GA4 (Google Analytics 4)
The current version of Google Analytics — event-based, privacy-aware, BigQuery-native.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the current version of Google's free analytics platform, replacing Universal Analytics in July 2023. GA4 is built around an event-based data model (every interaction is an event with parameters), offers native BigQuery export, and includes data-driven attribution as the default.
Context
GA4 adoption has been painful for many organizations because the UI and reporting patterns differ substantially from Universal Analytics. The data model change (from sessions to events) required rebuilding most custom reports.
The free tier has event-count limits; high-traffic sites hit them and fall back to sampled data. Most enterprise implementations end up exporting to BigQuery for unsampled analysis.
A clean GA4 implementation captures 8 core events: page_view, click_cta, form_submit, scroll_depth_75, video_play, file_download, signup, purchase — each with three standard parameters: page_type, section, item_name.
GA4's data retention defaults to 2 months. Most users don't realize this and lose historical data that can't be recovered. Extending to 14 months is free but must be set manually at account setup.