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Is Google Analytics Free? (2024 Guide)

ByNina Clapperton Updated on

While there are many web analytics services available, Google Analytics is the most popular for one simple reason: it’s free!

Well…mostly.

You see, Google Analytics is a freemium product, which means that there is a free version with limited features and a premium version with more features (that you have to pay for).

So, what features does the free version of Google Analytics have? And is it enough for your needs? Let’s take a look.

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. It’s the most widely used web analytics service on the internet.

Google Analytics is important because it helps website owners understand how their site is being used, what kind of traffic they’re getting, and where their visitors are coming from.

To set it up, you simply add a piece of code to your website, and Google does the rest.

You can either do this manually in your header and footer code, or by using a plug-in like Rank Math or Yoast (which will also connect your Google Search Console and submit your sitemap).

This allows you to track every person who comes to your website.

Universal Analytics provided more detailed reporting, such as the time spent on your site, user demographics, and even what type of browser people used.

The newer G4 model is more limited as it collects less user data. However, it still tells you how many users are on your site daily.

Google Analytics is free for everyone, but there is also a premium version (Google Analytics 360) with more features that is meant for businesses.

The premium version is not free – and to be honest, most businesses and ALL bloggers don’t need the paid version.

Google analytics showing May 2022 50k sessions for my travel site

Is Google Analytics Free?

The short answer is: Yes, Google Analytics is free.

The long answer is: While the standard Google Analytics is free, there is also a premium version (Google Analytics 360) that has more features and costs money.

Most businesses and bloggers don’t need the paid version, however – the free version has plenty of features to get started with.

In fact, (as someone who has done a Google Analytics certification) I can tell you that 90% of the info on GA is irrelevant for most bloggers.

We don’t really need to set up event goals or track conversions of ads, because most of us just don’t run them.

Instead, what we really want to know are our pageviews, sessions, and most visited pages.

You probably don’t even check your demographics or behaviour tabs beyond that – and that’s totally normal.

The paid plan (GA 360) goes for $12,500 per month or $150,000 per year. It offers advanced analytics like attribution modeling, integration and data driven capabilities.

The free version is enough for small and medium sized businesses while the paid plan is suitable for bigger companies.There are 2 GA pricing plans: a free and paid version. The free version offers features like conversion reporting, advanced segmentation, customer reporting, real time visualization, flow visualization, and others.

The paid plan (GA 360) goes for $12,500 per month or $150,000 per year. It offers advanced analytics like attribution modeling, integration and data driven capabilities.

I have used both the free and the premium and I agree 99.9% of businesses do not need it. Even when I used it, I could tell you that the insight was the same 😉

Google Analytics Free vs. Paid

There are actually two versions of Google Analytics (I asked a bunch of bloggers and they’d never even heard of the 360 premium before).

So let’s look at the differences:

Standard Google Analytics Features

  • Real Time Data – See how many people are on your site right now and what pages they’re looking at
  • Audience Insights – Learn more about your audience, like their location, age, gender, interests, and behavior
  • Acquisition Reporting – See where your traffic is coming from, whether it’s from organic search, social media, or referrals
  • Custom Reporting – Create your own reports to track the metrics you care about most.
  • Advanced Segmentation – Niche your traffic by gender, interests, age, etc. to ensure you are targetting your ideal audience.
  • Flow Visualization – Track how users move through your website to see their journey and optimize it
  • Social Reporting – See which social media networks drive traffic to your site, and from where
  • Conversion Reporting – Track your customers’ movements through your site before the purchase of products or services to optimize your sales strategy.
  • Mobile Device & App Tracking – Sort traffic based on mobile only or app usage.
  • Video Performance Measurement – Understand and measure the impact of a video on your audience
  • Multi-Channel Reporting – Compiles your audience’s conversion reports to see the complete picture of what leads them to buy over time.
  • Integrates with AdWords, Google Search Console, AdSense, and DoubleClick AdExchange
  • Data Exporting – Free downloads of your data for easy sorting and tracking in Excel or Google Sheets.
  • API Tracking – Track how well your pages are performing and integrate with amazing tools like Query Hunter.
  • Goals Feature – Track specific goals like sales, newsletter signups, or downloads.
  • SEO Keyword Reports – Track which specific keywords are ranking and the traffic they bring. (Note: Most people do this in GSC instead).
  • Max Data Volume: 10 million per month
  • Max Data Rows: 50k
  • 5 Custom Variable Options to Track
  • 20 Custom Metrics and Dimensions for Tracking
  • 24+ Hours to Show Data
Google Analytics 360 Features homepage

Google Analytics 360 Features

All of the features above PLUS:

  • Max Data Volume: 500 million per month
  • 99% data accuracy
  • More advanced capabilities to track and customize data, with 50+ custom variables to choose from
  • Integrations with custom metric apps like DoubleClick Campaign Manager and Google BigQuery to better understand your audience and their journey through your site.
  • As little as 10 minutes to 4 hours to show data
  • Premium Support from Google Analytics Experts

How much is Google Analytics per month?

