Do you want even more flexibility with your Analytics data? Export your data to BigQuery to glean new business insights and combine your data with other, separate data sets.

Retain GA4 data with BigQuery

For all Google Analytics 4 properties, the default retention time for data (including conversions) is 14 months. As for any other types of data related to events, you can choose the event data retention length. There are two default data retention settings you can pick: 2 months or 14 months.

Unsampled raw events and user-level data are only available in GA4 through the Exploratory Reports, however, they are subject to data sampling.

Two months is the retention period that is automatically applied to age, gender, and interest data. This retention period is applied to custom reports, otherwise known as Explorations. For other data types, you can go beyond that threshold.

Time period for data retention

For both basic and GA 360 accounts, set to the desired maximum of 14 months.

For privacy reasons, there is typically little basis for retention beyond 14 months in most organizations. The data retention policies of your firm, however, should guide your choice. Make sure the justification for going beyond 14 months is recorded to ensure compliance.

Depending on their data retention settings during set-up, businesses will not have access to user-specific data for inactive website users in GA4 every 2 or 14 months. Connect your GA4 property to BigQuery now and begin gathering GA4 data to prevent data loss.

What is BigQuery?

BigQuery is a serverless, cost-effective, multi-cloud data warehouse designed to help you manage and analyze data with built-in features like machine learning, geospatial analysis, and business intelligence.

BigQuery lets you run SQL queries to answer your organization's biggest questions with zero infrastructure management.

BigQuery's scalable, distributed analysis engine lets you query large sets of data to help you turn big data into valuable business insights.

Export Analytics data to BigQuery

Export raw events from Google Analytics 4 (GA4) properties to BigQuery, then choose whether to export data to external storage or import external data and combine it with Analytics data.

When exporting data to BigQuery, you can use settings in BigQuery to manage permissions on projects and data sets. And when configuring a BigQuery export in Analytics, you can choose the location where you'd like data to be stored.

Use data to answer business questions

With raw Analytics data in BigQuery, you can add additional business data and answer questions based on the combined data set. For example, use SQL to query data to answer questions and gain insights about products, users, channels, regions, and more.

How often is data exported to BigQuery?

Daily

A full export of data takes place once a day.

Streaming

Data is exported continuously throughout the day. Note: Some data isn't included right away, like user-attribution data that may require more than 24 hours to fully process.

Do you know?

You can choose the geographic location where your data is stored when it's exported from Google Analytics to BigQuery.

Conclusion

Previously, Google Analytics export to BigQuery was available only to enterprise Analytics 360 properties with Universal Analytics.

With Google Analytics 4, BigQuery export is available for both standard properties and Analytics 360 properties. Find the data limits for each property type in the Help Center.

If you're using a Universal Analytics property, learn how to move over to GA4 in the Help Center.