GA4 Path Exploration: How to Set It Up and Read It
A path exploration draws the pages, screens and events people went through after a starting point, or before an ending point such as a form submission. This guide covers how to build one, how nodes and steps work, how GA4 counts paths across sessions, which metrics you can use, and how to clean up the tree with node filters, unique nodes, segments and breakdowns.
This guide is built from Google's Analytics Help article on path exploration, plus the Help pages on segments and filters in explorations, the segment builder, getting started with explorations and data differences between reports and explorations. For the other exploration techniques, see our guide to GA4 explorations; for a fixed sequence of steps, see funnel exploration.
What a path exploration shows
Path exploration "uses a tree graph to illustrate the event stream, the collection of events users triggered and the screens they viewed." Google's examples of what it is for:
- "Find the top pages that new users open after opening the home page."
- "Discover what actions users take after an app exception."
- "Uncover looping behavior which may indicate users becoming stuck."
- "Determining the effects of an event on subsequent users actions."
A funnel answers "how many people got through the steps I chose". A path answers "where did people actually go", without you deciding the steps first. Google contrasts it with the users flow and behavior flow reports, which work on pages, "while path exploration can visualize paths using both page or screen views and events."
Create one
- Open Explore in the left menu.
- Under Start a new exploration, click the Path exploration template. GA4 opens it with a sample setup.
- Click Start over in the top right to choose your own starting or ending point.
- Under STARTING POINT, choose a dimension, or drag one from the NODE TYPE list. Google lists event name, page title, page path, screen name and screen class.
- Choose a value, for example the page path of your home page.
The starting point appears on the left. To its right, STEP +1 shows "the top 5 screens that your users viewed or events they triggered after that starting point."
Like every exploration, a path can only look back as far as the property's data retention setting. Google says data from before that range "won't be included." Our guide to GA4 data retention explains the setting.
Backwards paths: start from the goal
By default the tree works forward from a page or event. Backwards pathing "lets you select a desired event or page and explore how your users got to it", for example a purchase or another key event. To build one:
- Create a path exploration as above.
- Click Start over in the upper right.
- Click the ENDING POINT box and choose the node that ends the path.
The ending point is the rightmost column, and the steps to its left are the actions before it. One limit to know: "A path exploration can have a starting point or an ending point but not both." To see what happens between a specific page and a specific goal, use a funnel instead, or add a segment (see below).
Steps, nodes and node types
| Element | What it is (Google's definition) |
|---|---|
| Starting / ending point | The screen or event that begins or ends the path you explore |
| Step | A column. Each step after the start or before the end is the next or previous action of viewing a screen or triggering an event |
| Node | A data point within a step, "representing the number of users or events at that point in the path" |
| Node type | The dimension whose values you see in a step. You set it for the starting point and can switch it per step with the menu above the step |
| Path | "a specific sequence of nodes occurring across one or more steps, within a specified time frame" |
How to work with the tree:
- Expand. Click a node to add the next step from it; click again to collapse it. "Nodes that appear in gray are at the end of the user's path and can't be expanded."
- More nodes. Each step shows the top 5 nodes. "Click + More to add up to 20 nodes per step." Anything beyond the top 20 is grouped into an "Others" node.
- Mix node types. You can start from a page and switch the next step to Event name, which shows what people did on the page rather than where they went.
How GA4 calculates paths
A forward path looks at the event stream for the screens viewed or events triggered "immediately after that starting point". A backward path does the reverse. Points that change how you read the numbers:
- First instance. Paths use "the first instance of the dimension value you select as the starting or ending point." If someone visits the home page three times, their path starts at the first visit.
- Sessions. "Paths can span one or more sessions, depending on the date range you choose." A new session begins after 30 minutes of inactivity, and when a path spans sessions a node aggregates all of them. Our guide to users vs sessions explains the session rules.
- Google's example. A user goes Home > Product A > Home > Product B in one session. Starting from the first Home, the tree shows Product A at step +1, Home at +2 and Product B at +3.