The pricing for Google Analytics is tiered, with the first tier being free and the second tier (Google Analytics 360) starting at $12,500 per month (or $150,000 per year).

Before you gawk at that price, let’s look at whether or not you actually need to pay for Google Analytics 360 every month.

Should You Pay for Google Analytics?

The short answer: no.

If you’re here, then you’re likely a blogger.

We have no business paying $150k a year for this product. It’s far more useful for massive companies looking to track large-scale sales and monitor customer data on a scale we can’t even fathom.

For 99% of businesses and bloggers on the web, Google Analytics 360 is simply unnecessary. We can do more than enough with the data reporting of Google Analytics.

However, with G4 offering less data to marketers and bloggers alike, there may be an opportunity for Google to create a mid-tiered product that would be something we should pay for.

As of August 2022, this isn’t the case and they have not announced any plans for this.

So stick with the free Google Analytics until your company is making at least $1 million. And by then, do you really need to spend 1/10th of that on tracking software? No.

Why You Need Google Analytics for Your Blog

Google Analytics is important because it’s the best free way to track your website traffic.

This is important for a few reasons:

1. You need to know how many people are coming to your site so you can gauge your growth.

2. You need to know where your traffic is coming from so you can focus your marketing efforts on the right channels.

3. You need to know what people are doing when they’re on your site so you can optimize your user experience.

4. You need to know how well your site is performing so you can make the necessary changes to improve it.

5. You need to be able to track all of this data over time so you can see the impact of your efforts and make long-term strategic decisions.

Google Analytics is the best free tool for doing all of this. It’s easy to set up, it’s accurate, and it provides a ton of data that you can actually use to improve your blog.

If you’re not using Google Analytics, you’re missing out on a lot of valuable data that could be used to grow your blog.

In fact, you NEED it in order to apply for any ad network, as it’s the way that the entire blogging industry determines your site’s value and user numbers.

How to Set Up Google Analytics

If you haven’t set up your Google Analytics already, it’s time to put down the coffee and get to work!

The good news is that it’s actually quite easy to set up Google Analytics, even if you’re not tech-savvy.

I’m going to walk you through the process step-by-step so you can get it done in no time.

1. Go to Google Analytics and create an account.

2. As of August 2022, you can still create a universal analytics account. While G4 is coming, it has less data AND you currently can’t get into Mediavine with G4. So instead, set up the UA type of account (it’s the same set up, and you can have both codes running at the same time on your site).

3. Follow the prompts to set up your account. You’ll need to provide some basic information about your website, such as the URL and name.

4. Once you’ve created your account, you’ll be given a tracking code. This is a snippet of code that you’ll need to add to your website so Google Analytics can start tracking your data.

5. Download Code Snippets (a free plug-in) to insert the code in your theme’s header and footer OR use Rank Math’s Analytics section to connect it to your GA account. (Note: DO NOT do both. This will break your tracking).

6. Send test traffic to your site. Go to your Admin area, tracking code, then press “send test traffic” to see if it’s working. It’ll show up as a real-time user on your dashboard.

And you’re done!

Once you’ve completed these steps, Google Analytics will start tracking your data and you’ll be able to see it all in your account.

You can access your account at any time by going to Google Analytics and logging in with the credentials you created when you set up your account.

Wrap Up: Is Google Analytics Free in 2022?

Yes! Google Analytics is a free tool that you can use to track your website traffic.

While there are some features that are only available with the paid version, the free version is more than sufficient for most bloggers and small businesses.

So if you’re not using it already, go set it up now!

This is 100% a vital step of setting up a new blog – and of tracking your SEO success.

Read More of My Best SEO Tips:

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Nina Clapperton is the founder of She Knows SEO.

She started blogging in 2018 and spent years doing everything “right” while earning $0. Then she stopped guessing and learned how search actually works. She rebuilt her travel site around audience intent and structure and grew to 50,000 sessions in 6 months. Within a year, the blog was bringing in $30,000 months and later crossed 243,000 pageviews.

She took the same audience first SEO approach and built her education business into multiple $100,000 months.

Now Nina teaches bloggers and online business owners how to build search powered businesses grounded in strong positioning, clear structure, and monetisation that actually supports their audience. She covers traditional SEO and AI driven search without the tech bro noise, and she’s known for explaining complex strategy with analogies you won’t forget.

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