A session is the period of time that a unique user interacts with pages across your site. A single session will track all of the page views, user behavior, and all the changes to each page between the start and end of the session.
Hotjar Recordings and Continuous Heatmaps are based on sessions. You can learn more from our articles on Starting Continuous Recordings and Starting Continuous Heatmaps.
- When does a session start?
- When does a session end?
- How many sessions do I have on my plan?
- What if my site gets more traffic than my daily plan allows?
When does a session start?
A session starts when a user lands on a page of your site with the Hotjar tracking code installed. There are some exceptions, such as:
- If you have certain event-based or URL-based targeting rules enabled, the session will begin after a matching event occurs or when a targeted page is visited.
- If a user has Do Not Track enabled in their browser or if their IP address is blocked in Site Settings, Hotjar will not track anything in their session, however, Feedback widgets will still appear depending on the widget targeting criteria.
When does a session end?
A session ends when a user takes one of the following actions:
- Closes their browser.
- Closes all tabs with a session on your site.
- Moves to a page on a different site.
- Moves to a page on your site without the Hotjar tracking code installed.
- Moves to a page on your site with a *different* tracking code installed.
- Does not interact with your site for 30 minutes.
- Does not return within 30 seconds.
How many sessions do I have on my plan?
Based on your plan, each Site on your Account has a daily session capture rate. Below are the Daily Session Rates on Hotjar plans:
|
Plan Billed Monthly |
Pageview Collection Rate |
Daily Session Rate |
|
Basic |
2,000 pageviews/day |
35 sessions |
|
Plus $/€39 |
10,000 pageviews/day |
100 sessions |
|
Business $/€99 |
20,000 pageviews/day |
500 sessions |
|
Business $/€189 |
50,000 pageviews/day |
1,500 sessions |
|
Business $/€289 |
120,000 pageviews/day |
2,500 sessions |
|
Scale $/€389 |
200,000 pageviews/day |
4,000 sessions |
|
Scale $/€589 |
400,000 pageviews/day |
8,000 sessions |
|
Scale $/€989 |
800,000 pageviews/day |
15,000 sessions |
|
Need more? |
What if my site gets more traffic than my daily plan allows?
If the daily number of user visits (traffic) to your site exceeds the number of sessions in your Hotjar plan, Hotjar will take a sample of your traffic.
To better understand why Hotjar might take sample your site's daily traffic, check out our article: How does sampling work?
Feedback widgets are not tied to sessions
Feedback widgets, such as Surveys and Incoming Feedback, are not tied to sessions. If the number of daily visitors to your site exceeds the number of sessions in your plan, Hotjar will sample your traffic and some sessions will not be tracked. Feedback widgets, however, are not dependent on sessions and will continue to show on pages they are targeting.