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Create a heatmap

Before you create a heatmap, confirm that your Amplitude instrumentation meets the prerequisites, then follow the steps to build and target your first heatmap.

Prerequisites

Your Amplitude instrumentation must meet the following requirements.

Session Replay

Client availability

Heatmaps supports web-based session replays only, and doesn't support mobile apps or SDKs.

Heatmaps requires these minimum SDK versions:

Session Replay sample rate

Heatmaps use Session Replay data to track interactions on your pages. If you use a sample rate to limit the number of replays you generate, you also limit the events available to build heatmaps. A limited sample rate produces a less comprehensive view of user interactions and can reduce heatmap accuracy.

Heatmap data requirements

Heatmaps appear after Amplitude collects enough replay click data across your site: at least 10 separate pages, with about 500 tracked replay clicks on each page. These thresholds are approximate and may change as Heatmaps evolves.

Matching device identifiers

Heatmaps require that the device_id on heatmap events from the Session Replay Plugin or Standalone Session Replay SDK matches the device_id on your Amplitude analytics events.

If you use the Browser SDK 2.x with the Session Replay Plugin or the Unified SDK, Amplitude manages device_id alignment automatically.If you use the Standalone Session Replay SDK with a third-party or homegrown analytics pipeline, pass the same device_id and session_id to Session Replay that you attach to your analytics events. If your backend generates device identifiers that differ from the browser, heatmap segment filters and event joins won't work correctly.

When device_id values don't match:

  • Unsegmented heatmaps (URL and date filters only) still render from heatmap events.
  • Segment and cohort filters return empty or incorrect results, because Amplitude can't join heatmap clicks to analytics users.
  • Microscope actions (view events, view replays, create cohort from a heatmap selection) won't link to the right users.
  • Session Replay playback for a specific replay may still work, because replays are keyed by the SR SDK's device_id/session_id.

If your analytics pipeline sets user_id for logged-in users, use the same user_id on both sides as well.

Create a development project (optional)

Amplitude recommends that you create a separate development project to test Heatmapping without impacting your production environment.

Event taxonomy impact

Heatmap and Session Replay events don't count toward your allotted event volume, and Amplitude doesn't bill you for them.

Create a heatmap

To create a new Heatmap:

  1. Navigate to Heatmaps in the left navigation in Amplitude.
  2. Click + New Heatmap.
  3. Choose a Heatmap type. You can update the map type at any point.
  4. Select the URL to analyze. Use the following URL matching options to target the pages you care about.
    • Exact match: Matches the URL exactly as you specify it. Ideal for single URLs. For example, https://amplitude.com.
    • Pattern match: Uses wildcards to match more than one URL with a similar pattern. Useful for targeting dynamic paths. For example, https://amplistore/products/* matches /products/shoes and /product/accessories.
    • Contains: Matches URLs that contain a specific keyword or segment anywhere in the URL. Useful for common themes. For example, /search?q= matches the search results page for any user query.
    • Starts with: Matches all URLs that begin with a specific prefix. Useful for capturing sections of a site. For example, https://amplitude.com/blog captures the /blog page and all subpages.
  5. Select or create a Segment using user properties or cohorts to narrow the focus to a specific set of users.
  6. Optionally, select different device types to understand how users interact on devices of different widths.
  7. Choose a background for your heatmap. Backgrounds are snapshots of a session replay and represent the page's state during replay collection. Each heatmap generates eight backgrounds. Amplitude selects each background from the page state that generates the most actions during a session.

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