To change the metric, drag a supported metric from the Variables panel into Tab Settings. Path exploration supports two:
| Metric | What a node counts | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Event count (default) | Events triggered at that node, across all users and sessions in the date range | One person returning to the same page adds more than one |
| Total users | Unique users who viewed the screen or triggered the event | Nodes don't add up: a user on two branches counts once in the shared node |
Google explains the second point: if a user follows several paths from the same starting node, "the user count in the shared node is less than the sum of the user counts of the unshared nodes." Use Total users when the question is "how many people", and Event count when it is "how often".
Node filters and unique nodes
Choose which nodes show
Click Edit at the top of a step and tick the screens or events you want in that step. Values you don't tick are grouped into the + More node.
Exclude nodes
Right-click a node, click Exclude node and choose:
- Selected only: removes it from the current path in the current step, along with any later steps from that node.
- From all paths: removes it from every path in every step.
Excluded nodes are listed in Tab Settings under NODE FILTERS; click X on a filter to bring a node back. The important caveat: "Excluding a node only hides it from the graph, but doesn't change how the path is calculated." If you want an event left out of the calculation, for example a scroll event that sits between every page, Google points you to a segment.
View unique nodes only
This option shows "only changing values of your nodes." If a page fires several events in a row, you see one node for that page, not one per event. If the user later comes back to that page after another one, it shows again. For websites with enhanced measurement switched on, this is usually the setting that turns a cluttered tree into a readable list of pages.
Segments, filters and breakdowns
- Segments. Drag a segment from Variables to the segment target in Tab Settings. "Segments are applied to the event stream before the path exploration is calculated", so excluded users or events take no part in the paths. Google's example is comparing converting and non-converting users "to find out where their user journeys diverge." The getting started page allows up to 10 segments per exploration.
- Filters. Filter on any available dimension or metric, for example only paths with a minimum number of users, or certain browsers. "Filters are applied to the exploration before the paths have been calculated." Up to 10 filters per tab.
- Breakdown. Drag a dimension such as Device category or Country to the breakdown target. The top 5 values appear under the tree; hover over one to see its share in each node.
- Segments from the tree. Right-click data on the canvas and choose "Create segment from selection" to save that group; the segments and filters page says you can use it to build an audience (see our guide to GA4 audiences). View users in the same menu opens the user explorer for that selection.
Two data notes. Explorations "may be based on sampled data if more than 10 million events are part of a particular exploration query," and the icon in the top right turns from green to yellow when sampling or data thresholds apply. And user counts for the same sequence can differ slightly between pathing, funnels, segments and audiences, because each "have optimizations that might not perfectly match."
How we use path exploration
This is our own practice, not Google guidance:
- For a service site we start with a backwards path from the form's key event, with the node type set to Page path. It shows which pages people saw just before they enquired.
- We switch on unique nodes only, and when an event such as scroll clutters every step, we leave it out with a segment rather than Exclude node, so the numbers change along with the picture.
- We read Total users for "how many people took this route" and only use Event count when looking for loops, such as people bouncing between the pricing and contact pages.
- For a forward path we start from the top pages in the landing page report, not the home page by habit.
- We break down by Device category. A route that only phone users abandon usually points to a layout or form problem.
- When a path shows a clear route, we turn it into a funnel to measure drop-off step by step. Paths find the route; funnels measure it.
Frequently asked questions
Can a GA4 path exploration have both a starting and an ending point?
No. Google says a path exploration can have a starting point or an ending point but not both. Use a backwards path from the goal, or a funnel exploration when you need fixed start and end steps.
How many nodes can a path step show?
The top 5 by default. Click + More to show up to 20 nodes per step; anything beyond that is grouped into an "Others" node.
Does excluding a node change the numbers?
No. Exclude node only hides it from the graph. To leave events or users out of the path calculation, apply a segment, which is applied to the event stream before paths are calculated.
Why don't the user counts in my path add up?
With the Total users metric, each person counts once per node. A user who follows several branches from the same node is counted in each branch but only once in the shared node, so the branches can add up to more than it.
Can a path cover more than one session?
Yes. Paths are built from each user's event stream across the date range, starting from the first instance of the starting point, so they can span several sessions. A node then aggregates all of those sessions.
For more on measurement, see our guides to GA4 basics, the conversion paths report, DebugView and (not set) values.