Why has the bounce rate disappeared in GA4?

The bounce rate has not disappeared from GA4, it is simply not shown in most standard reports by default. GA4 defines it differently from Universal Analytics: the bounce rate is the percentage of sessions that were not engaged, which makes it the exact opposite of the engagement rate. You can add both metrics to any detail report with a few clicks.

Anyone comparing old Universal Analytics figures with GA4 should know that the two bounce rates measure different things. In Universal Analytics, a bounce was a single-page session without an interaction, even if the visitor read the page for several minutes. In GA4, that same visit counts as engaged as soon as it lasts longer than 10 seconds.

How does GA4 calculate the bounce rate?

GA4 builds both engagement metrics on the engaged session. According to Google, a session is engaged if it meets at least one of these criteria:

• Duration. The session lasts longer than 10 seconds.
• Key event. The session contains at least one key event, for example a form submission you have marked as a key event.
• Page views. The session has 2 or more page or screen views.

The engagement rate is the share of engaged sessions. The bounce rate is the share of sessions that were not engaged. If 60 out of 100 sessions are engaged, the engagement rate is 60 percent and the bounce rate is 40 percent. Events such as first_visit and session_start do not count towards an engaged session, even if they are marked as key events.

How do I add the bounce rate to a report?

You need the Editor or Administrator role on the property. Metrics can only be added to detail reports, not to overview reports.

1. Open Reports and go to a detail report, for example Pages and screens or Traffic acquisition.
2. Click Customize report (the pencil icon) in the upper-right corner. If you do not see it, your role is not sufficient.
3. Under Report data, click Metrics, then Add metric. Search for “Bounce rate” and, if needed, “Engagement rate”.
4. Click Apply and save the changes to the current report. The new metrics appear as the last columns of the table.

In Explorations you can use the bounce rate at any time without changing a report. Simply add it as a metric in a free-form exploration.

Can I change when a session counts as engaged?

Yes, the 10-second threshold can be adjusted for web data streams. Go to Admin → Data streams, select your web stream and open Configure tag settings. Under Show all you will find Adjust session timeout, where you can set the timer for engaged sessions in seconds. The same screen also contains the session timeout itself, which is 30 minutes by default.

Change the timer only for a good reason and document the date. A higher value lowers the engagement rate and raises the bounce rate from that day on, so comparisons with earlier periods are no longer like for like.

Why is my bounce rate suddenly very high or very low?

• Missing tags. If pages are not tagged or the Google tag only loads after consent, sessions can be cut short or appear without engagement. Google recommends checking that all pages are tagged correctly when the problem affects the whole site.
• Too many key events. If an event that fires on almost every page, such as a scroll event, is marked as a key event, nearly every session counts as engaged and the bounce rate drops sharply.
• Single-page content. Blog posts or landing pages with a phone number often lead to short visits. Here the bounce rate says little; key events such as clicks on the phone number are more meaningful.

Add bounce rate and engagement rate to the reports you use most, look at them per channel and landing page, and only mark real business actions as key events. Do not compare GA4 bounce rates with old Universal Analytics values.

Sessions are counted differently in GA4 as well. Read more in our article on why GA4 counts different session numbers than Universal Analytics.

Sources

• Analytics Help: Engagement rate and bounce rate
• Analytics Help: About Analytics sessions
• Analytics Help: Comparing metrics between Google Analytics and Universal Analytics

Want to know which pages really lose visitors? We set up your GA4 reports and key events so that engagement figures can be used for decisions. Book a free intro call or read more about our tracking services.