D7 Retention %, PostHog

D7 Retention % for PostHog stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it.

Metrics type: Key Metrics • Category: Analytics

At a glance

D7 Retention % is a retention metric tracked from PostHog data. It measures the share of users who returned and were active 7 days after their first visit. PostHog builds it from cohort retention analysis. D7 is the early-warning twin of D30: it reacts much faster to onboarding, product, and lifecycle changes, so a moving D7 tells you whether a recent change is helping or hurting weeks before D30 confirms it.

What it counts	The percentage of a cohort still active 7 days after their first activity.
Sample type	Backend API data from PostHog retention insights, refreshed on the standard data refresh.
Why it matters	D7 is the fast retention signal. It catches the effect of onboarding and lifecycle changes early, while there is still time to react.
Reading the value	Compare against the prior period and your baseline. A drop of more than 5 percentage points versus baseline is flagged.
Currency	percent
Time window	30D vsP
Alert trigger	drop >5pp vs baseline
Sentiment key	ph_retention_d7
Roles	owner, marketing

Calculation

Calculated automatically from your PostHog data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.

Worked example

A representative reading of D7 Retention % for a typical merchant on PostHog. Suppose D7 holds around 28% for months. After a welcome-flow change on 10 May 26, the next cohorts return at 21%, a 7pp drop that crosses the alert. Because D7 reacts in a week rather than a month, you catch the regression early enough to revert before it cascades into D30. Cross-reference New vs Returning Users to see whether the change altered who returns, and D30 Retention to track the longer effect. For deeper investigation, use Vortex Mind to trace upstream causes; for natural-language exploration, ask Ask Viq.

Sibling cards merchants should reference together

Card	Why merchants reach for it
ph_retention_d30	Retention sibling: the 30-day horizon.
ph_stickiness	Retention sibling: DAU as a share of MAU.
ph_new_vs_returning	Retention sibling: new-to-returning mix.
ph_dau	Executive sibling: Daily Active Users.
pos_returning_users	Audience sibling: returning users count.

Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard

Where to look in PostHog’s own dashboard:

In PostHog, open a Retention insight and read the day-7 column of the cohort grid. The percentage there should align with this card. As with D30, the retention event and the recurring-versus-first-time setting are the main levers.

Why the Vortex IQ value may legitimately differ:

Reason	Direction	What to do
Retention event. “Any event” versus a specific action changes the rate.	Variable	Match the retention event.
Recurring vs first-time. The two retention types give different curves.	Variable	Confirm the retention type.
Cohort maturity. Cohorts younger than 7 days have no D7 value yet.	Variable	Use mature cohorts only.

Cross-connector reconciliation: complement with sibling cards in the same category for the full diagnostic picture. For divergence investigations, use Vortex Mind.

Known limitations / merchant FAQs

Q: How often does D7 Retention % update? The card refreshes on the standard data refresh (typically every 30-60 minutes for live integrations). For real-time signals, force a manual refresh from the dashboard.

Q: Why watch D7 if I already track D30? D7 moves much faster. A change to onboarding shows up in D7 within a week, giving you time to react before the same change ripples through to D30 a month later.

Q: What counts as retained at day 7? A user who returns and triggers the chosen retention event in the day-7 window. If that event is “any event”, almost any return counts; a stricter event raises the bar. Pick the definition that matches your goal.

Q: Can I customise the alert threshold? Yes, alert thresholds are configurable per profile in the Alert Rules tab. Adjust to match your business baseline rather than relying on the generic default.

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Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

D7 Retention % is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across PostHog and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English.

Start for free or book a demo to see this metric running on your own data.