Login audit log

Track user sign-in activity

As a Google administrator, use the Login audit log to track user sign-ins to your domain. All sign-ins from web browsers are logged, including successful, unsuccessful, and suspicious attempts. Suspicious login events are shown with a red warning icon. When users sign in from a mail client or non-browser application, only suspicious attempts are logged. 

Step 1: Open your Login audit log

  1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

    Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

  2. From the Admin console Home page, go to Reports.

    To see Reports, you might have to click More controls at the bottom.

  3. On the left, under Audit, click Login.
  4. (Optional) On the toolbar, click Manage columns Manage columns and select the columns you want to see or hide.
    • IP Address—Internet Protocol (IP) address used by the user to sign in.
    • Date—Date the sign-in occurred (displayed in your default time zone).
    • Login Type (SSO only)—Displays the way the user signed in. 

Step 2: Understand Login audit log data

Data you can view
Data Type Description
Event name The action that was logged, such as a login challenge or a failed sign-in attempt. See Event name descriptions for details.
Event description Details of the event described in the Event name field.
IP address Internet Protocol (IP) address that the user used to sign in to the Admin console. This might reflect your physical location, but it can be something else like a proxy server or a Virtual Private Network (VPN) address.
Login Type 

Details of how the user signed in.

  • Exchange - when a user is authenticated by token exchange, such as via an OAuth login. It might also indicate the user was already signed into a session when they signed into another, and the two sessions were merged.
  • Google Password - with a Google password. Includes logins to less secure apps (if allowed). 
  • Reauth - with a password re-authentication request
  • SAML - via single sign-on Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)
  • Unknown - using an unknown method
Date and time range Date and time the event occurred (displayed in your browser's default time zone).
Event name descriptions

Here are types of events that are available under the Event name column (see above):

Event name Description
Failed Login

Log entry for each time a user fails to log in. You can use the Reports API to view the cause of the failure. For example, the user entered an incorrect password, didn't have access to the service, or their account was suspended. 
Government-backed attack Log entry for each time government-backed attackers may have tried to compromise a user account or computer. Click here to learn more about government-backed attacks.
Login challenge

Log entry for each time a user was asked an extra security question because we detected a suspicious sign-in attempt.

For details, see Verify a user’s identity with extra security.
Login verification Log entry for each time a user was asked an extra security question when we did not detect a suspicious sign-in attempt.
Logout Log entry for each time a user logged out.
Successful login Log entry for each time a user logged in.
Suspicious login Log entry for each time a user logged in and the login had some unusual characteristics, for example the user logged in from an unfamiliar IP address.
Leaked password Log entry for each time a password reset is required because Google detects compromised credentials.

Step 3: Customize and export your audit log data

Filter the audit log data by user or activity

You can narrow your audit log to show specific events or users. For example, find all log events for when a user was presented with a login challenge, or find all login activity for a particular user.

  1. Open your Login audit log as shown above.
  2. Click + Add Filter.
  3. Enter or select the criteria for your filter. You can filter on any combination of the data you can view in the log.
  4. (Optional) Click Date range, select a period from the list, or enter a start and end date, and time.
  5. Click Apply.

Filter by organizational unit

You can filter by organizational unit to compare statistics between child organizations in a domain.

  1. Open your Login audit log as shown above.
  2. At the top, click Organization filter, search for a name or select an organizational unit from the list.
  3. (Optional) Click Date range, select a period from the list, or enter a start and end date, and time.

    Note: You can filter by any event at + Add a filter , and then filter the results by Organization filter or Date range.

  4. Click Apply.

Export your audit log data

You can export your audit log data to Google Sheets or download it to a CSV file.

  1. Open your audit log as shown above.
  2. (Optional) To change the data to include in your export, click Manage columns Manage columns, select or remove the columns that you want to export, and click Save.
  3. Click Download Download.
  4. Under Select columns, click Currently selected columns or All columns.
  5. Under Select format, click Google Sheets or Comma-separated values (.csv).
  6. Click Download.

You can export up to 210,000 cells. The maximum number of rows depends on the number of columns you select. Audit logs to Sheets are limited to 10,000 rows, while CSV exports can include up to 500,000 rows.

How old is the data I'm seeing?

For details on exactly when data becomes available and how long it's retained, see Data retention and lag times.

Step 4: Set up email alerts

You can receive email alerts for sign-in activity based on your filters.

  1. Open your Login audit log as shown above.
  2. Click + Add Filter.
  3. Enter or select the criteria for your filter.

    To set up an alert, you can filter on any combination of the data you can view in the log except date and time range.

  4. Click Create Alert and enter a name for the alert.
  5. At Recipients, click Turn on Turn on to send the alert to a super administrator account.
  6. Enter the email addresses of any other alert recipients.Enter the email addresses of any other email alert recipients.
  7. Click Create.

To edit your custom alerts, refer to Administrator email alerts.

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