TL;DR:
Bounce rate is the percentage of visits in which a person views a single page and then leaves without a second pageview or a tracked interaction. A high bounce rate can mean the page did not hold attention, or that it answered the question in one page. It is only meaningful read alongside the page's job and its traffic source.
Bounce rate is one of the oldest analytics metrics and one of the most misread. At its simplest it answers: of the people who arrived, how many left after a single page without doing anything else? It is a share, not a count, and on its own it is neither good nor bad, context is the whole story.
How bounce rate is calculated
Bounce rate is single-page visits divided by total visits, as a percentage. If 100 people land on a page and 60 leave without viewing a second page or triggering a tracked event, the bounce rate is 60%. What counts as "not bouncing" depends on the tool: classic analytics counted a second pageview, while GA4 reframed it around whether a session was "engaged".
What counts as a bounce (and the GA4 twist)
In Universal Analytics, a bounce was a session with a single pageview and no other hits. GA4 flipped it: it measures engagement rate (sessions that lasted over 10 seconds, had a conversion, or had two or more pageviews), and bounce rate is simply the inverse. So a GA4 bounce rate is not directly comparable to an old Universal Analytics one, a difference that trips up anyone comparing historical numbers.
What is a good bounce rate?
There is no universal number, and any "average bounce rate by industry" you see is usually content farms recycling each other's figures. It depends entirely on the page's job. A blog post or a documentation page that answers the question in one screen should have a high bounce rate, the visitor got what they came for. A pricing page or a signup funnel with a high bounce rate is a problem. Read bounce rate against intent, not against a benchmark.
- High bounce rate on a reference or blog page: often fine, the page did its job.
- High bounce rate on a landing or pricing page: worth investigating.
- Bounce rate paired with the traffic source: paid traffic that bounces is money leaving; organic that bounces may just be a good answer.
Bounce rate is most useful next to where the visit came from and what the page is for. A single number with no context is the metric's most common misuse.
Open Analytics shows bounce rate beside the source and journey that produced it, cookieless, and readable at a glance.
See how it worksFrequently asked questions
- What is a good bounce rate?
- It depends on the page's job. A blog or documentation page that answers a question in one screen can have a high bounce rate and still be doing its job; a landing or checkout page with a high bounce rate usually signals a problem. Read it against intent and traffic source rather than a generic industry average.
- Why is my bounce rate different in GA4?
- Because GA4 changed the definition. Universal Analytics counted a bounce as a single-pageview session; GA4 measures engagement rate (sessions over 10 seconds, with a conversion, or with 2+ pageviews) and reports bounce rate as its inverse. GA4 and Universal Analytics bounce rates are not directly comparable.
- Is a high bounce rate bad?
- Not necessarily. If a page exists to answer one question (a blog post, a reference page) a high bounce rate means visitors got what they came for. It is only a warning sign on pages meant to lead somewhere next, like a landing page or a funnel step.