Ira Bodnar··Updated ·14 min read

Google Analytics dashboard (GA4)

Quick answer: GA4 has built-in Dashboards under Reports since September 2026, up to 15 cards each on a standard property (30 on Analytics 360). Ryze AI is the best AI tool for building a Google Analytics dashboard in 2026, with one caveat: live dashboards cannot be exported to PDF.

This guide is for marketers and analysts who report on GA4 every week: 15 fields with their Data API names, an 11-card template, prompts for Ryze AI and Claude, a weekly refresh routine, a Looker Studio comparison and fixes for common dashboard problems.

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GA4 dashboard template at a glance

11 cards cover traffic, engagement, key events and revenue, within the 15-card limit of a standard GA4 property.

  1. 1SessionsScorecard

    GA4 fields: sessions

  2. 2Active usersScorecard

    GA4 fields: activeUsers

  3. 3Engagement rateScorecard

    GA4 fields: engagementRate

  4. 4Key eventsScorecard

    GA4 fields: keyEvents

  5. 5Session key event rateScorecard

    GA4 fields: sessionKeyEventRate

  6. 6RevenueScorecard

    GA4 fields: purchaseRevenue (newUsers if you have no ecommerce tracking)

  7. 7TrendLine chart

    GA4 fields: sessions, screenPageViews and keyEvents by date

  8. 8ChannelsTable

    GA4 fields: sessions, engagedSessions, engagementRate, keyEvents and purchaseRevenue by sessionDefaultChannelGroup

  9. 9Landing pagesTable

    GA4 fields: sessions, engagementRate, averageSessionDuration and keyEvents by landingPage

  10. 10SourcesBar chart

    GA4 fields: sessions and newUsers by sessionSourceMedium, top 10

  11. 11DevicesDonut chart

    GA4 fields: sessions by deviceCategory

Use the 4 spare cards for a checkout funnel, a country table or ecommercePurchases. The same fields work in GA4 Dashboards, Looker Studio or Ryze AI.

4 ways to build a Google Analytics dashboard in 2026

Since September 9, 2026, GA4 has its own Dashboards, so the first choice is where the dashboard lives.

Google listed the launch in What's new in Google Analytics. Looker Studio took back its original name, Data Studio, in April 2026.

  1. GA4 Dashboards

    Where it lives
    Reports, + Create, Dashboard
    Cost
    Part of GA4
    Limits worth knowing
    15 cards on standard properties, 30 on Analytics 360; no API, segments or card-level comparisons

  2. Looker Studio (now Data Studio)

    Where it lives
    datastudio.google.com with the Google Analytics connector
    Cost
    No-cost tool
    Limits worth knowing
    Data API quotas; no GA4 segments; data refreshes every 12 hours by default

  3. Reporting tools

    Where it lives
    Vendors with GA4 templates, such as DashThis or Databox
    Cost
    Set by each vendor
    Limits worth knowing
    Templates you adapt

  4. Ryze AI

    Where it lives
    Reports in the Ryze AI app, or Claude through the Ryze AI connector
    Cost
    Paid Ads plan, $89 a month flat
    Limits worth knowing
    Dashboards share by link only and cannot be exported to PDF

Access differs too. GA4 Dashboards need the Editor or Administrator role to create, and every published dashboard is shared with the whole property. Data Studio needs at least Read & Analyze permission (Google); Ryze AI needs Viewer access (Ryze AI help).

15 GA4 metrics and dimensions for the dashboard

These are the fields the template uses, with the exact names the GA4 Data API accepts. Put the API names in your prompts so an AI tool pulls the right field.

