This is the door to powerful reporting, automation, and customization. From the GA4 Data API to Admin and Metadata APIs, each serves a unique purpose for developers and marketers. In this blog, we’ll break down all GA4 APIs, their features and methods, and the key metrics and dimensions you can use to unlock deeper insights.

Dimensions:

Dimensions are attributes that describe your data, such as a user’s location (“City”) or the page they viewed (“Page Title”). You can examine "who" or "what" is interacting with your website or app by using them to contextualize quantitative measurements known as metrics (e.g., "device category").

Metrics:

A metric is a numerical value that quantifies data and assesses the features or performance of a digital product or website. Metrics are the “how much” or “how many” questions in your analytics, such as the total number of users.

Alpha:

Early, experimental, subject to major changes, not for production.

Beta:

More stable, feature-complete, still pre-production, potentially suitable for development and testing, or non-critical production with caution.

Main Types of GA4 API:

Google Analytics Data API

Google Analytics Admin API

Google Analytics Metadata API

Google Analytics Provisioning API

Google Analytics Real-time API

1. Google Analytics Data API:

The Google Analytics Data API provides programmatic access to report data from GA4 properties. This API enables users to automate reporting tasks, integrate GA4 data with other business applications, and create custom dashboards or reports using programming languages such as Python or JavaScript. When referring to API versions, you typically interact with the Google Analytics Data API v1. This is the current, stable version of the API used for programmatic access to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) data.

This API provides features in the Alpha and Beta channels. Alpha and Beta products may have limited support, and changes to those products may not be compatible with other Alpha and Beta versions.

Methods used:

These methods are used for fetching metrics, dimensions, and reports

runReport—Retrieves standard reports with selected metrics and dimensions

batchRunReports—Execute multiple report requests in a single API call

runpivotReport—Generate pivot-style reports for multi-dimensional analysis

batchRunOivitReports—Run multiple pivot reports in one request

checkCompatibility—Check whether the specified metrics and dimensions

properties.audienceExports—Export snapshots of users in specific audiences

properties.recurringAudienceLists (Early preview)—Manage recurring audience export

runFunnelReport (Early preview)—Create funnel analyses to track user journey steps

Important Feature

Programmatic Access to GA4 Data:

It enables the extraction of reporting data from GA4, including metrics like page views, users, events, and user properties.

Custom Dashboard and Report Creation:

It enables the integration of GA4 data with other pertinent business metrics to create customized reports and dashboards.

Authentication and Authorization:

Access to the Data API requires authentication through the Google Cloud Platform, typically involving setting up a Google Cloud project, enabling the API, and obtaining credentials like a service account key. For information on creating and integrating Google Cloud projects, visit our blog (link).

Quotas and Limits:

The API has specific quotas and limits for different request categories (Core, Realtime, Funnel) to manage usage.

Dimensions and Metrics you can use:

Common Metrics:

totalUsers—Total unique users

activeUsers—Users who engaged during the time period

newUsers—First-time visitors

engagedSessions—Session lasting longer than 10 seconds

userEngagementDuration—Total time users actively engaged with your site/app

engagementRate—% of engaged sessions

averageSessionDuration—Average time users spend per session

eventCount—Total number of events triggered

sessions—Total number of sessions

screenPageViews—Number of pages/screens viewed

totalRevenue—Sum of purchase + ad + subscription revenue

Purchase Revenue—Revenue from purchases

Common Dimensions:

User/Session—userId, userPseudoId, sessionId, sessionDefaultChannelGroup, sessionMedium, sessionSource

Traffic Source—source, medium, campaignId, campaignName, sessionCampaignId

Geography—country, region, city

Device/Tech—platform, device category, browser, operating System

Time—date, date, Hour, week, month

Event—eventName, eventDate, pagePath, pageTitle

E-commerce—itemName, itemBrand, itemCategory

All available metrics and dimensions are listed in the Google Analytics Data API metrics and dimensions.

2. Google Analytics Admin API:

The GA4 Admin API provides programmatic access to the configuration data within GA4 properties. It enables you to manage different parts of your GA4 setup without having to use the Google Analytics user interface manually. This API also provides features in the Alpha and Beta channels.

Methods Used:

runRealtimeReport—Retrieves live, real-time analytics data from your GA4 property covering events and usage data from the present moment up to 30 minutes ago.

Supportive core API methods

getMetadata—Fetches metadata on all available metrics and dimensions in the data API, including those usable in real-time reports.

checkCompatibility—Verifies if specific metric and dimension combinations are valid and compatible with one another.

You can refer to more methods in the Google Analytics Admin API Overview.

Important Features:

Account and Property Management:

Create, retrieve, update, and delete GA4 accounts and properties.

User and Access Management:

Manage user performance and access bindings for accounts and properties.

Data Stream Management:

Configure and manage data streams (e.g., web, iOS, Android) associated with your properties.

