How to Change Your GA4 Data Retention to 14 Months (Before You Lose More Data)

If you set up GA4 and just clicked through the defaults without paying attention, there’s a good chance you’ve been deleting valuable data every 2 months without even knowing it.

Yeah, you read that right. Two months!

Google sets GA4’s default data retention period to a measly 2 months, which means any detailed, user-level data (the stuff you need for Explorations and in-depth analysis) gets automatically deleted after 60 days.​

The good news?

You can change this to 14 months in about 30 seconds.

Let me show you how.

What exactly is “data retention” in GA4?

Before we jump in, let’s clarify what we’re talking about here because Google’s explanation is… not great.​

GA4 keeps two types of data:

User-level data — This is the detailed stuff tied to individual visitors: demographics, event parameters, user IDs, conversion paths, and all the granular data you need for detailed analysis. This is what gets deleted based on your retention setting.​

Aggregated data — Things like total sessions, pageviews, and traffic sources. This sticks around forever in your standard reports, regardless of your retention setting.​

So when we talk about “data retention,” we’re talking about how long GA4 keeps that detailed, user-level data before it gets wiped. And if you haven’t changed the setting, it’s probably set to 2 months right now.​

How to change your data retention to 14 months

Alright, let’s fix this. Here’s the step-by-step:

Step 1: Get into your GA4 admin panel

1. Log into your Google Analytics account
2. Click the Admin gear icon in the bottom left corner
3. Make sure you’re looking at the right property (if you manage multiple sites, double-check you’ve got the right one selected)

Step 2: Find the data retention settings

1. In the Property column (that’s the middle column), scroll down and click Data Settings
2. Click Data Retention

You should now see a page that shows your current retention settings.

Step 3: Change it to 14 months

1. Under “Event data retention,” you’ll see a dropdown that probably says 2 months (unless someone already changed it)
2. Click that dropdown and select 14 months
3. There’s also a toggle that says “Reset user data on new activity” — leave this ON. This means if someone comes back to your site, the 14-month countdown resets, which is generally what you want​
4. Click Save at the top right

That’s it. You’re done.

But wait—what about data I already lost?

Here’s the bad news: changing this setting doesn’t bring back data that’s already been deleted.​

If you’ve been running GA4 for a year with the 2-month default, you’ve already lost 10 months of detailed user data. It’s gone. There’s no getting it back.

That’s why it’s so important to check this setting right now if you haven’t already. Every day you wait is another day of data you’re potentially losing.​

What if 14 months isn’t enough?

If you’re on the free version of GA4, 14 months is the maximum. That’s it.​

If you need longer retention, you have two options:

Option 1: Upgrade to GA4 360 — This is Google’s enterprise version, and it lets you keep user-level data for up to 50 months. But fair warning: GA4 360 is expensive. We’re talking tens of thousands of dollars per year.​

Option 2: Export to BigQuery — You can set up a free BigQuery export (Google’s data warehouse) and keep your raw GA4 data indefinitely. This requires some technical knowledge to set up and query, but it’s a solid option if you need long-term historical data without paying for 360.​

For most small to medium-sized sites, though, 14 months is plenty.

Why does this even matter?

You might be thinking, “Okay, but I mostly just look at last week or last month anyway. Why do I care about 14 months?”

Fair question. Here’s when it matters:

• Year-over-year comparisons — Want to see how this December compares to last December? You need at least 12 months of data.​
• Long-term trend analysis — Spotting seasonal patterns, user behavior changes over time, or the long-tail impact of marketing campaigns requires historical data.
• Cohort analysis — If you want to track how users who first visited 6+ months ago are converting now, you need that retention window.​
• Explorations — Any time you’re building custom reports or drilling into user-level details in Explorations, you’re limited by your retention setting.​

Bottom line: if you ever want to do any kind of detailed, user-level analysis beyond the last 2 months, you need to change this setting.

One more thing: this doesn’t fix GA4’s other problems

Look, extending your data retention to 14 months is important, but it doesn’t solve GA4’s bigger issues—the confusing UI, the clunky Explorations, the missing features everyone loved in Universal Analytics.

Your data is still there (at least for 14 months now), but actually using that data in GA4’s interface is still a pain.​

That’s why a lot of people are using tools that sit on top of GA4 and pull the data through the API, giving you clear, simple reports without having to wrestle with Google’s interface every time you need an answer.

But at minimum, make sure you’ve got that retention period set to 14 months. Future you will thank you.

Want to stop fighting with GA4’s interface entirely? ClarioMetrics pulls your GA4 data and turns it into clear, simple reports you can actually understand—no Explorations required. Try it free.