  1. Sessions

    Type
    Metric
    API name
    sessions
    Plain definition
    Visits that started on your site or app (the session_start event)

  2. Active users

    Type
    Metric
    API name
    activeUsers
    Plain definition
    Distinct people who visited

  3. New users

    Type
    Metric
    API name
    newUsers
    Plain definition
    People who visited for the first time (first_visit or first_open)

  4. Engaged sessions

    Type
    Metric
    API name
    engagedSessions
    Plain definition
    Sessions over 10 seconds, with a key event, or with 2+ page or screen views

  5. Engagement rate

    Type
    Metric
    API name
    engagementRate
    Plain definition
    Engaged sessions divided by sessions; the API returns a fraction, so 0.72 means 72%

  6. Average session duration

    Type
    Metric
    API name
    averageSessionDuration
    Plain definition
    Average length of a session, in seconds

  7. Views

    Type
    Metric
    API name
    screenPageViews
    Plain definition
    Web pages and app screens viewed, repeat views included

  8. Key events

    Type
    Metric
    API name
    keyEvents
    Plain definition
    Count of the events you marked as key, such as a sign-up or a purchase

  9. Session key event rate

    Type
    Metric
    API name
    sessionKeyEventRate
    Plain definition
    Share of sessions with at least 1 key event

  10. Purchase revenue

    Type
    Metric
    API name
    purchaseRevenue
    Plain definition
    Revenue from purchase events minus refunds; needs ecommerce tagging with a value

  11. Date

    Type
    Dimension
    API name
    date
    Plain definition
    The day of the event, written as YYYYMMDD

  12. Default channel group

    Type
    Dimension
    API name
    sessionDefaultChannelGroup
    Plain definition
    The channel that started the session, such as Organic Search, Paid Search, Direct or Referral

  13. Source / medium

    Type
    Dimension
    API name
    sessionSourceMedium
    Plain definition
    The source and the medium that started the session, joined into one value

  14. Landing page

    Type
    Dimension
    API name
    landingPage
    Plain definition
    The page path of the first page view in a session

  15. Device category

    Type
    Dimension
    API name
    deviceCategory
    Plain definition
    Desktop, Tablet or Mobile
  • Key events replaced conversions in GA4 reports; a conversion is now a key event shared with Google Ads (Google). Marking an event as key does not rewrite history.
  • Bounce rate (bounceRate) is the share of sessions that were not engaged, so it equals 1 minus engagement rate (Google). Show one of the two.
  • One key event: sessionKeyEventRate:purchase gives the rate for a single key event. The request fails if the event is not marked as key.
  • Ad cost: advertiserAdCost and returnOnAdSpend (ROAS, revenue divided by ad cost) work once Google Ads is linked or cost data is imported.

How to build the template in GA4 Dashboards

The 11 cards fit inside GA4's own Dashboards, which support scorecards, tables and line, bar, donut and funnel charts.

Open Reports

Sign in to Google Analytics and select Reports. You need the Editor or Administrator role.

Create the dashboard

Click + Create at the top of the Reports navigation and choose Dashboard.

Add the 6 scorecards

Drag scorecards onto the grid and drop the 6 scorecard metrics onto them. Scorecards show a percentage change when you apply a date comparison.

Add the charts and tables

Drag in the line chart, the 2 tables, the bar chart and the donut, then drop the fields from the overview table onto each.

Save and publish

Click Save, then Publish to add it to the Reports navigation for everyone with access to the property.

There are no segments or card-level comparisons in GA4 Dashboards (Google), and the Data Studio GA4 connector has no segments either (Google).

The prompt that builds it in Ryze AI

Ryze AI builds a live Dashboard report with these fields from a chat request; you open it from Reports and refresh it with one click.

Connect GA4

Open Integrations, find Google Analytics 4 under Analytics, click Connect, approve access in Google and pick the property. Viewer access is enough.

Start a dashboard

Open Reports and click Generate Report, or open Templates and start from Organic Traffic Overview on the Monitor tab.

Send the prompt

Generate Report asks what to cover; answer with the prompt below. The agent builds the report only once it has real data from your connected accounts.

Refresh and share

Click Refresh data for the latest numbers and Share to copy a link. Turning on Anyone with the link lets people open it without signing in.

