Why is New Users Higher than Total Users in GA4?

Update time: June 13, 2025

Issue

Some people may encounter that it seems unreasonable that New Users is larger than Total Users, why is that?

Reason

We first need to understand how New Users and Total Users are calculated:

• New Users：calculate the number of first_visit or first_open
• Total Users ：calculate the number of Client ID or Users ID depends on the settings in “Report Identification Information”

Read More：New Users vs Returning Users vs Users vs Total Users in GA4

There are following possibilities:

• Duplicate first_visit/first_open: Some users may trigger first_visit or first_open when opening the site in multiple tabs.
• Blended or Observed Reporting Identity: GA4 merges users based on User ID or device data.

Example:

• Morning: User visits on Device A → first_visit sent → logs in (User ID set)
• Afternoon: Same user visits on Device B → first_visit sent → logs in again

With Blended/Observed identity, GA4 recognizes them as the same person, so Total Users = 1，New Users = 2

Solution

For the first case, there is nothing we can do and no way to fix it.

For the second type, you can set “Reporting identity” as Device-based