--- title: Run advanced analysis in Metric Explorer description: "Add cumulative totals, rolling averages, and rolling windows to individual metrics, compare to past periods, detect anomalies, forecast, and control sampling and event time in Metric Explorer." product: analytics lang: en last_updated: 2026-10-27 token_estimate: 1419 --- # Run advanced analysis in Metric Explorer > For AI agents: a documentation index is available at [/docs/llms.txt](/docs/llms.txt). Append `.md` to any page URL for markdown, or send `Accept: text/markdown`. Advanced analysis in Metric Explorer changes how a metric's values accumulate over time, compares the date range with earlier periods, and flags values outside the expected range. Cumulative and rolling measurements apply to one event metric at a time, so you can smooth a noisy series while the other series on the chart stay raw. ## Add a cumulative or rolling measurement to a metric 1. On an event metric, open the **⋮** menu and choose **Advanced**. 2. Choose a measurement: - **Cumulative**: Shows a running total from the start of the date range. With **Unique Users**, each point counts distinct users from the start of the range through that point, so a user who returns counts once. - **Rolling Average**: Shows the unweighted mean of the last N intervals at each point. Use Rolling Average to smooth weekly cycles, such as weekday peaks and weekend troughs. - **Rolling Window**: Aggregates the last N intervals into each point. Use Rolling Window for metrics such as 7-day active users on a daily chart. 3. Set the number of intervals, for example 7 days. The metric shows the measurement next to its name, for example "rolling average," and the other metrics on the chart don't change. A rolling measurement reads data from before the start of the date range. With a 7-day rolling average on a February chart, the point for February 6 averages January 31 through February 6. The **Advanced** options depend on the metric's measurement. For example, **Revenue** offers all three, and **Average of Property Value** offers **Rolling Window**. When you switch a metric to a measurement that doesn't support its advanced measurement, Amplitude removes the advanced measurement from that metric. ## Compare to a past period Period comparison adds a series for an earlier period next to each metric, so you can read this period's change against the last one. 1. Click **Compare** above the chart and choose **Previous time periods**. 2. Choose a preset, such as **Previous week** or **Previous year**, or set a custom period that starts or ends on a date you pick. 3. To compare against two earlier periods at once, click **Add Comparison**. The comparison series appears in the legend as `[Previous 1]`, and the takeaways above the breakdown table show the current and previous values side by side. For preset definitions, custom periods, and the **Rolling** option, go to [Period-over-period comparison](https://amplitude.com/docs/analytics/charts/event-segmentation/event-segmentation-interpret-2#period-over-period-comparison). ## Detect anomalies and forecast Anomaly + Forecast draws an expected range around each metric and marks values outside it. Anomaly + Forecast can also project a metric forward. 1. Open **Chart Settings** and select **Anomaly & Forecast**. 2. Enable anomaly detection and choose a mode: - **Agile**: Adjusts quickly to recent trends, with a 95% confidence interval and 120 days of training data. - **Robust**: Uses a full extra year of training data and accounts for seasonality. Use Robust for stable metrics. - **Custom**: Set the confidence interval and training duration yourself. 3. To project the metric, enable the forecast and set how far ahead to forecast. The chart shows a confidence band and a dashed **Expected Value** series, and the breakdown table adds the expected, low, and high values for each point. For how Amplitude trains the model and interprets results, go to [Anomaly + Forecast](https://amplitude.com/docs/analytics/anomaly-forecast). ## Mark events on the chart with annotations Annotations mark dates such as releases or campaigns on the time axis. To add one, click **+** below the chart's X-axis, then set the date, description, and visibility. To choose which annotation categories the chart shows, open **Chart Settings** and select **Annotations**. Annotations appear on every Metric Explorer, Event Segmentation, and User Sessions chart in the project. For permissions and date ranges, go to [Releases and annotations](https://amplitude.com/docs/analytics/charts/chart-basics#releases-and-annotations). ## Use real-time and excluded-day intervals - **Realtime**: Set the interval to **Realtime** to see the latest events in five-minute buckets. - **Excluded days**: In the date picker, click **Exclude** and choose days of the week, such as Saturday and Sunday. Amplitude drops those days from the chart, the breakdown table, row calculations, and CSV exports. ## Speed up queries with sampling On large projects, query time sampling runs the chart on a random 10% of users and scales the results up to the full population. To turn it on, open **Chart Settings**, select **Query Time Sampling**, and click **Enable Sampling**. The chart shows "Sampling 10%" while sampling is on. Sampled values are estimates. Turn sampling off before you report exact counts. For which measurements scale and which features sampling turns off, go to [Optimize performance with query time sampling](https://amplitude.com/docs/analytics/charts/optimize-query-performance). ## Query by server upload time By default, Amplitude places each event at the time it happened on the user's device. To place events at the time Amplitude received them, open **Chart Settings**, select **Query by Server Upload Time**, and enable it. The chart shows "Querying by Server Upload Time." Use this view to check ingestion, such as events that arrive late from offline mobile devices.