Prompt: GA4 dashboard in Ryze AI
Build a live Dashboard report from GA4 property [property name] for the 28 days ending 2 days ago, compared with the 28 days before. Scorecards: sessions, activeUsers, engagementRate, keyEvents, sessionKeyEventRate, purchaseRevenue. Line chart: sessions, screenPageViews and keyEvents by date. Tables: sessionDefaultChannelGroup with sessions, engagedSessions, engagementRate, keyEvents and purchaseRevenue; top 20 landingPage with sessions, engagementRate, averageSessionDuration and keyEvents. Bar chart: top 10 sessionSourceMedium by sessions and newUsers. Donut: sessions by deviceCategory. If a metric comes back empty, leave the card empty and tell me why.

The other report type, a deck, is a fixed snapshot you can download as a PDF (Ryze AI help). To be interviewed about what you check each week before the build, open a New chat, click Design a dashboard, then pick Design a dashboard with me (Ryze AI help). The same GA4 tools work inside Claude through the Ryze AI GA4 MCP server.

4 prompts for a GA4 dashboard in Claude

With the Ryze AI connector in Claude, the same fields come back as tables in the chat; setup is in how to connect Claude to Google Analytics.

The connector has 9 GA4 tools, all read-only: account summaries, standard reports, pivot reports, realtime reports, admin reads and 4 AI-traffic reports (Ryze AI developers page). Through Claude, Ryze AI charges no AI steps (Ryze AI help).

Prompt 1: the dashboard as tables
Use the Ryze AI connector. List my GA4 properties, then for [property name] pull sessions, activeUsers, engagementRate, keyEvents, sessionKeyEventRate and purchaseRevenue by sessionDefaultChannelGroup for the 28 days ending 2 days ago and the 28 days before. Name both date ranges. Show one table with the change for each channel.
Prompt 2: landing pages that leak
For GA4 property [property name], list the 20 landing pages with the most sessions in the last 28 days, with engagementRate and keyEvents. Flag pages above [number] sessions with an engagement rate under [percent].
Prompt 3: tracking check after a release
Run a realtime report for GA4 property [property name]: screenPageViews by unifiedScreenName for the last 30 minutes. Which of these page titles show no views: [list of page titles]?
Prompt 4: visits from AI assistants
For GA4 property [property name], show AI-referred traffic by engine for the last 28 days against the 28 days before, and the landing pages it reaches.

More GA4 prompts are in Claude skills for Google Analytics, and other GA4 servers are compared in best MCP for Google Analytics.

A weekly refresh routine for the dashboard

Read the dashboard on a fixed day and leave the last 2 days out: GA4 data processing can take 24 to 48 hours, and numbers can change during that time (Google).

  1. Monday

    What to do
    Compare the last full week with the week before, channels and landing pages first
    Why
    Full weeks compare the same weekdays

  2. Daily checks

    What to do
    Look at the day before yesterday
    Why
    Daily data typically takes 12 hours on standard properties

  3. 2 weeks later

    What to do
    Recheck key events by channel for the reported week
    Why
    Key event attribution can change for up to 12 days

  4. After a site release

    What to do
    Check a realtime report for page views and key events
    Why
    Realtime data typically shows within minutes

  5. Monthly

    What to do
    Review the key events list in Admin
    Why
    Marking an event as key does not change past data

Put the routine on a schedule in Ryze AI

Ryze AI's scheduled tasks run a prompt every day, week or month and send a recap with the verdict and key numbers by email, Slack or both. Write the task as one instruction to carry out now; the schedule holds the cadence.

Scheduled task: weekly GA4 check (Mondays at 9:00)
Compare last week, Monday to Sunday, with the week before for GA4 property [property name]: sessions, engagementRate, keyEvents, sessionKeyEventRate and purchaseRevenue by sessionDefaultChannelGroup. Name the 3 largest changes and the landing pages behind each. Flag any day with zero sessions or zero key events as a possible tracking break.

