Is Google Analytics 4 completely free?

Yes, standard GA4 has no cost to set up or use. There's no per-event charge for typical traffic volumes, though very high-traffic properties can hit processing limits built into the free tier.

How much does Google Analytics 360 cost?

Google doesn't publish a fixed price — it's sold through enterprise contracts. Estimates put it roughly around $50,000+ per year as of 2026, but actual cost varies by data volume and contract terms.

What are the hidden costs of free Google Analytics?

Data thresholding that hides small-segment data, sampling in Explorations reports, the requirement to show a consent banner to EU visitors, and the time cost of learning GA4's interface and event model.

Does GA4 require a cookie consent banner?

In the EU, yes — GA4 sets cookies and processes location data derived from IP addresses, which triggers consent requirements under EU privacy law. Visitors who decline aren't tracked, which undercounts your real traffic.

Is Google Analytics Free?

Yes — standard Google Analytics (GA4) is free, with no cost to create a property or send it data. Google's paid tier, Google Analytics 360, is built for large enterprises and roughly starts around $50k+ per year, though enterprise pricing varies by contract and isn't published. But "free" doesn't mean costless: GA4's free tier comes with data thresholding, sampling in explorations, the setup and training time it takes to actually use it, and — if you have EU visitors — a consent banner requirement that a lot of "free" analytics comparisons leave out.

GA4 standard: free

Anyone can create a GA4 property, install the tracking tag, and use the standard reporting interface at no cost. There's no per-event fee, no seat limit for a small team, and no credit card required to get started. This is the version almost every website uses.

The free tier isn't unlimited, though — GA4 caps the number of events and hits it will process per property before applying limits, and very high-traffic sites can bump into those ceilings. For the vast majority of small and mid-size sites, this never becomes a practical issue.

GA4 360: the paid tier

Google Analytics 360 is the enterprise product, sold through a sales contract rather than a public price list. As of 2026, published estimates put it at roughly $50,000+ per year, but actual pricing varies by contract terms, data volume, and negotiated add-ons — Google doesn't list a fixed number publicly.

360 mainly buys you higher processing limits, reduced sampling, BigQuery export at higher volumes, SLAs, and dedicated support — features aimed at large organizations processing far more data than the free tier's ceilings allow, not features most small or mid-size sites actually need.

The real costs of "free"

Data thresholding. GA4 sometimes withholds or aggregates data in reports when a segment is small enough that showing it could re-identify an individual — a privacy safeguard, but one that quietly hides rows of data you might expect to see, particularly on lower-traffic sites or narrow segments.

Sampling in Explorations. GA4's Explorations tool applies statistical sampling once a query crosses a certain volume of events, which means the numbers in an ad hoc exploration can differ slightly from the numbers in a standard report pulling from unsampled data. It's not wrong, exactly, but it's an estimate, and that nuance is easy to miss.

Consent-banner requirement in the EU. Because GA4 sets cookies and processes IP-derived location data, EU regulations require a cookie consent banner before GA4's tracking can fire for EU visitors, and a real share of visitors decline — meaning your GA4 numbers undercount actual traffic by whatever fraction opts out. Building and maintaining that consent flow is its own ongoing cost, not a one-time setup step.

Setup and training time. GA4's interface, event model, and reporting concepts are a real learning curve — this glossary exists because of how much GA4 terminology confuses people. The tool itself is free; the hours spent learning to configure key events, custom dimensions, and channel groups correctly are not.

A free tier without the tradeoffs

Gizmo's free tier covers 10,000 events per month across unlimited sites, with no sampling, no data thresholding, and no cookies — which means no consent banner requirement in the EU, since there's nothing to get consent for. See Gizmo as a free Google Analytics alternative or full pricing for what's included at each tier.

Compare full pricing See Gizmo's free tier

FAQ

Is Google Analytics 4 completely free?: Yes, standard GA4 has no cost to set up or use. There's no per-event charge for typical traffic volumes, though very high-traffic properties can hit processing limits built into the free tier.
How much does Google Analytics 360 cost?: Google doesn't publish a fixed price — it's sold through enterprise contracts. Estimates put it roughly around $50,000+ per year as of 2026, but actual cost varies by data volume and contract terms.
What are the hidden costs of free Google Analytics?: Data thresholding that hides small-segment data, sampling in Explorations reports, the requirement to show a consent banner to EU visitors, and the time cost of learning GA4's interface and event model.
Does GA4 require a cookie consent banner?: In the EU, yes — GA4 sets cookies and processes location data derived from IP addresses, which triggers consent requirements under EU privacy law. Visitors who decline aren't tracked, which undercounts your real traffic.

If you're here because GA4 is confusing — that's why we built Gizmo.

A dead-simple, cookieless Google Analytics alternative. Free forever, 10k events/mo.

Try Gizmo free See the GA4 alternative