title: Why is Analytics Reporting Api data not matching with Google Analytics Dashboard?
body: <p>I am working on an analytics module which pulls data from Google Analytics, Facebook and Twitter Analytics api.</p>
  
  <p>Using Analytics Reporting Api V4 to pull the data from Google Analytics.
  <code>Total number of sessions</code> value does not match with what I see on Dashboard. I am using metric <code>ga:sessions</code> to pull the number of sessions.</p>
  
  <p>In some cases, the number of sessions coming from reporting api matches with Dashboard. But not all the time. I am finding it hard to get it approved from QA without a proper explanation.</p>
  
  <p>I checked dimension filters and reporting query multiple times but couldn't find anything wrong with it. </p>
  
  <p>Added the <code>samplingLevel</code> to my report request but still seeing the same result.</p>
  
  <pre><code>ReportRequest totalNumberOfSessions = new ReportRequest().setViewId(VIEW_ID)
                  .setDateRanges(Arrays.asList(lifetime))
                  .setDimensions(Arrays.asList(custom))
                  .setDimensionFilterClauses(Arrays.asList(clause))
                  .setMetrics(Arrays.asList(sessions))
                  .setSamplingLevel("LARGE");
  </code></pre>