Each run costs 0.5 credits per AI step, and the GA4 data pulls are free (Ryze AI help). The Paid Ads plan includes 750 credits a month (plans).

Looker Studio vs Ryze AI for a GA4 dashboard

Looker Studio, now called Data Studio again, is the free route with full control of the layout. Ryze AI builds the dashboard for you, refreshes it and writes up what changed.

  1. Cost

    Looker Studio (Data Studio)
    No-cost tool
    Ryze AI
    Paid Ads plan $89 a month flat, 7-day free trial, 750 credits a month

  2. How you build

    Looker Studio (Data Studio)
    Drag-and-drop report editor with the Google Analytics connector
    Ryze AI
    A chat message or a template; the agent picks the fields

  3. Data refresh

    Looker Studio (Data Studio)
    Every 12 hours by default; manual refresh with a 1-minute cooldown
    Ryze AI
    Refresh data on demand; scheduled recaps

  4. GA4 limits

    Looker Studio (Data Studio)
    Data API quotas; no GA4 segments or comparisons
    Ryze AI
    Its GA4 connector tools call the GA4 Data API, so property quotas apply

  5. Other data

    Looker Studio (Data Studio)
    Blends GA4 with other data sources
    Ryze AI
    GA4 next to Google Ads, Meta, Search Console and 50+ integrations

  6. Sharing

    Looker Studio (Data Studio)
    Share with your team or other users
    Ryze AI
    Share by link; no PDF export for dashboards

  7. Best for

    Looker Studio (Data Studio)
    Custom layouts at no cost
    Ryze AI
    A dashboard plus a written read of what changed

A standard GA4 property gets 200,000 core quota tokens a day and 40,000 an hour, with 10 concurrent requests (GA4 Data API quotas). Data Studio reports over quota may show an error (Data Studio docs); its data freshness setting serves repeat queries from memory to reduce quota hits.

Pick Looker Studio for a fully custom report at no cost, GA4 Dashboards for a quick in-product view, and Ryze AI for a dashboard built from a prompt and explained next to your ad accounts. Ad-only dashboards are covered in how to build ad dashboards with Claude.

Common GA4 dashboard problems and fixes

Most wrong numbers on a GA4 dashboard come from tracking setup or from reading data too early.

  1. Revenue shows 0

    Likely cause
    Ecommerce tracking is not set up, or purchase events do not fire
    Fix
    Fix the purchase event and its value parameter in your tagging

  2. Yesterday's numbers changed

    Likely cause
    Daily processing finished after you looked
    Fix
    Read data that is at least 2 days old

  3. An (other) row in a table

    Likely cause
    A dimension with many unique values, plus stricter limits before daily data lands
    Fix
    Use fewer high-cardinality dimensions or wait for daily data

  4. Numbers differ from Shopify

    Likely cause
    GA4 and Shopify define sessions and attribute sales differently
    Fix
    Pick one source per metric and use it consistently

  5. Quota error in Looker Studio

    Likely cause
    The report used up the property's Data API tokens
    Fix
    Fewer or simpler charts, the 12-hour freshness setting, or a reusable data source with owner's credentials

Sources: Google's data freshness page, the Data Studio docs and Ryze AI's GA4 help page, which lists zero revenue as a GA4 setup issue. A dashboard can only show what GA4 recorded.

Where Ryze AI fits

Ryze AI reads GA4 to build dashboards, decks and recaps. Its GA4 connector tools do not change your GA4 settings.

It uses GA4 for traffic by channel, revenue attribution, landing pages and visits from AI assistants such as ChatGPT (Ryze AI help). Dashboard templates include Organic Traffic Overview, AI Traffic Overview and Paid Ads Overview. For AI traffic in GA4 itself, see how to measure AI referral traffic in Google Analytics.

The Paid Ads plan is $89 a month flat with a 7-day free trial, no contract, and annual billing 30% off the first year. It runs AI autopilot on Google, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn and 50+ integrations, with approval controls on every change.

