I run a small tea shop online. I use Google Analytics every day. GA4, not the old one. And you know what? “Users” and “Sessions” still trip people up. They did for me too.
Here’s the thing. Users are people. Sessions are visits. Simple idea. Messy in real life — and if you want a crisp chart-heavy primer, check out this walkthrough.
If you need the long version, I wrote a separate, blow-by-blow comparison of the two metrics right here.
My setup (so you know I’m not guessing)
- GA4 on my Shopify store and blog
- Google Tag Manager for events — and I actually put GA and GTM head-to-head in this experiment
- User-ID when folks sign in (loyalty members)
- I peek at two reports a lot: User acquisition and Traffic acquisition
I’ll explain why those two matter in a bit.
The morning I yelled at my screen
One Friday, I sent a “Matcha Friday” email at 8:00 a.m.
At 8:05, I saw:
- Users: 1,247
- Sessions: 1,864
I thought, huh? Did GA double count? Nope. People clicked the email at work, browsed, left, then hit Instagram later and came back. Same person, new visit. So, one user, two sessions. Makes sense if you think about habits. We all do that. We sample, leave, return.
Also, those two reports told two different stories:
- User acquisition said Email brought the most new people.
- Traffic acquisition said Instagram had more sessions.
Was one wrong? Not really. The user report looks at who brought the person the first time. The traffic report looks at who brought the visit. Those are not the same thing.
The 30-minute rule bit me
I had another odd day. A customer read my oolong guide at 11:50 a.m., went to a meeting, came back at 12:35 p.m., and bought a gift set.
GA4 showed two sessions. Why? The 30-minute timeout. If someone leaves for more than 30 minutes, a new session starts. Same user; two visits. That purchase was in the second session.
Tiny note: in GA4, crossing midnight alone doesn’t break a session. A break in activity does. This was news to me. I used to think midnight always split things. Not here.
Two devices, two “people”… until I fixed it
Before I set up User-ID, I saw this a lot:
- A person browsed on phone at lunch.
- That night, they bought on laptop.
GA counted two users. My user count felt bloated. After I added User-ID for signed-in folks (I used this clear setup guide to get it done), repeat buyers looked like one person across devices. My “Users vs Sessions” gap changed:
- Before User-ID: Users were only 9% lower than Sessions (weirdly close).
- After User-ID: Users dropped to 22% lower than Sessions (more real, because visits stack up).
That felt more honest. Visits are many; people are fewer. For an even deeper dive into how engagement differs between enterprise users and visits, I like the breakdown charts over at Scout Analytics—and their eye-opening case study comparing Adobe Analytics 360 with GA 360 here—because they make the gaps impossible to ignore.
Campaign tag switch = new session
Another fun one. I clicked my own email, then five minutes later, I tapped a Story link with UTM tags. GA4 started a new session right there. Why? A new campaign tag often triggers a new session. Same person, new visit. Fast.
So my Tuesday sale looked like this:
- Users: 3,012
- Sessions: 4,905
- Email sessions: 1,940
- Instagram sessions: 1,210
- But user acquisition still crowned Email for “first touch”
Was Instagram bad? No. It just brought a lot of returns.
When I pick Users vs Sessions
- I use Users when I care about reach, loyalty, and people. New customers. Returning shoppers. “Did we grow?”
- I use Sessions when I care about touchpoints. Landing page tests. Ad pacing. “Did we get enough visits to test that headline?”
If I’m sharing one number with the team? I’ll ask, are we talking people or visits? I don’t want a number that sounds big but hides the truth. (My friends running Adobe instead of GA ask the same question—this side-by-side nails the nuances here.)
Little gotchas that made me sigh
- Cookie consent banners: If folks reject tracking, fewer users show up. Sessions drop too. It varies by region.
- Safari and ad blockers: Some sessions vanish. I still plan with a margin.
- Direct traffic: Sessions with “Direct” can be a black hole. If campaign tags break, traffic lands there.
- Bot filtering: Helps, but not perfect. I once saw “0 sec sessions” spike from a shady referrer. I blocked it.
Mini experiments I ran
- Weekend sale, email vs search
- Users: 5,488
- Sessions: 8,071
- Email: 2,340 sessions; 1,420 new users
- Organic search: 1,905 sessions; 980 new users
Takeaway: Email pushed quick returns. Search brought more first-time folks than I guessed.
- Blog marathon day
- I posted three tea guides in a week.
- Sessions jumped 31%
- Users rose 18%
- Average engagement time per session: up 22%
Takeaway: Guides pull repeat visits. They sip, pause, sip again. Like tea.
- Device stitch test
- Before User-ID: returning users 17%
- After User-ID: returning users 24%
Takeaway: People were always returning. GA just couldn’t match them.
- High-churn dating traffic
If you want to see an extreme case where sessions skyrocket past users—picture a hookup site where members pop in dozens of times per night—take a peek at Instabang’s live analytics snapshot. The live charts there underline how volatile, short-burst sessions can distort averages and offer practical ideas for segmenting high-frequency traffic in GA4.
For a more localized spin on the same pattern, the Casselberry, FL listing on RubMaps shows a similar surge-and-return behavior in real time — scrolling through its constant stream of check-ins and reviews makes it clear how a tight geographic niche can rack up far more sessions than unique visitors, a useful reminder to adjust GA4 segments when you’re analyzing micro-local or repeat-heavy audiences.
How I read those two GA4 reports without getting grumpy
- User acquisition: “Who brought the person the first time?” Great for growth channels and welcome flows.
- Traffic acquisition: “Who brought the visit right now?” Perfect for ad checks, promos, and landing page tweaks.
If those two don’t match, it’s not an error. It’s a story.
Quick tips that actually helped
- Tag every campaign. Even Stories. Even SMS. Saves headaches.
- Watch the 30-minute timeout on long videos or recipes. Consider events that keep sessions “engaged.”
- Use DebugView when testing links. I do it on my phone while I sip chai.
- If you can, turn on User-ID for sign-ins. It’s worth the setup time.
- Want an open-source spin? PostHog behaves differently around sessions; this teardown vs GA is a good primer here.
My verdict
Users tell me how many people I reached. Sessions tell me how many visits I earned. I need both. I wouldn’t pick one. That’d be like brewing tea with no cup, or a cup with no tea. Silly, right?
So now, when someone asks, “Why are sessions higher than users?” I smile. People come back. They switch apps. They pop in and out. Life is messy. GA4, in its own fussy way, shows that.
And honestly? Once you see the pattern, the data feels human.