Just like in Universal Analytics (UA), Google Analytics allows for filters to be set up to include or exclude data based on your specific parameters. As with UA, GA4 filters are evaluated from the point of creation forward without affecting historical data. Note that filters cannot be deleted – only be flagged inactive, and there’s a maximum of 10 filters. You will want to be extremely careful when you create them!

There are two types of data filters in GA$, internal traffic and developer traffic.

Internal traffic filters allow you to include or exclude traffic from an IP address or range of IP Addresses. This allows you to filter out internal traffic from your staff that may bloat your analytics reports.

Developer traffic filters allow you to filter out traffic from debug views by filtering out parameters such as debug_mode=1 or debug_event=1.

Compared to UA, which allows you to create view-specific filters based on specific scenarios (example, a view with only traffic from relevant countries), GA4 filters seem a bit rudimentary for now. But they do cover the most basic users for filters – excluding internal office traffic and developer traffic. We are crossing our fingers and hoping the more advanced scenarios may be supported in the future!