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How to Export Percent Change in Google Analytics

Cody Schneider••8 min read

Seeing the percent change comparison in your Google Analytics reports is great, but that data disappears the moment you try to export it. If you need to include month-over-month or year-over-year performance changes in an external report or a dashboard, you're left with a manual, time-consuming workaround. This article will walk you through exactly how to calculate and export that percent change data from Google Analytics 4, so you can build the reports you need without the headache.

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Why Does Exporting Percent Change Even Matter?

Raw numbers tell a story, but percent change adds the critical context. Answering "how did we do?" is impossible without a comparison. Here’s why manually calculating and exporting this metric is often worth the effort:

  • Better Storytelling for Stakeholders: Telling your manager "we had 10,000 users from Organic Search last month" is okay. Telling them "we had 10,000 users from Organic Search, a 25% increase from the month before" is powerful. It demonstrates momentum and answers the "so what?" question before it's even asked.
  • Faster Trend Spotting: Scrolling through rows of numbers makes it hard to spot what’s important. A column of percentages immediately draws your eye to significant shifts. A -50% drop in traffic from a key channel or a +200% surge in conversions from a new campaign are signals you need to investigate right away.
  • Consistent Reporting: Most standard business reports (weekly, monthly, quarterly) rely on period-over-period comparisons to track progress toward goals. Exporting this data allows you to integrate your web analytics into larger dashboards and presentations in a format everyone understands.

The Problem: GA4 Exports Don’t Include Comparison Data

If this process feels overly complicated, you’re not wrong. The core issue is that the percent change data you see in the Google Analytics 4 interface is a dynamic overlay, not a part of the raw data set. When you select a comparison date range, GA4 fetches a second set of data and visually layers it on top of your current report, calculating the difference on the fly.

When you click the export button (whether to CSV, Google Sheets, or PDF), you are only exporting the primary data table, not the comparison overlay. All those helpful comparison columns and percentages simply vanish. To get them into a spreadsheet, you have to recreate GA4's process manually.

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Method 1: The Manual Two-Export Spreadsheet Technique

This is the most straightforward method and doesn't require any special add-ons. You'll export two separate CSV files from Google Analytics and then combine them in Google Sheets or Excel to calculate the percentage difference.

Step 1: Set Up Your Initial Report in GA4

First, navigate to the standard report you want to analyze. For this example, we’ll use the Traffic Acquisition report.

  1. Go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition.
  2. Select your primary date range in the top right corner. Let's use "Last 30 days."
  3. To see the comparison in the interface, toggle on the "Compare" switch and select "Previous period." Click Apply. You will now see the percent change columns in the report view. As we discussed, these are what will disappear upon export.

Step 2: Export Data for the Current Period

This is the crucial part. You need to export the data for each period separately.

  1. First, turn off the "Compare" toggle. This is important to ensure you're only exporting the clean data for your primary date range. The date range should still be "Last 30 days."
  2. Click the "Share this report" icon in the top right (looks like an arrow coming out of a box).
  3. Select "Download File" and then choose "Download CSV."
  4. Save this file with a clear name, such as GA_Current_Period.csv.

Step 3: Export Data for the Previous Period

Now, you'll grab the data for the comparison period.

  1. In the GA4 date range selector, change the dates to your comparison period. If your current period was May 1 - May 30, this period would be April 1 - April 30. Using the "Previous period" preset earlier makes this simple.
  2. With the new date range selected, once again click "Share this report" > "Download File" > "Download CSV."
  3. Save this second file with a distinct name, like GA_Previous_Period.csv.

Step 4: Combine the Data in a Spreadsheet

Open up Google Sheets or Excel and create a new workbook. Now it's time to merge your two files.

  1. Create two new tabs in your spreadsheet. Name them "Current Period" and "Previous Period."
  2. Copy and paste the data from GA_Current_Period.csv into the "Current Period" tab.
  3. Copy and paste the data from GA_Previous_Period.csv into the "Previous Period" tab.
  4. Create a third tab and name it "Calculation." This is where you’ll build your final report.
  5. In the "Calculation" tab, copy and paste the main dimension and the metric you want to compare from your "Current Period" sheet. For our example, this would be the ‘Session default channel group’ column and the ‘Sessions’ column.

