The Retention Analysis chart: an overview

Amplitude’s Retention Analysis chart helps you drive product adoption by showing you how often users return to your product after taking a specific action (known as triggering an event). 

Amplitude computes retention data by comparing the date of that starting event to the date of the return event you’ve specified. The return event is the event that, when triggered, tells you a user has been retained. When building a retention analysis chart, you can choose any event you like for both the starting and return events. You can also opt not to choose a specific event, and instead tell Amplitude to use any active event.

NOTE: You may also find this course on retention analysis helpful.

You can select up to two return events for your retention analysis. Each event will have its own analysis, and will appear as a separate segment in the chart.

The Retention Analysis chart’s usage interval shows the percentage of active users who’ve triggered the events you’re interested in with a specified daily, weekly, or monthly median frequency. Essentially, it shows how much time elapses between a user firing your product’s critical event. This is a vital piece of your retention analysis puzzle. Knowing how often your product is actually used will help you gauge the health of your product when looking at Retention Analysis and Lifecycle charts.

Before you begin

You won’t be able to use the Retention Analysis chart—or any other Amplitude chart, for that matter—until you’ve completed the instrumentation process. You'll definitely want to read our article on building charts in Amplitude, as this is where you'll learn the basics of Amplitude's user interface. 

Also, if you’re new to Amplitude, we recommend you read about our Event Segmentation chart before moving on to Retention Analysis. You may also want to check out our playbook on mastering retention.

Create a new Retention Analysis chart

To open a new Retention Analysis chart, click Create New > Analysis, then select Retention from the list of available charts.

When you’re ready, see our Help Center articles on building a Retention Analysis chart and on interpreting your retention analysis to continue.