Understanding how sessions and Session Replays are counted helps you make the most of your plan. This article explains what your plan includes, the difference between sessions and replays, and what happens if you reach your limit.
What is a session?
A session is a single visit to your site by a user. It starts when they arrive and ends when:
- They're inactive for 30 minutes
- They leave your site and don't return within 30 minutes
One user can have multiple sessions if they visit your site at different times.
Example: A user visits your homepage at 9am, browses products, and leaves. They return at 2pm to check out. That's 2 sessions.
What are sessions and session replays?
Sessions: every visit tracked by Contentsquare for analytics. You get heatmaps, funnels, journey data, and metrics for all sessions until you reach your plan limit.
Session Replays: video replays of a percentage of those sessions. Not every tracked session gets a replay, only those that fall within your plan's collection rate.
Example:
Your plan tracks 100,000 monthly sessions. On a Growth plan 15% of those sessions are captured as replays, so you get replays for a minimum of 15,000 sessions. You get analytics data for all 100,000 but you can only watch replays for the sessions that were captured.
Your sessions and session replays allocation
Every Contentsquare plan includes a session and session replay capture allocation. Here is what you get:
| Free | Growth | Pro | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly sessions | Up to 200k | 5% sessions captured (max 10k) | Defined in your contract | Defined in your contract |
| Monthly session replay capture | 7k-10m (depending on your tier) | 20,000 or 15% monthly sessions (whichever is higher) | Defined in your contract | Defined in your contract |
| Reset period | Every calendar month | Every calendar month | Contract period | Contract period |
What happens when you reach your session limit
For Free and Growth plans
When your monthly session allocation is reached, Contentsquare will stop collecting new sessions for the rest of the calendar month.
- Session Replay capture stops
- Data collection for new sessions pauses
Your existing data is safe, and you can still use Contentsquare:
- Analyze all data you've already collected
- View existing Session Replays
- Use Zoning Analysis, Heatmaps, Funnels
- Create reports and share insights
Your allocation resets on the 1st of the following month, and data collection starts again. For yearly subscriptions, the reset still occurs monthly, based on your subscription start date.
For Pro and Enterprise customers: Please speak with your Customer Success Manager to discuss your data collection allocation.
What to do if you approach your limit
For Free and Growth plans
Option 1: Upgrade your plan
Move to a higher session tier to capture more data. Click the session usage widget and use the monthly sessions dropdown to adjust your plan.
Option 2: Wait for your monthly reset
If you're close to month-end and can handle a data gap, your session allocation resets at the start of each calendar month.
Data collection will resume automatically when the new month begins.
How to check your session usage
The session allocation widget is available for Free and Growth plans.
You can monitor how much of your allocation you've used at any time:
- In the left-hand menu, use the Session usage widget.
You’ll see your sessions used this period and your remaining allocation.
FAQs
Will I get a warning before I hit my limit?
For Free and Growth customers, you'll get email notifications when approaching your limit (usually at 80-90% usage).
Can I roll over unused sessions?
Free/Growth: No. Sessions reset monthly. Unused sessions don't carry over.
Pro/Enterprise: Depends on your contract. Check with your CSM about how your allocation is structured.
If I hit my limit, do I lose my data?
No! All existing data stays safe. You just won't collect new sessions until your limit resets or is increased.
What's the difference between sessions and pageviews?
Sessions: A single visit (even if the user views multiple pages)
Pageviews: Each individual page viewed.
For example: A user visits your homepage, browses 5 products, and checks out = 1 session (not 7 pageviews).