Step 5: Use VLOOKUP to Align Your Data

To calculate the difference, you need to pull the session numbers from the "Previous Period" sheet and place them right next to the corresponding "Current Period" sessions. A VLOOKUP formula is perfect for this.

In your "Calculation" sheet, in the cell next to your first row of current period data (e.g., cell C2), enter the following formula:

=VLOOKUP(A2, 'Previous Period'!A:B, 2, FALSE)

Let’s break that down:

  • A2 is the lookup value - the channel name like "Organic Search" you want to find.
  • 'Previous Period'!A:B is the table you are searching within. You're telling the formula to look in columns A and B of your "Previous Period" tab.
  • 2 tells VLOOKUP to return the value from the 2nd column of that table (the 'Sessions' column).
  • FALSE ensures an exact match of the channel name.

Drag this formula down the column. You should now have your current period's sessions side-by-side with your previous period's sessions.

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Step 6: Calculate the Percent Change

With your data aligned, the final calculation is straightforward. The formula for percent change is: * (New Value - Old Value) / Old Value*.

In the next empty column (e.g., cell D2), enter the formula based on your cell locations:

=(B2 - C2) / C2

Where B2 is the current sessions and C2 is the previous sessions. Format this column as a percentage. Voilà! You have now manually calculated the percent change.

Bonus Tip: Handling Errors

If a channel had 0 sessions in the previous period, the formula will return a #DIV/0! error. You can clean this up by wrapping your formula in an IFERROR function. You can have it return "N/A" for clarity, or even 1 (for 100% growth) if you prefer.

=IFERROR(((B2 - C2) / C2), "N/A")

Method 2: Use the Google Analytics Add-on for Google Sheets

If this is a report you'll need to create regularly, the manual CSV export gets tedious. Using the official Google Analytics Spreadsheet Add-on for Google Sheets automates the data-pulling step, saving you time each week or month.

Step 1: Install the Add-on

  1. In Google Sheets, go to Extensions > Add-ons > Get add-ons.
  2. Search for "Google Analytics" and install the official add-on from Google.
  3. Allow the necessary permissions to connect it to your Google account.

Step 2: Create Your Reports

The add-on works by setting up report configurations in a special tab.

  1. Go to Extensions > Google Analytics > Create a new report.
  2. Give your report a name (e.g., "Monthly Traffic - Current").
  3. Select the correct GA4 account and property.
  4. Under "Configuration Options," choose your desired Start and End Dates for the current period.
  5. Select your Metrics (e.g., sessions, totalUsers) and Dimensions (e.g., sessionDefaultChannelGroup).
  6. Click "Create Report."

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Step 3: Duplicate for the Comparison Period

You’ll need to repeat the process for your comparison period.

  1. Go back to Extensions > Google Analytics > Create a new report.
  2. Name this report something new, like "Monthly Traffic - Previous."
  3. Keep all the same settings, but change the Start and End Dates to reflect your comparison period.
  4. Click "Create Report."

You should now see two configuration columns in the "Report Configuration" sheet that was generated.

Step 4: Run the Reports and Calculate

Now, run the integration:

  1. Go to Extensions > Google Analytics > Run reports.
  2. The add-on will execute your configurations, pulling the data into two new sheets, each correctly named after your reports.
  3. From here, the process is the same as in Method 1. Create a new "Calculation" tab and use VLOOKUP and the percent change formula to combine and analyze the data from the two new output sheets.

The big advantage now is that next month, you don't need to re-export any CSV files. You simply update the date ranges in the "Report Configuration" tab and re-run the reports via the add-on.

Final Thoughts

Getting percent change data out of Google Analytics isn't a one-click process, but it's essential for meaningful reporting. By either exporting two separate CSVs for a quick analysis or setting up an automated A/B data pull with the Google Sheets Add-on for recurring reports, you can build the period-over-period comparisons that truly show performance trends.

Once you get used to this workflow, it's manageable, but it’s still manual spreadsheet wrangling. This is one of the key frustrations we wanted to solve when we built Graphed. Instead of dealing with multiple exports and VLOOKUPs, we connect directly to your Google Analytics account so you can just ask in plain language: "Show me sessions by channel for last month compared to the previous month." We instantly build a live dashboard with the percent change already calculated for you, all without you touching a CSV. With Graphed, you get straight to the insights instead of losing time building spreadsheets.

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