Connect Google Analytics 4 to clariBI: a step-by-step guide
Connecting GA4 takes one Google sign-in and a few choices: which property, how much history and which report types. This guide walks through each step, explains what gets synced and why totals can differ slightly from the GA4 interface, and covers the errors you are most likely to see.
Google Analytics 4 is where most websites keep their traffic, engagement and conversion data. Connecting it to clariBI through the Google Analytics integration puts those numbers next to your revenue, ad spend and CRM data, and lets you ask about them in plain English. This guide covers the setup, what gets synced, how the data stays current and what to do when something goes wrong.
What you need
- A Google Analytics 4 property. Universal Analytics stopped processing data in 2023 (2024 for Analytics 360), and clariBI reads GA4 through Google's GA4 Data API only.
- A Google account with at least Viewer access to that property. You can check this in GA4 under Admin > Property access management.
- A free data source slot in your plan. Each GA4 property counts as one source. The Free plan and the Trial allow 3 sources, Lite 5, Starter 10, Professional 50 and Enterprise 100.
Step 1: open Add Data Source
Click Data Sources in the sidebar. This opens Settings > Integrations. Click Add Data Source, open the Apps category and choose Google Analytics.
Step 2: sign in with Google
Click Connect. A Google window opens. Pick the account that has access to the property and approve the request.
clariBI asks for read-only access to your Analytics data (the analytics.readonly scope). It cannot change your GA4 settings, delete data or touch other Google products through this connection. The token Google returns is encrypted before it is stored.
If the window closes without connecting, allow pop-ups for claribi.com. Ad blockers and strict privacy extensions sometimes block Google's sign-in page.
Step 3: name the source and pick the property
Back in clariBI, enter a Data Source Name (for example "Website GA4") and choose the property under Select Analytics Property. If you manage several, compare the property ID with the one shown in GA4 under Admin > Property details.
Step 4: choose how much history to import
Pick a Date Range for the first import: the last 30 days, 90 days, 6 months, 12 months, 2 years, or all available data.
More history helps with trends and seasonality (you need at least a year to compare a month with the same month last year). It also means a larger first import. Twelve months is a sensible default for most sites.
Step 5: choose report types (optional)
Click Customize report types if you want to sync only some of them. All are selected by default. GA4 data arrives as aggregated daily reports, not raw events, and each report type becomes its own dataset:
| Report type | One row per |
|---|---|
| Daily Overview | day, for the whole property: sessions, users, page views, engagement |
| Traffic Sources | session source, medium and campaign per day |
| Page Performance | page path per day |
| Landing Pages | landing page per day |
| Events | event name per day |
| Conversions | conversion event per day |
| Geography | country and city per day |
| Devices | device category, browser and operating system per day |
| Demographics | age bracket and gender per day (only with Google signals on) |
| User Acquisition | first-user source, medium and campaign per day |
Fewer report types means less data for the AI to read per question, which uses fewer AI credits. If you never look at demographics or geography, leave them out.
Click Create Data Source. The first sync runs in the background and you get a notification when it finishes.
What you get after the first sync
- An automatic dashboard for the source, built from the synced columns. This happens on every plan, including Free, and uses no AI credits. Find it under AI Dashboards.
- Questions in plain English on the Trial and on Starter and above, for example "Which channels brought the most engaged sessions in the last 30 days?" or "How do mobile and desktop compare on sessions and conversions this quarter?"
- Reports from marketing templates, downloadable as PDF.
- Goals tied to a GA4 number, such as monthly users, on every plan.
Totals such as "sessions last month" come from the Daily Overview report. clariBI keeps each question on one report type so the same sessions are not counted twice through different breakdowns, and it does not add up averages or rates, such as engagement rate, across days.
How the data stays current
There is no continuous stream. When the GA4 data is more than 24 hours old and a question, report or dashboard refresh needs it, clariBI fetches the recent days again and merges them into the history you already have. Your original date range is kept. To fetch right away, open the source in Settings > Integrations and click Sync Data.
GA4 itself can take 24 to 48 hours to finalize a day, so yesterday's numbers may still change slightly. Small differences from the GA4 interface for the last two days are normal. The real-time analytics post explains why daily data is enough for most decisions anyway.
Several properties
Connect each property as its own source. You can then compare them in one question ("Compare sessions on the shop and the blog last month") or put charts from both on one dashboard. Each property uses one data source slot.
Why numbers can differ from the GA4 interface
- Unfinished days, as above.
- Thresholding. When Google signals is on, GA4 can withhold rows in demographic reports to protect privacy, so those totals can be lower than the Daily Overview.
- Different report scopes. Session source (Traffic Sources) and first-user source (User Acquisition) answer different questions. Make sure you compare the same one.
- Date ranges and time zones. Compare exactly the same dates, in the property's time zone.
Troubleshooting
"No Analytics properties found". The Google account you signed in with has no access to a GA4 property. Check access in GA4 or sign in with a different account.
Syncs start failing after working for weeks. The access was revoked in the Google account, the person who connected it lost access to the property, or a password or security change revoked the token. Connect the property again, then delete the old source.
Quota errors on a large import. Google limits API requests per property per day. Sync fewer report types or a shorter date range and try again the next day.
The help article on GA4 and the sync failures guide cover these in more detail, and the Google integrations docs list the other Google products you can connect the same way.
What to connect next
GA4 answers "what happened on the site". It becomes more useful next to the systems that answer "what did it bring in": Stripe or Shopify for revenue, Google Ads or Meta Ads for spend, Search Console for the queries behind organic traffic. The multi-source dashboards guide shows how clariBI lines those up by date.
A good first question once the sync finishes: "Show sessions for the last 90 days by source and medium." If the totals match GA4 for a finished week, you can trust the connection and move on to the harder questions, such as a visit-to-purchase funnel.