About annotations

Annotations allow users to add notes directly to Google Analytics 4 reports, making it easier to record events, explain changes in data, or highlight key observations for yourself and your team.

Annotations can be used to identify and explain spikes or dips in traffic, marketing campaign launches, product launches, and more.

Before you begin

• You must be an Editor or above at the property level to create and edit annotations and a Viewer or above to view annotations.
• Each property has a limit of 1000 annotations.
• Annotations can be created either in Google Analytics Reports with line graphs or the Admin API.

Create an annotation

1. In Google Analytics, click Reports on the left.
2. Open the report that you wish to annotate and right click any data point on any line graph.
3. Click Add annotation.
4. Add these annotation details:
   1. Title: The character limit is 60 characters.
   2. Description: The character limit is 150 characters.
   3. Date or date range: You can select a single date or a date range.
   4. Color
5. Click Create annotation.

When an annotation is created, it’ll be visible across all reports and report cards with line graphs. However, you can also hide all your annotations and annotations bars for date ranges.

View annotation details

Once an annotation is created, an icon appears below the line graph on the report. Hover over to view the annotation details in the hover card, or click the annotation icon to view details in the “Annotations Viewer” panel.

View all annotations for a property

1. In Google Analytics, click Admin on the left.
2. Under "Data display", click Annotations.
3. View the details of all annotations for a property. Depending on your access level, you may be able to create, edit, delete, or export these annotations from Admin.

Change your annotation settings

You can change your annotation settings in the “Annotations Settings” section found at the bottom left of the “Annotations Viewer” panel. Through “Annotations Settings”, you can use a toggle to hide or unhide all your annotations and annotations bars for date ranges. When you change your settings, this will be applied to all of your annotations.

Google Analytics-created annotations

When a significant data-impacting event occurs, Google Analytics may create an annotation to notify users about the issue on the relevant date and data. These annotations look similar to user created annotations, except that they can’t be edited or deleted. Hover your mouse cursor over the system annotation icon to view details.

Related links

• [GA4] Overview of Google Analytics reports
• [GA4] Understand how Analytics stores and displays data