Update January 29th, 2024 – UA codes are now depreciated and are no longer firing data even if they are present on the website. GA4 (Google Tag) implementations of Analytics are now the dominant implementation. For that, I recommend the Google Tag Assistant. However I have updated below with a sections on how to find your GA4 Google Tag on your website, because that can be a bit challenging to find.

Often times I need to quickly reference a UA code (UA-xxxxxxxx-x). Clarifying the active UA code can help you make sure you are accessing and inviting others to the live version of your tracking code. Sometimes I’ll be requesting access to a specific Property by looking at the source code and finding the active Property UA. Or I may be clarifying the correct Property with my client. Here’s how to to both.

Finding the Google Tag (G-xxxxxxx) in Google Analytics

The Google Tag in Analytics is located in the Data Stream in the admin. Navigate to the settings (gear icon in the bottom corner). Then located and select “Data Streams” in the Data Collection and modification section. Then select the correct data stream. The Google Tag will be the “Measurement ID” at the top right.

If you see more than one data stream use the Tag Assistant to find the correct tag that is present on the domain you are using.

Finding the UA Code in Google Analytics

There are several methods to quickly find your Google Analytics Property UA number (UA-xxxxxxxx-x). First, sign in to Google Analytics.

The fastest way to find the UA code for each property, is to click “All Accounts” at the top of the screen to activate the dropdown menu, then locate the account and in the middle column and you will see the UA number below the Property (see screenshot). You may find that you have access to several different Accounts and Properties. Note, the UA code is set at the property level, each view will have additional numbers (identifiers) amended to the end of the property UA code.

The secondary way to find the UA code, is to click the gear icon on the bottom left of the screen. The find “Tracking Info” in the middle column (make sure you are in the correct property first). Click on “Tracking Code” and the UA code will be present at the top of the page.

Finding the Active Google GA4 Google Tag Code on the Website

As mentioned above Google Tag Assistant is the best method. Try it here: https://tagassistant.google.com

Finding the Active Google UA Code on the Website

Open the website url in a desktop browser. You will need to locate the html source code of the website; also know as “view source” function. Depending on your browser of choice there will be different methods to find the source code; either by mouse, or by keyboard shortcuts.

Here are some typical keyboard shortcuts for various browsers to view source code of a website:

• On Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge: ctrl + U
• On Safari: Command + Option + U

Or by mouse, find your browser settings; commonly referred to as “Tools,” “Web Developer,” “Settings,” “Page Source.”

To quickly find the UA code in the code, open up your browser on-page search function. This is usually a similar keyboard shortcut such as ctrl+ F, or Command + Option + F (Mac). Search using just “UA-” and you should find it quickly.

What if you don’t see any codes in the website source code or Tag Assistant?

1. It may not be present in the code. Meaning it is not tracking.
2. (only if using view source) It may be located in a javascript file. You can try to track it down in the code by clicking files, or you can download a tag identifier like Tag Assistant (by Google) —  an extension for Chrome — there are other tag identifiers out there.
3. (only if using view source)The website may be using Tag Manager instead of the Analytics Global Site Tag. If they’re using Tag Manager, then you will need Tag Assistant to view the UA code (see previous). You can search for the presents of Tag Manager by searching the source code for “gtm-“.