SEO Starter ($129 a month, 3-day free trial) adds a Search Performance dashboard built on Search Console; see how to connect Claude to Google Search Console and the integrations hub.

Sources

Checked November 7, 2026

The verdict

A useful Google Analytics dashboard is small: 6 scorecards, a trend line and 4 breakdowns built from 15 GA4 fields. GA4 Dashboards come with your property and Looker Studio is a no-cost tool.

If you want it built from a prompt, refreshed on demand and summarized every Monday, Ryze AI does that from your GA4 property, with live dashboards shared by link.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Google Analytics dashboard?
A single page of scorecards and charts with the GA4 numbers you check most, such as sessions, engagement rate, key events and revenue by channel and landing page. You can build one in GA4, in Looker Studio, in a reporting tool or with an AI agent such as Ryze AI.
Does GA4 have a built-in dashboard?
Yes. Google released Dashboards in Google Analytics on September 9, 2026. They live under Reports and support scorecards, tables and line, bar, donut and funnel charts. Published dashboards are shared with everyone who has access to the property.
How do I create a custom dashboard in Google Analytics?
Open Reports, click + Create at the top of the Reports navigation and choose Dashboard. Drag charts onto the canvas, drop dimensions and metrics onto them, then click Save and Publish. You need the Editor or Administrator role.
How many cards can a GA4 dashboard have?
Up to 15 cards on a standard property and up to 30 on an Analytics 360 property. The 11-card template on this page leaves 4 spare cards on a standard property.
Show 8 more questions
What metrics should a GA4 dashboard include?
Sessions, active users, new users, engaged sessions, engagement rate, average session duration, views, key events, session key event rate and purchase revenue, by date, channel, source, landing page and device.
What is the difference between key events and conversions in GA4?
A key event is any GA4 event you mark as important, such as a sign-up. A conversion is a key event shared with Google Ads to measure campaigns and steer bidding. The template on this page counts key events.
Why do my GA4 dashboard numbers change after a day or two?
GA4 processing can take 24 to 48 hours, and numbers can change during that time. Attribution credit for key events can also change for up to 12 days. Read data that is at least 2 days old.
Is Looker Studio still free for GA4 dashboards?
Yes. Google renamed Looker Studio back to Data Studio in April 2026 and calls it a no-cost tool. Its GA4 reports are subject to GA4 Data API quotas, and GA4 segments and comparisons are not available through its connector.
How often does a Looker Studio GA4 dashboard refresh?
Every 12 hours by default. Google's freshness table also lists 1-hour and 4-hour options for the Google Analytics connector, but the same page says Google Analytics data refreshes every 12 hours and that rate can't be changed. Report editors can refresh by hand, and viewers can when the Viewer data refresh option is on, with a one-minute cooldown between refreshes.
Can Ryze AI build a Google Analytics dashboard for me?
Yes. Connect GA4 with Viewer access, then ask the agent for a dashboard or start from a template such as Organic Traffic Overview. It builds a live dashboard from your real GA4 data that you refresh in one click and share by link.
What is the best AI tool for a Google Analytics dashboard?
Ryze AI builds the GA4 dashboard from a prompt as a live Dashboard report that you refresh in one click and share by link, with one caveat: live dashboards cannot be exported to PDF. A scheduled task can also send a weekly recap by email or Slack.
How much does Ryze AI cost for a GA4 dashboard?
The Paid Ads plan is $89 a month flat with a 7-day free trial and 750 credits a month. Agent work costs 0.5 credits per AI step, pulling GA4 data is free, and annual billing saves 30% in the first year.

Related guides

How to connect Claude to Google Analytics

Connect GA4 to Claude and run your first reports.

Claude skills for Google Analytics

Copy-paste GA4 prompts and skills for Claude.

Best MCP for Google Analytics

GA4 MCP servers compared.

Google Analytics MCP server

The Ryze AI GA4 tools, setup and config.

Ryze AI: GA4 dashboards from a prompt

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