Configuration Settings:

Manage various configuration settings within your properties, such as data retention, key events, audiences, and custom definitions.

Reporting Data Automation:

Add, retrieve, update, and delete annotations directly within your Google Analytics reports.

Dimensions and Metrics You Can Use:

The Admin API is used to manage GA4 properties, accounts, users, and settings, and it doesn’t return standard “metrics” or “dimensions” like user count by country; instead, it deals with resources and fields. This focuses on configuration objects such as

Accounts and Properties—list accounts, get property details.

Custom Dimensions & Metrics—define new custom fields

User Links—manage permissions

Data Streams—web and app streams setup

Conversion Events—mark events as conversions

Audiences—create/manage audiences

Common Dimensions

date

hour

week

country

city

region

audienceName

UserID

Google Analytics Admin API Metrics and Dimensions contains additional metrics and dimensions that you can consult.

3. Google Analytics Metadata API

The GA4 Metadata API provides programmatic access to information about the dimensions and metrics available in the Google Analytics Data API.

Methods Used:

properties.getMetadata—Fetches metadata for dimensions and metrics available in GA4 Data API reports

Important Features:

Programmatic Access:

Enables automated retrieval of metadata through API calls

Detailed Attributes:

Provides comprehensive information for each dimension and metric, including descriptions, categories, and usage notes

Up-to-Date Information:

Ensures that applications can stay current with changes in the available dimensions and metrics without manual updates

Simplify Data Discovery:

It simplifies the process of understanding and utilizing the vast array of data points available within Google Analytics, saving developers time and effort compared with Google’s public documentation.

Dimensions and Metrics you can use:

The GA4 Metadata API provides all available metrics and dimensions of the GA4 Data API. At this link, Google Analytics API metrics and dimensions, you can examine every metric and dimension that is available.

4. Google Analytics Provisioning API

The Google Analytics Provisioning API is used mainly by service providers, SaaS platforms, and resellers who want to automate GA4 account setup for their users. It’s not something every GA4 user can access; it requires special approval from Google. This API is crucial for automating administrative tasks related to Google Analytics 4 properties.

These are also part of the Admin API workflow and support provisioning-like operations.

Methods Used:

accounts.provisionAccountTicket—Using this method, a ticket is requested to start the process of creating a new Google Analytics account.

properties.provisionSubproperty—This method creates a subproperty along with an associated event filter.

Important Features:

Creating and managing GA4 properties:

This includes creating new properties, updating existing property settings, and managing data streams (web or app).

Managing user access:

You can control user permissions and access levels to GA4 properties and data.

Configuring linking with other Google products:

This allows for programmatic linking of GA4 properties with services like Google Ads or Google Search Console.

Managing data settings:

You can configure data retention settings, data filters, and other data-related configurations.

Dimensions and Metrics you can use:

The GA4 Provisioning API is not a reporting API. It is an administration API that lets you create and manage Google Analytics accounts, properties, and user links programmatically.

This API does not expose metrics and dimensions (those belong to the Data API). Instead, this API provides methods for provisioning accounts and properties.

If you are looking for metrics and dimensions (like sessions, users, page views, country, etc.), you’ll find those only in the GA4 Data API (GA4 Reporting API).

5. Google Analytics Real-time API

The Realtime APi in GA4 is a part of the Google Analytics Data API v1 that allows programmatic access to near real-time data from your GA4 properties. It enables developers to retrieve event and usage data for the current moment and up to 30 minutes in the past (up to 60 minutes for GA 360 properties).

Methods used:

GA4 offers only one dedicated real-time Api method

properties.runRealtimeReport—This endpoint delivers event-level insights from the last 30 minutes (up to 60 minutes on GA4 360), letting you customize queries with dimensions, metrics, filters, and minute-by-minute ranges, and includes quota and aggregate stats in the full response.

Important Features:

Access to Live Data:

It provides a dynamic snapshot of current user activity on your website or app, including active users, events, and conversions as they happen.

Programmatic Access:

Unlike the Realtime report in the GA4 UI, the Realtime API allows you to integrate this live data into custom applications, dashboards, or other systems for specific use cases.

Integration:

Developers can use client libraries for various programming languages (e.g., Python, Java, Node.js) or make direct REST API calls to interact with the Realtime API.

Limitations:

While powerful, it offers a more limited set of dimensions and metrics compared to the Core Reporting functionality of the Data API v1. It primarily focuses on event and user-scoped dimensions and metrics.

Dimensions and Metrics you can use:

Common Metrics:

activeUsers

eventCount

keyEvents

ScreenPageViews

Common Dimensions:

appVersion

audienceName

city

country

deviceCategory

eventName

You can refer to other Dimensions and metrics in the Google official Document.

The Ultimate Guide to Google Analytics 4 API’s (Types, Methods, Features, & Metrics you can use)