Mixpanel Glossary

Use this glossary to get familiar with the concepts that power Mixpanel—from data tracking and privacy to growth metrics and product strategy.

Browse by category, or jump directly to the A–Z list.

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A–Z Glossary

Active User

People who currently use your product—distinct from just “users.”
Active users can be segmented as Daily Active Users (DAU), Weekly Active Users (WAU), or Monthly Active Users (MAU) in Mixpanel.
Learn more about tracking user activity in Events.

Alias

A related user account used to connect two user profiles and their data.
In Mixpanel, alias() links an anonymous user to a known user ID once they sign up or log in.
See Identity Management.

Annotation

Short text notes applied to data to provide context.
Use annotations in Mixpanel charts to mark events like releases or campaigns.

Autocapture

Mixpanel’s SDKs automatically capture key user interactions (e.g., clicks, pageviews, form submissions) without manual instrumentation.
Learn more in Events.

Business Associate Agreement (BAA)

A legal document defining how Mixpanel or other vendors handle Protected Health Information (PHI) in compliance with HIPAA.

Business to Business (B2B)

Selling products or services to other businesses rather than to individual consumers.

Business to Consumer (B2C)

Selling products or services directly to individual customers rather than to businesses.

Bounce Rate

The percentage of sessions where users had only one pageview, no autocaptured events, and spent less than 10 seconds on the page.
High bounce rates can indicate low engagement or poor onboarding experiences.

Dashboard

A collection of multiple saved insights, reports, and metrics in one view for collaboration.
Mixpanel dashboards help teams monitor key metrics in real time.
See Dashboards.

Daily Active Users (DAU)

The number of distinct users who engage with your product each day.
Used to measure engagement and growth trends.
Learn more in Events.

Data Lake

A centralized repository for storing raw, unstructured data.
Data lakes are flexible for large-scale storage and exploration but require transformation for analysis.

Data Warehouse

A system for storing processed, structured data optimized for analysis and reporting.
Commonly used to feed Mixpanel via pipelines or ETL tools.

Dormant User

A user who has not completed a specific action in the current period but did in the previous one.
Tracking dormant users helps teams identify reactivation opportunities.

Feature Flag

A configuration that controls whether a feature is visible or active for certain user groups.
Feature flags allow for safe rollouts and A/B testing.
See Experiments.

First-party Cookies

Data packets served by your own website to store user preferences and enable consistent analytics across sessions.

Formula

An equation or expression that combines or modifies data from one or more series (e.g., dividing active users by new users).
In Mixpanel, formulas can be used to create ratios or derived metrics in reports.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

A European Union regulation that governs how personal data is collected, processed, and stored.
Mixpanel supports GDPR compliance through data controls and deletion tools.
See Privacy and Compliance.

Go-to Market (GTM)

The plan and process for bringing a new product or feature to market, including target audience, messaging, and launch tactics.

Groups

Used in Mixpanel to analyze entities beyond individual users—like companies, teams, or devices—by grouping related events.
Learn more in Group Analytics.

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

A U.S. law that sets standards for protecting sensitive health information (PHI).
Mixpanel offers HIPAA-compliant plans for customers handling medical data.
See Privacy and Compliance.

Identify

The process of linking an event or session to a known user by assigning a unique identifier.
In Mixpanel, identify() ties events to a user profile across sessions.
See Identity Management.

Ingestion

The process of getting event data into Mixpanel from SDKs, APIs, or integrations.
See Data Pipelines and Ingestion.

Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)

A potential customer who has shown enough engagement or fit to be passed from marketing to sales for further qualification.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

The simplest version of a product that allows a team to validate assumptions or test a concept quickly with real users.

Month-on-Month (MOM)

A measure comparing performance or metrics from one month to the next.
Often used to assess growth momentum or seasonality.

Multivariate Test

An experiment that tests more than two variants at once to understand the combined effect of multiple changes on user behavior.
See Experiments.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

A customer satisfaction metric that measures how likely users are to recommend your product to others.
Typically gathered through surveys asking, “How likely are you to recommend us?”

New User

Someone who was first identified within a defined period—such as their first session or signup week.
Useful for measuring acquisition and onboarding effectiveness.

Path

A visualization showing the sequence of actions users take in your product.
In Mixpanel, Path reports help identify drop-offs and common user flows.
See Paths.

Personal Health Information (PHI)

Information about an individual’s health status or healthcare that can be linked to a specific person.
Covered under HIPAA and often referenced in BAAs.

Personally Identifying Information (PII)

Any information that can directly or indirectly identify a user, such as names, email addresses, or device IDs.
See Privacy and Compliance.

Session

A period of continuous user activity within your product.
Sessions can be defined by a time window or event-based logic.
Learn more in Sessions.

Software Development Kit (SDK)

A set of tools and libraries that allow developers to send events and user data from their apps to Mixpanel.
SDKs are available for JavaScript, iOS, Android, and server-side environments.
See Implementing SDKs.

Stickiness

A metric showing how frequently users perform an action within a given time period.
For example, it helps track how many users return daily or weekly to use a key feature.
See Retention and Stickiness.

Third-party Cookies

Cookies set by external domains or services, often used for advertising or cross-site tracking.
Mixpanel primarily relies on first-party data for analytics.