How far behind real time is analytics?

I am trying to find out how far from real time is google analytics. Ie if i log on now and log at todays visitors does it include visitors from the last hour/15 mins/5mins?
Also can someone recommend a real time reporter?

 

They always say 2 to 3 hours behind, but in reality to get a full report of the day's trends I'd reckon 24 hours.
Statcounter is probably your best option for real time stats

 

Whether Google is 2 or3 hours behind makes no difference because they do not provide the reports until the following day.

 

I think its around 24 hours.

 

I can only look up Google analytics every 24 hours. Is there a way to do it hourly?

 

Thanks for that information magda!

 

wait for 24 hour

 

24 hours dude. Not only this. All Google's services lacks this time except search. I dont know why. I use Statcounter and you can have some widgets like Revolver Maps or Wowzio to know your real time stats. I have them in my blog at http://www.novicebloggers.com/ It will show who is viewing my blog and from which country etc.., It helps much. I use analytics only to see the increase or decrease in the last week or month.

 

Around 24 hours. Google actually update more frequently, even you can check the data of around 3 - 4 hours old, however, it is not reliable. This is why by default the date selection only includes through yesterday. You can select to get today's data, but it can't be guaranteed accurate or timely.

If you wish to use real time analytics tool, then you can use statcounter.com.

 

I also find that you can get data from the last few hours but it's not reliable (usually it shows lower traffic than it should). Only after about 24 hours will the data become reliable.

 

it depend on update cycle that is 1 to 60-70 min
so time vary between this to produce report.

 

It's will Update in 1 to 2 Hours Late so you still have to wait for that time.

 

I think there is about a 3 hour delay...or was last time i checked.

 

Thanks for your amazing tip.

 

never mind GA. best way statcounter. They are really great. Only if they could give us 1000 or 2000 free. Anyway 500 is better than nothing!

 

wait for 24 hour

 

i think it's 2-3 hours however it's healthier for you to check it the next day
so that you can see more comprehensive report...

 

its only 10 min behind

 

and as far as I recall: Today and yesterday are relative. Google uses Pacific Time, or ?

 

Okay - I got the definitive answer to this today from a Google engineer.
Data that's collected that doesn't need to aggregated or calculated is available in around 2 hours - basically this means page views.
Metrics that have to be calculated are 'crunched' and sent out at the end of the day (that;'ll be end of day where their servers are)