for your entire marketing strategy.

Final Thoughts

This article walked you through the updated definition of a session in GA4, showed you how to find the metric in standard reports, and provided a step-by-step guide to building custom analyses in the Explore section. With this foundational knowledge, you can now track traffic trends and measure the performance of your marketing efforts with confidence.

While GA4 is incredibly powerful, we know that building these reports and connecting the insights to other platforms like Shopify, Google Ads, or HubSpot can turn into a weekly cycle of manual data wrangling. We built Graphed to eliminate that friction. Instead of navigating GA4's interface, you can simply ask questions in plain English like, "show me a chart of total sessions by channel for the last month," and get a live, interactive dashboard in seconds. It connects your marketing and sales data in one place, so you can spend less time pulling reports and more time acting on insights.