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How data does factually retain from website visits?
Executive summary
Websites and analytics platforms retain different slices of visit data for different lengths of time: Google Analytics (GA4) lets sites set user- and event-level retention between months (commonly 2–14 months, with signed-in Google data up to 26 months) [1] [2]. Commercial analytics and monitoring vendors publish plan-based retention windows ranging from 1 month up to a year or longer—Sentry announced sampled spans retention of 13 months on Business plans and Pingdom described “one month up to a year depending on your plan” [3] [4]. Available sources do not mention a single universal retention period for “website visits”; retention depends on the product, plan, and configuration (not found in current reporting).
1. Different products keep different things for different times
Google’s retention controls distinguish user‑level and event‑level data tied to identifiers (cookies, User‑ID, advertising IDs) and let administrators pick how long those detailed records persist; by default signed‑in Google data can be kept up to 26 months [1]. Vendors aimed at performance or error monitoring keep trace/spans and transaction samples for business customers on multi‑month windows — Sentry (sampled spans/transactions) announced 13 months on certain Business plans effective November 2025 [3]. Other tools advertise plan‑tiered retention: Pingdom said it stores Visitor Insights from one month up to a year depending on plan [4]. These examples show retention is a product and plan decision, not a single policy [3] [1] [4].
2. What “data” means — aggregate reports versus user‑level records
Analytics platforms draw a line between aggregated reports (which many vendors say are preserved for reporting) and raw user‑level or event‑level identifiers that are subject to deletion schedules [1]. Brian Clifton’s analysis and GA4 guides explain that retention settings primarily affect user/event level data and usually do not remove standard aggregated reports used for most analytics dashboards [5] [2]. That distinction matters: even if per‑user identifiers expire, trend‑level charts can persist or be recomputed from aggregates [1] [5].
3. Why businesses choose longer or shorter retention windows
Product and marketing teams often want longer histories for cohort analysis and year‑over‑year comparisons — Sentry explicitly framed 13 months of sampled retention as enabling longer-range metrics like web vitals comparisons [3]. Conversely, smaller vendors and many teams keep shorter histories to limit storage cost and privacy risk; Smartlook’s users commonly default to short windows and many companies don’t store analytics beyond one month without a specific need [6]. Toolmakers promote different defaults: GA4 offers 2–14 months (or extended options in enterprise tiers), while other analytics or CDP products may promise indefinite storage for privacy‑focused niches [2] [7].
4. Privacy law and operational practice shape retention choices
European data‑protection frameworks do not set a single expiration time but require a purpose‑based retention policy; experts advise determining appropriate retention per purpose and automating deletion to reduce compliance risk [8]. That legal backdrop explains why vendors provide configurable retention controls and why organizations vary their retention policies by jurisdiction and use case [8] [1].
5. Measurement limits: “returning visitor” is an imperfect label
Reports on returning versus new visitors are useful but inaccurate at the individual level: analytics platforms can’t always link users across devices or when cookies/privacy settings block tracking, so “returning” is a probabilistic metric rather than a guaranteed identity [9] [10]. Shopify and Similarweb guidance both note the practical limitations of cross‑device linking and cookie blocking when interpreting retention or returning‑visitor metrics [9] [10].
6. Practical takeaways for website owners and citizens
If you run a site, review and set your analytics retention settings (GA4 offers 2–14 months by default, signed‑in data up to 26 months) and pick plan tiers that match your analysis needs [1] [2]. If you’re a visitor concerned about privacy, understand that some analytics keep event‑level identifiers for many months while aggregated trends persist and that different vendors (Sentry, Pingdom, Similarweb, etc.) publish different retention windows [3] [4] [9]. For compliance, document retention purpose and automate deletions as recommended under GDPR guidance [8].
Limitations and gaps: the provided reporting shows vendor examples and GA4 controls but does not offer a comprehensive, up‑to‑date table of every platform’s default retention; available sources do not mention one universal retention rule across the web (not found in current reporting).