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Choose the right measurement in Metric Explorer
Measured as sets how Amplitude counts a metric in Metric Explorer. Each metric has its own measurement, so one chart can show unique users of one event, totals of another, and revenue from a third. To change a metric's measurement, open Measured as on that metric and pick an option. A new metric starts with the measurement of the metric above it.
Find the measurement for your question
| Question | Measured as | Menu group |
|---|---|---|
| How many people did this? | Unique Users | Top level |
| How many times did this happen? | Event Totals | Top level |
| What share of active users did this? | % of Active Users | Top level |
| How many times does each user who did this do it, on average? | Avg Event per User | Top level |
| How many users did this once, twice, or more? | Frequency | Top level |
| How many times did the user at a given percentile do this? | Frequency Percentile | Top level |
| What's the total, average, median, minimum, or maximum of a numeric property? | Sum of Property Value, Average of Property Value, Median of Property Value, Min property value, Max property value | Properties |
| What value of a numeric property sits at a given percentile? | Percentile of Property Value | Properties |
| How are a property's values distributed? | Distribution of Property Value | Properties |
| How many different values of a property appear, overall or per user? | Distinct Property Values, Avg distinct property values per user | Properties |
| How much revenue did this event bring in? | Revenue | More |
| How much revenue per active user? | Average Revenue per Active User | More |
| How many items were in carts, rather than how many cart events? | Semantic Totals | More |
| How many visits happened? | Total Sessions | Session |
| How many visits does each user make? | Average Sessions per User | Session |
| How long is a visit? | Average Session Duration | Session |
| How much total time did users spend? | Total Session Duration | Session |
| How much time does each user spend? | Time Spent per User | Session |
| How are visit lengths distributed? | Distribution of Session Length | Session |
| How many times does this event happen in a visit? | Events per Session | Session |
| What share of visits bounce, start on a page, or end on a page? | The [Amplitude] Bounce Rate, [Amplitude] Entry Rate, and [Amplitude] Exit Rate metrics | Metric picker |
Event measurements
Event measurements count users or occurrences of the metric's event in each interval.
- Unique Users: The number of distinct users in the segment who triggered the event. A user who triggers the event several times in one interval counts once in that interval.
- Event Totals: The number of times users triggered the event.
- % of Active Users: The users who triggered the event, divided by the users who triggered any active event in the same interval and segment. Measuring an inactive event can return more than 100%, because more users can trigger an inactive event than any active event.
- Avg Event per User: Event totals divided by the users who triggered the event. Users who didn't trigger the event don't count toward the average. For example, if one user triggers the event once and another triggers it twice, the average is 1.5.
- Frequency: A histogram that groups users into buckets by how many times each triggered the event during the date range.
- Frequency Percentile: The number of times the user at a percentile you choose triggered the event. For example, the 90th percentile shows how often your most active 10% of users perform the action.
Count events or cart items
When an event metric groups by a cart property, such as products.category, a single event can contain several items. Choose how Amplitude counts:
- Counting Event: Counts each event once per property value, even if it contains several items with that value.
- Counting Item: Counts every item in the cart.
For example, a Checkout event with two items in the category tacos counts as 1 with Counting Event and 2 with Counting Item. To count the items in a cart property, such as products, instead of the events that contain them, measure the event as Semantic Totals.
Property measurements
Property measurements aggregate a property on the metric's events. Pick the property after you choose the measurement. Sum, average, median, minimum, maximum, and percentile need a numeric property.
- Sum of Property Value: The total of the property across events, for example order value.
- Average of Property Value: The sum of the property divided by the number of events with the property.
- Median of Property Value: The middle value. Use it instead of the average when a few large values skew results.
- Min property value and Max property value: The smallest and largest values in each interval.
- Percentile of Property Value: The value at a percentile you choose, such as the 90th percentile of page load time.
- Distinct Property Values: The number of different values of the property.
- Avg distinct property values per user: The number of different property values each user triggered, on average.
- Distribution of Property Value: A histogram of event totals by property value. Each bucket includes its minimum and excludes its maximum.
Revenue measurements
Revenue measurements are under More in Measured as. Pick the revenue property on the event, such as $revenue.
- Revenue: The total of the revenue property. Amplitude formats it as currency in your project's currency.
- Average Revenue per Active User: Revenue divided by the users who triggered any active event in the same interval and segment.
Session measurements
Session measurements count the sessions that contain the metric's event. Measure [Amplitude] Any Active Event to count all sessions. For how sessions work and how to filter them, go to Analyze sessions.
- Total Sessions: The number of valid sessions in each interval.
- Average Sessions per User: Total sessions divided by the users active in the interval.
- Total Session Duration: The sum of the lengths of all sessions in the interval.
- Average Session Duration: Total session duration divided by total sessions.
- Time Spent per User: Total session duration divided by the users active in the interval.
- Distribution of Session Length: A histogram of sessions by length.
- Events per Session: The average number of times the metric's event occurs per session.
For duration measurements, the Counting in control sets the unit, from seconds to months. Auto picks a unit that fits the values.
Distribution views
Frequency, Distribution of Property Value, and Distribution of Session Length render as histograms, so a chart that uses one of them can't include other metric types. When every metric on the chart is Distribution of Property Value or Distribution of Session Length, you can switch between two views:
- PDF: Shows the count or share of values in each bucket. Use it to compare the shape of distributions across segments of different sizes.
- CDF: Shows the count or share of values at or below each bucket. Use it to read approximate percentiles. For example, the 75th percentile is the smallest bucket where the CDF reaches 75%.
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