> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/mixpanel/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Insights

> Visualize trends and compositions within your data

# Insights: Visualize Trends and Compositions

Insights is a powerful and flexible tool designed to visualize trends and compositions within your data. Analyze events, cohorts, and user profiles, and display the data in a wide variety of chart types.

<img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/mixpanel-docs/overview.png" alt="Insights Overview" />

## Use Cases

Insights helps you answer critical questions about your product and users:

### Product Analytics

* How is my WAU changing over time?
* How often are users getting value from my product?
* What is the distribution of users across regions or devices?
* How do power users behave differently from other users?

### B2B Analytics

* How many messages were sent in the US in the past 30 days?
* How many users had a mobile app session yesterday?
* How many messages are sent per session?
* How much revenue was generated from plans purchased this year?
* How has the power users cohort grown over the past 6 months?

### Marketing Analytics

* Which advertising campaigns generate the most checkouts?
* What channels drive the highest engagement?
* How do different user segments respond to campaigns?

<Note>
  **Frequency Analysis**: Understanding user engagement frequency is crucial. The majority of your users might use your product daily, weekly, or monthly. Learn about the [Power User Curve](https://www.reforge.com/blog/brief-understand-your-most-engaged-users-with-the-power-user-curve) to analyze engagement patterns.
</Note>

## Quick Start

Building an Insights report takes just a few steps. Let's build a report to answer:

> How many users signed up from different cities on iOS in the last 30 days?

### Step 1: Select Events

Events are the basic building blocks of analysis. Click **Select Metrics** and choose the events you want to measure.

<img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/mixpanel-docs/choose-events.png" alt="Choose Events" />

For this example, select the "Sign Up" event.

<Note>
  You can save behaviors you build and reuse them in other reports. Learn more about [Saved Metrics and Behaviors](/docs/features/saved-metrics-and-behaviors).
</Note>

### Step 2: Choose Measurement

Decide how to measure your selected events. By default, Insights measures unique users who performed the event.

<img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/mixpanel-docs/choose-measurement.png" alt="Choose Measurement" />

**Common Measurements:**

* **Total Events** - Count all event occurrences
* **Unique Users** - Count unique users who did the event
* **DAU/WAU/MAU** - Daily, weekly, or monthly active users
* **Event Property Sum** - Total of a numeric property
* **Event Property Average** - Average of a numeric property

For our example, keep the default "Unique Users" measurement.

### Step 3: Add Filters

Filters exclude unwanted data. For this example, add an "Operating System" filter where OS equals "iOS".

<img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/mixpanel-docs/choose-filters.png" alt="Choose Filters" />

**Filter Types:**

* Event properties (e.g., Platform = "iOS")
* User properties (e.g., Country = "United States")
* Cohorts (e.g., "Power Users")

### Step 4: Apply Breakdowns

Breakdowns segment data into groups. Add a "City" breakdown to see signups by city.

<img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/mixpanel-docs/choose-breakdowns.png" alt="Choose Breakdowns" />

**Breakdown Options:**

* Event properties
* User profile properties
* Cohorts
* Custom properties

### Step 5: Choose Visualization

Select the chart type that best displays your data:

<img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/mixpanel-docs/change-visualization.png" alt="Change Visualization" />

**Available Charts:**

* **Line Chart** - Trends over time
* **Bar Chart** - Compare values across segments
* **Pie Chart** - Show composition percentages
* **Table** - View precise values
* **Metric** - Display a single key number

## Chart Types

Insights offers multiple visualizations optimized for different analysis needs:

### Time-Segmented Charts

These charts show data broken down by time intervals:

* **Line Chart** - Best for trending data over time
* **Stacked Line Chart** - Compare multiple metrics or segments
* **Column Chart** - View discrete time periods
* **Stacked Column Chart** - See composition changes over time

### Period-Aggregate Charts

These charts show totals across the entire selected period:

* **Bar Chart** - Compare segments or metrics
* **Stacked Bar Chart** - Show composition by segment
* **Pie Chart** - Visualize percentage distribution
* **Metric Chart** - Highlight a single key number
* **Table Chart** - View precise values and comparisons

## Key Features

### Formulas

Create calculated metrics using simple arithmetic operators:

```
Stickiness = DAU / MAU
Bounce Rate = (A - B) / A * 100
Average Order Value = Revenue / Orders
```

<img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/mixpanel-docs/advanced-formulas-1.png" alt="Formulas" />

**Supported Operators:**

* `+` Addition
* `-` Subtraction
* `*` Multiplication
* `/` Division
* `()` Parentheses for order of operations

<Note>
  **Save Formulas**: Enterprise and Growth plan users can save formulas for reuse across reports. This ensures consistent metric definitions across your organization.
</Note>

### Time Period Comparisons

Compare current data to previous periods to track growth and trends:

<img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/mixpanel-docs/advanced-time-period-comparison.gif" alt="Time Period Comparison" />

**Compare To:**

* Previous period (e.g., last week vs this week)
* Previous year (year-over-year growth)
* Custom date range

<Note>
  When comparing to previous years, data points falling on weekends are automatically moved to the next Monday for clearer comparison.
</Note>

### Custom Bucketing

Group high-cardinality segments into meaningful ranges:

<img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/mixpanel-docs/advanced-bucketing.png" alt="Bucketing" />

**Bucket Types:**

* **Even Buckets** - Uniform size ranges
* **Varied Buckets** - Custom ranges for detailed analysis

### Profile Analysis

Analyze user profiles based on their properties rather than events:

**Example Queries:**

* What's the total revenue across all users?
* What's the average age of our user base?
* How many users are in each country?
* What's the distribution of subscription plans?

