documentation/content/en/methods/admin/retention.md

---

title: retention API methods description: Show retention data over time. menu: docs:

name: retention
parent: methods-admin
identifier: methods-admin-retention

aliases: [ "/methods/admin/retention", "/api/methods/admin/retention",

]

Calculate retention data {#create}

POST /api/v1/admin/retention HTTP/1.1

Generate a retention data report for a given time period and bucket.

Returns: Array of Admin::Cohort\ OAuth: User token + admin:read\ Permissions: View Dashboard\ Version history:\ 3.5.0 - added\ 4.0.0 - support custom roles and permissions

Request

Headers

Authorization : {{}} Provide this header with Bearer <user token> to gain authorized access to this API method.

Form data parameters

start_at : {{}} String (ISO 8601 Datetime). The start date for the time period. If a time is provided, it will be ignored.

end_at : {{}} String (ISO 8601 Datetime). The end date for the time period. If a time is provided, it will be ignored.

frequency : {{}} String (Enumerable oneOf). Specify whether to use day or month buckets. If any other value is provided, defaults to day.

Response

200: OK

Monthly retention data for the month of 2022-09, given that 2 users registered during 2022-09 and were active at least once during that month.

[
	{
		"period": "2022-09-01T00:00:00+00:00",
		"frequency": "month",
		"data": [
			{
					"date": "2022-09-01T00:00:00+00:00",
					"rate": 1.0,
					"value": "2"
			}
		]
	}
]

Daily retention data for the week between 2022-09-08 and 2022-09-14, given that 2 users registered on 2022-09-08 and 1 of those users stopped being active after 2022-09-09.

[
  {
    "period": "2022-09-08T00:00:00+00:00",
    "frequency": "day",
    "data": [
      {
        "date": "2022-09-08T00:00:00+00:00",
        "rate": 1,
        "value": "2"
      },
      {
        "date": "2022-09-09T00:00:00+00:00",
        "rate": 1,
        "value": "2"
      },
      {
        "date": "2022-09-10T00:00:00+00:00",
        "rate": 0.5,
        "value": "1"
      },
      // ...
      {
        "date": "2022-09-14T00:00:00+00:00",
        "rate": 0.5,
        "value": "1"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "period": "2022-09-09T00:00:00+00:00",
    "frequency": "day",
    "data": [
      {
        "date": "2022-09-09T00:00:00+00:00",
        "rate": 0,
        "value": "0"
      },
		// ...
      {
        "date": "2022-09-14T00:00:00+00:00",
        "rate": 0,
        "value": "0"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "period": "2022-09-10T00:00:00+00:00",
    "frequency": "day",
    "data": [
      {
        "date": "2022-09-10T00:00:00+00:00",
        "rate": 0,
        "value": "0"
      },
		// ...
      {
        "date": "2022-09-14T00:00:00+00:00",
        "rate": 0,
        "value": "0"
      }
    ]
  },
  // ...
  {
    "period": "2022-09-14T00:00:00+00:00",
    "frequency": "day",
    "data": [
      {
        "date": "2022-09-14T00:00:00+00:00",
        "rate": 0,
        "value": "0"
      }
    ]
  }
]

If any of the parameters are missing, cohort calculation will fail and an empty array will be returned.

[]

403: Forbidden

Authorized user is missing a permission, or invalid or missing Authorization header

{
  "error": "This action is not allowed"
}

---

See also

{{< caption-link url="https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/blob/main/app/controllers/api/v1/admin/retention_controller.rb" caption="app/controllers/api/v1/admin/retention_controller.rb" >}}