What is a session in Google Analytics?
A session is one visit to your website: a period of activity by one user that ends after 30 minutes of inactivity by default.
A session begins when someone opens a page on your site and ends after they have been inactive for 30 minutes, unless you change the timeout in your settings. One user can have many sessions, for example a visit in the morning and another at night. In GA4, a new session does not start at midnight or when the traffic source changes, unlike older Universal Analytics.
Why it matters for your business: Sessions are how analytics counts visits. Most traffic, engagement and conversion rate numbers are built on them.
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