This article is about website traffic; the same term also names systems that process streaming business data as it arrives, which is a data-engineering subject and not covered here.

In this article, we’ll explain when live data is useful (or not so useful), and what website metrics update as people visit your site, so you can monitor your launch. We’ll also show you how to read a GA4 Realtime report so you can make more informed B2B marketing decisions.

What real-time web analytics is

Real-time web analytics gives you a rolling picture of recent activity on your website. In GA4, the Realtime report covers the last 30 minutes. As new visitors arrive, their activity appears in the report, while activity older than 30 minutes drops out of view. The numbers keep changing, giving you a snapshot of what's happening on your site during that period.

The Realtime report is different from GA4’s standard reports. Standard reports use data processed after visitors have been on your site. They let you analyze performance across a date range of your choice and compare one period with another. There’s also full attribution data, so you can see where your traffic came from. If the Realtime report gives you a quicker view of recent activity, but with less detail, standard reports give you the wider picture when you need to judge performance across a longer period.

Live website analytics is one part of web analytics. It's useful for a few specific jobs, which we’ll talk about in the next section.

What real-time data is good for, and what it is not

Live data tells you whether something is happening. Standard reports tell you whether it worked. Here's when to watch the numbers as they change and when to wait for a fuller picture.

Live data can give you a distorted picture of campaign performance. At 30 minutes, the window is short. A handful of visits during that time can make a campaign look like a major success or a complete flop.

Agencies particularly need to know this distinction. When a client asks for live visitor numbers during a weekly call, explain that the Realtime report helps you check whether a launch is working as expected. If you want to see trends that inform decisions about future campaigns, use the weekly report or your web analytics dashboard.

Which website metrics update live, and which do not

Real-time website analytics gives you a selection of metrics you can monitor as visitors arrive. But GA4 doesn't update all its metrics in the Realtime report. You’ll need the standard reports to get the others. For full definitions, see our guide to the most important website metrics.

The Realtime overview includes first user source, which records where a user originally came from. Someone who first found your site through Google search may still appear under that source after clicking today's campaign email.

On sites with a consent banner, visitors who decline analytics cookies may be counted only partially, or excluded, depending on how consent mode is configured. As a result, your live visitor count may be lower than the number of people on your site. Our guide to cookieless website analytics explains this in more detail.

Google Analytics 4 has a Realtime report that lets you monitor website activity over the last 30 minutes. Google describes the report as a best-effort service, meaning it prioritizes delivering data quickly but doesn't guarantee it will arrive on time. For more on GA4 in general, see our guide to Google Analytics 4.

What the Realtime overview shows

The Realtime overview is what most people mean by the Google Analytics real-time dashboard. It includes several cards that show different aspects of recent website activity.

At the top, you'll see the number of active users in the last 30 minutes and the last five minutes. A bar chart breaks activity down minute by minute, making it easy to spot sudden increases or drops in traffic.

The other cards tell you more about those visitors. Active users by first user source shows where they originally came from, while Active or new users by audience tells you which of your defined audiences are visiting. Views by page title or screen name displays which content pages visitors are looking at. Event count by event name shows how often tracked actions have occurred, while Key events by event name focuses on actions you've marked as important, such as form submissions. Finally, Active users by user property groups visitors according to available user characteristics.

The Realtime pages report

This newer report focuses on the pages people are viewing on your website. It shows activity from the last 30 minutes, including views and active users for each page. A bar chart shows active users minute by minute, while a table breaks down activity by page. This makes the report useful during a website launch, when you want to see whether visitors are reaching your newly published pages. Google keeps this report fairly simple. You can't customize it or apply filters and comparisons.

How to open and read it

To see your Google Analytics real-time report, open GA4 and select Reports from the left-hand menu. Then choose Realtime overview or Realtime pages, depending on what you want to examine.

Once you’re there, here’s the order to carry out your checks: 

1.     Active users: Compare the current number with what you'd normally expect at the same hour on an ordinary day.

2.     Per-minute chart: Check for sudden increases or drops in visitor activity.

3.     Traffic sources: Use the source and campaign cards to investigate where visitors came from.

4.     Pages: See which pages visitors have viewed during the reporting window.

5.     Events and key events: Check whether the website actions you're monitoring have occurred.

 A quick way to get familiar with the report is to visit your own website and watch your activity appear in GA4.

What it cannot do

Google describes the Realtime report as a best-effort service, prioritizing timely data delivery without guaranteeing it. The report's attribution analysis is quite limited, so Google recommends using its Acquisition reports to see which sources genuinely deserve credit for your visits.

Each Realtime card displays a maximum of 700 rows. If there's more data, GA4 may group some of it under '(other)'. The Realtime pages report also has fixed settings, with no options to apply filters or comparisons.

Google Analytics Realtime only covers activity from the last 30 minutes. It shows which users have been active, which pages they've viewed, and where they came from. You can also see the events they've triggered. All of this can be useful information, but the report cannot identify the companies behind those visits.

How to watch a launch or campaign as it happens

When you launch a campaign or publish new pages, the GA4 Realtime reports can help you spot problems while there's still time to fix them. Here's how to use them throughout the process. 

1. Before the launch

Add utm parameters to your campaign links so you can recognize the campaign by name in GA4. Note how many active users your website typically gets at the same hour on an ordinary day for reference.

2. Test the reporting

Visit your launch pages yourself and trigger a key event like submitting a form or visiting a demo page. Check that both your visit and the event appear in GA4. If nothing shows up, investigate the tracking setup before your campaign starts. See how to monitor website traffic for GA4 setup and tag checks.

3. During the launch

Keep the Realtime overview open, alongside the Realtime pages report for the pages you're promoting. Watch for problems you can fix. If your campaign doesn't appear, check the tagged link. If visitors reach your form page but no key events appear, test the form. And if traffic lands on the wrong page, check the link or redirect. Avoid judging the campaign by the visitor count in its first few minutes.

4. After the launch

Close the Realtime reports once you've finished your checks. When the standard reports contain the full data, compare the results with the equivalent period before the launch. Use that comparison to evaluate campaign performance.

Which kinds of tools show live data

General web analytics tools, which include GA4, offer live views alongside their standard reports. Lightweight website analytics tools often give you a live dashboard as their main screen, emphasizing simplicity or privacy. Product and behavior analytics tools also offer live event views, which are particularly useful for checking whether specific user actions are being recorded correctly, such as clicking a button or completing a form. Systems that data teams build to process streaming business data serve a different purpose, focusing on information beyond website activity. For a closer comparison of the options available, see our guide to website analytics tools.

Which companies are behind the visits

GA4's Realtime report tells you how many users are active on your website, which pages they're viewing, where they came from, and some of the events they trigger. But for B2B marketers, there's another question worth asking after a campaign: which of the companies you targeted actually visited your site? You can investigate this after the campaign has finished, when you're reviewing its results. Company-level identification helps answer that question by matching a visitor's IP address to the organization behind it. This approach can identify anonymous website visitors at company level, without identifying individual people.

Web Visitors is visitor identification software by Leadfeeder that shows you the names of the companies visiting your site. Web Visitors can also send email or Slack alerts when specific companies visit, including those you've targeted in a campaign. After installing the tracker, give it at least an hour before you expect to see companies appearing. The figures will differ from GA4 because GA4 counts users and Leadfeeder counts companies. To get started, install the Leadfeeder tracker and set up an email or Slack alert for the companies on your campaign list.