This guide explains important information about the data you see in audience
exports.

## Data freshness

Audience export data freshness is how long it takes Google Analytics
to collect events, process events, and then update user membership
in your audiences. For example, if that process takes 24 hours, then the
audience export data freshness is 24 hours. For more information, see
[Data Freshness](https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/11198161).

Audience export data freshness averages 24 hours. You might not see users
in audience exports for events that took place less than 24 hours ago. For
example, if a user completes their first purchase, and then 7 hours
later you create an audience export for the "Purchasers" audience,
you likely won't see the user in that audience export. After 14 to 38 hours,
it's likely you will see the user in new audience exports.

> [!NOTE]
> **Note:** We recommend only requesting an audience export once per day, per audience.

Audience membership data is updated once per day, typically during
daylight hours in the property's timezone. This means that
audience exports for the same audience at 9 AM and 11 AM will likely
return the same data, but a new audience export later that day might include
new data, if your membership data is updated in the afternoon.

## Audience exports are snapshots

Audience exports are lists of users in an audience at a specific point in
time. When you create an audience export with the Data API, that audience export
represents a snapshot of the users in that audience about 24 hours before you
made that request. Audience exports from the Data API are static, so you must
create a new audience export to see the most recent data for that audience.

In contrast, for [Google Ads remarketing](https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9313634),
Google Analytics automatically and continuously exports users in
audiences to Google Ads, so you don't need to manually request new audience
data.

## Data expiration

Audience exports expire after 72 hours. New users might enter and exit an
audience each day. To view the latest users in an audience, you need to
create new audience exports each day.

## User limits

When the size of an audience or property exceeds a user limit,
audience exports return representative samples of the audience.

These limits depend on your property type, for example a standard or
360 property, and are enforced in each audience export request.

Returned users are users in the requested audience, and considered
users are users that may or may not be a member of the audience.

| Limit Type | Standard Property Limits | Analytics 360 Property Limits |
|---|---|---|
| Max returned users | 2 million | 200 million |
| Max considered users | 10 million | 1 billion |

## Reporting identity consistency

[Reporting identity](https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10976610)
decides how users are deduplicated in reports.

> [!IMPORTANT]
> **Important:** Audience exports don't change based on the reporting identity setting.

Audience exports always identify users by
[user ID](https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9355972), then device ID.
This means
that reports on an audience can show more users than the
audience export returns. For example, if the reporting identity is
"Device based", then reports don't deduplicate based on user ID,
but audience exports do.

## Backfill consistency

When you create an audience in Google Analytics and turn on Google Ads
remarketing, Google Analytics
[backfills that audience in Google Ads](https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9313634)
with recently added members. However, Google Analytics reports and
audience exports don't contain backfilled audience memberships.
A user must log an event after the audience is created for Google Analytics
reports and audience exports to show the user in that audience.

For example, if a user logs a purchase event on June 20th, and you
create a "Purchasers" audience on June 21st, then you likely need to
wait until June 22nd to see that user in new audience exports. However, that
user will only be in the audience export if the user has logged any event on
June 21st.

## User count reporting

The total user count displayed in the [Audience report](https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/12931462)
and the [Audiences](https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/#/?pagename=admin-audiences&utm_source=gahc&utm_medium=dlinks)
management page in the Google Analytics UI may differ from the number of users
in an audience export.

The *total users* metric in the Google Analytics UI reports shows historical
audience memberships at the time of the event, whereas an audience export
contains only memberships that haven't expired due to the audience membership
duration setting.

For example, if the audience membership duration setting is 30 days, and you
report on audience total users in the Google Analytics UI over the last year,
you might observe 12 times more users in the Google Analytics UI versus in the
audience export *(12 = 365/30)*.