How to Share Exploration in Google Analytics 4

GA4's Exploration reports are one of its most powerful features, letting you dig deeper into your data than the standard reports allow. But once you've built the perfect funnel visualization or pathing analysis, you'll need to share it with your team or clients. This article will walk you through how to share GA4 Explorations with other users and how to export them for stakeholders who don't have GA4 access.

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First, A Quick Refresher: What Are GA4 Explorations?

Before jumping into sharing, let's briefly touch on what Explorations are and why they're so valuable. Standard reports in Google Analytics 4 (like the Traffic Acquisition report) are great for a high-level overview. They are pre-built and provide a solid snapshot of your key metrics.

Explorations, on the other hand, are a suite of advanced analysis techniques that let you go beyond the surface level. Instead of just viewing pre-made reports, you create your own from scratch using different visualization templates. These include:

• Funnel exploration: See the steps users take to complete a key action and where they drop off.
• Path exploration: Visualize the paths users take after opening your app or visiting a page.
• Segment overlap: Find out how different user segments (e.g., Mobile Users vs. Desktop Users) overlap and interact.
• User exploration: Isolate and examine the behavior of individual users (based on anonymous IDs).
• Free form: The most flexible option, allowing you to build custom tables and charts like pivot tables in a spreadsheet.

You find these valuable insights by going to the Explore section in the left-hand navigation menu of GA4. Once you’ve built a report that uncovers a key trend or answers a business question, the next logical step is to share it.

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The Main Limitation: Who Can You Share With?

Here’s the most important thing to understand about sharing Explorations in GA4: you can only share them with other users who have access to the same GA4 property.

This is a major point of confusion for many users. Unlike sharing a Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio) report or a Google Doc, clicking "share" in an Exploration doesn't generate a public link you can email to anyone. Sharing is an internal function designed for collaboration within your GA4 property.

When you share an Exploration, the recipients get read-only access to your report's structure and configuration. They can't directly edit your original version, but they can duplicate it to create their own editable copy. This is a great feature because it prevents someone from accidentally altering the valuable report you spent so much time building.

How to Share an Exploration Report (Step-by-Step)

If your team members or stakeholders already have Viewer, Analyst, or Editor access to your GA4 property, sharing an Exploration is a straightforward process. It’s not about sending them a link, it's about making your report visible in their Exploration hub.

Follow these simple steps:

1. Navigate to the Explorations Hub: In the left-hand menu of your GA4 property, click on the "Explore" icon.
2. Open Your Report: From the list of your saved Explorations, click to open the one you want to share.
3. Find the "Share" Icon: In the top-right corner of the interface, you'll see a small icon of three circles connected by lines. This is the share button. If an exploration cannot be shared (due to certain configurations being used), this icon will be grayed out.
4. Click to Share: Simply click this icon. You won't see a pop-up asking for email addresses or generating a link. The interface will simply confirm that the exploration is now shared. The icon will also change to indicate its shared status.

What Happens After You Share?

Once you’ve shared the report, your team members with GA4 access can find it by navigating to their own Exploration hub (Explore > Explorations). They will see your report in the list, often with a note indicating it was "Shared by [Your Name]."

Again, they can't edit your original, but they can play with the date ranges, add filtered comparisons, or create a duplicate to modify further. This makes it perfect for sharing templates or foundational reports that different team members can then customize for their own needs.

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Unsharing an Exploration

Decided you no longer want a report to be visible to others? The process is just as easy. Simply open the shared Exploration, click the very same share icon in the top right, and it will be unshared, reverting to a private report visible only to you.

What If Your Stakeholder Doesn't Have GA4 Access? Use Exporting Options

The "share" feature is great for internal teams, but more often than not, you'll need to send your findings to someone outside the GA4 ecosystem - a client, your boss, or someone in another department. In these cases, you’ll need to export the report. GA4 provides a few different formats for this, located right next to the share icon under a similar-looking downward arrow icon.

1. Export as a PDF

PDF is the quickest way to share a visual snapshot of your Exploration. It's a "what you see is what you get" format that preserves the charts and tables as they appear on your screen. This is ideal for including in presentations, reports, or sending a quick summary via email.

How to Export a PDF:

• Make sure your Exploration is configured with the correct date range, segments, and filters. Everything you see on the screen is what will be exported.
• Click the export icon (downward arrow) in the top right.
• Select "Download File" and then choose "PDF".
• If your Exploration has multiple tabs or many rows of data resulting in multiple pages, you have the option to download "All pages (PDF)".

Pros: Quick, easy, and preserves the visual layout of your report.

Cons: The data is static and not interactive. The formatting can sometimes be clunky for particularly long tables.

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2. Export to Google Sheets or CSV/TSV

If the person you're sharing with needs to dig into the raw numbers, manipulate the data, or create their own charts, exporting to a spreadsheet is the best option.

How to Export to a Spreadsheet:

• Again, set up your report with the correct parameters first.
• Click the export icon in the top right.
• Under "Export Data," you can choose from:

Pros: Provides raw, unformatted data that can be used for deeper analysis, custom calculations, or building visualizations in other tools like Excel.

Cons: Loses all the visual context from GA4. Funnel and path charts will become simple data tables, requiring the recipient to rebuild the story from the numbers.

Tips for Making Your Shared Reports More Useful

Whether you're sharing directly in GA4 or exporting a file, a little preparation goes a long way. Help your audience understand what they're looking at with these tips:

1. Give Your Exploration a Descriptive Name: Don't leave your report with the default name like "Untitled Exploration." Change it to something that provides immediate context, such as "Q4 Blog Performance - Funnel to Newsletter Signup" or "US vs. Canada Mobile User Behavior."
2. Use Analysis Tabs Strategically: An Exploration can have multiple tabs, each with a different technique or view. You could create one tab with a free-form table showing key metrics and another tab with a funnel visualization. This keeps your analysis organized in one place.
3. Add Context: When sending an exported PDF or spreadsheet, don't just attach the file and hit send. In your email or message, explain what the report shows, what insights you discovered, and what period it covers. Example: "Hi Rachel, attached is the funnel report we discussed. Note the major drop-off between the 'Add to Cart' and 'Begin Checkout' steps between May 1-31."

Final Thoughts

Learning how to share GA4 Explorations effectively is about understanding your audience. For collaborators with GA4 access, the built-in share feature provides a seamless way to share interactive, read-only reports. For anyone without access, exporting your findings as a PDF for a visual summary or as a CSV for deeper data analysis is the best path forward.

Mastering these workflows is an important step, but if you're looking to streamline the entire reporting process and avoid managing user permissions or constantly exporting files, there's a simpler alternative. We built Graphed to connect directly to all your crucial data sources, including Google Analytics. You can use simple, natural language to instantly build live dashboards and share them with your entire team via a simple URL. Instead of having to log into GA4, they get a real-time, interactive view of performance, empowering them to get answers without having to ask you to pull a new report every time.