### View Users

Click any data point to see the actual users behind the numbers:

* View a list of users contributing to that segment
* Save user lists as cohorts
* Export for further analysis
* Understand individual user journeys

## Measurements Reference

### Events

| Measurement        | Description                | Example                       |
| ------------------ | -------------------------- | ----------------------------- |
| Total Events       | Count of event occurrences | How many videos were watched? |
| Frequency per User | Events per user            | How many videos per user?     |

### Users

| Measurement  | Description                         | Example                         |
| ------------ | ----------------------------------- | ------------------------------- |
| Unique Users | Count of users who did event        | How many users watched a video? |
| DAU          | Daily active users (last 24 hours)  | Daily video watchers            |
| WAU          | Weekly active users (last 7 days)   | Weekly video watchers           |
| MAU          | Monthly active users (last 30 days) | Monthly video watchers          |

### Property Aggregations

| Measurement    | Description              | Example                    |
| -------------- | ------------------------ | -------------------------- |
| Sum            | Total of property values | Total watch time (minutes) |
| Average        | Mean of property values  | Average video length       |
| Median         | Middle value             | Median session duration    |
| Minimum        | Lowest value             | Shortest video watched     |
| Maximum        | Highest value            | Longest video watched      |
| Distinct Count | Unique property values   | Number of unique videos    |

## Advanced Features

### Analysis Settings

<img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/mixpanel-docs/rolling-cumulative.png" alt="Rolling and Cumulative" />

* **Rolling Average** - Smooth out data noise by averaging over time windows
* **Cumulative** - Show running totals that increase over time

### Dynamic vs Manual Segments

Control which segments appear in your report:

* **Dynamic Segments** - Automatically show top N segments based on current data
* **Manual Segments** - Pin specific segments to always display

### Annotations

Add notes to time-series charts to mark important events:

* Product launches
* Marketing campaigns
* System changes
* External events

Learn more about [Annotations](/docs/features/annotations).

### View Sample Events

Hover over any event to preview recent samples, helping you:

* Verify you're using the correct event
* Check which properties are available
* Understand event structure

## Date Range Guardrails

To ensure fast query performance:

* **Hourly granularity** - Maximum 31 days
* **Daily granularity** - Maximum 12 months
* **All Events queries** - Maximum 93 days
* **Cohort queries** - Maximum 93 time intervals

## Real-World Examples

### Example 1: Weekly Active Users by Platform

**Query:**

* Event: Any Event
* Measurement: Weekly Active Users (WAU)
* Breakdown: Platform
* Date Range: Last 3 months
* Visualization: Line chart

**Insight:** Track platform-specific engagement trends over time.

### Example 2: Average Session Duration

**Query:**

* Event: Session End
* Measurement: Average of "Session Duration" property
* Filter: Country = "United States"
* Date Range: Last 30 days
* Visualization: Line chart

**Insight:** Monitor how long US users spend in the app each day.

### Example 3: Revenue by Marketing Channel

**Query:**

* Event: Purchase
* Measurement: Sum of "Amount" property
* Breakdown: UTM Source
* Date Range: This month
* Visualization: Bar chart

**Insight:** Identify which marketing channels drive the most revenue.

### Example 4: Product Stickiness

**Query:**

* Metric A: DAU
* Metric B: MAU
* Formula: A / B
* Date Range: Last 6 months
* Visualization: Line chart

**Insight:** Track how engaged your user base is over time.

## Tips for Effective Analysis

<Note>
  **Start Simple**: Begin with a basic query and add complexity incrementally. This helps you understand how each element affects your results.
</Note>

<Note>
  **Use Saved Metrics**: Create saved metrics for KPIs used across multiple reports. This ensures consistency and saves time.
</Note>

<Note>
  **Explore Breakdowns**: When you see unexpected trends, add breakdowns to understand which segments are driving the change.
</Note>

<Note>
  **Check Sample Data**: Use "View Sample Events" to verify you're analyzing the right events and properties.
</Note>

## Next Steps

* Learn about [Saved Metrics and Behaviors](/docs/features/saved-metrics-and-behaviors)
* Explore [Funnels](/reports/funnels) for conversion analysis
* Create [Cohorts](/reports/cohorts) for user segmentation
* Build [Boards](/reports/boards) to monitor key metrics