How often data is updated

The numbers you see in gas are not pulled at the moment you open the page. gas downloads data from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Meta Ads, Google Ads, Google Analytics and Sklik continuously in the background and stores it. The page then renders what is stored. That is where most questions like "why isn't today there yet" or "why did yesterday's number change overnight" come from. This article describes how often the downloads run, what the Refresh button does, and how to tell that data is missing because of a fault.

How often data is downloaded

The intervals in the table are approximate. They depend on how fast each type of data changes and how many queries per day the platform allows.

The Campaigns overview is assembled roughly once an hour from what has already been downloaded. The progress of Goals is recalculated continuously, within minutes, again only from stored data. So neither of them will bring you fresher numbers than the ones gas has at that moment.

Why gas does not download data live

You may wonder why gas does not load the numbers straight from Facebook or Google Ads every time you open a page. There are four reasons:

• Platform interfaces are slow. A single query takes from hundreds of milliseconds to several seconds, and a page needs many of them. Loading an overview would take tens of seconds.
• Platforms limit the number of queries. Every connection has a daily cap. If gas asked every time you opened a page, the cap would run out and data would stop arriving even where you really need it.
• Reports need a fixed basis. A report is created as a snapshot of the data at the moment it is generated. If the numbers were recalculated on every view, two people would see different values in the same report.
• History would be lost. Platforms do not keep statistics indefinitely. That is why gas stores them continuously, so they stay with you even after the platform stops offering them.

The Refresh button and background downloads

These are two different things and they are often confused.

The Refresh button is in the page header next to the page name, with an icon of two circling arrows. The period selector is usually next to it. Clicking it tells gas to reload the data it has stored and redraw the graphs and tables. While loading, the button is unavailable and the icon spins.

Downloading from the platforms runs in the background according to the schedule in the table above. It starts on its own, regardless of whether you have the application open, and a user cannot trigger it.

The Refresh button helps in these situations:

• you have had the page open for a while and a background download has run in the meantime,
• you have just connected a profile or changed the default profile and want the change to show,
• the page loaded during a short outage and stayed empty.

Why today's numbers may be incomplete

Three factors come together:

1. The day is not over yet. Today's value is provisional and will keep growing until midnight.
2. The last download happened earlier. For networks that are downloaded once a day (YouTube, Sklik, closed days in Google Ads), today is usually missing entirely.
3. The platform releases statistics with a delay. Facebook recalculates most page statistics once every 24 hours, YouTube makes data available only after several days, Google Analytics processes data for 24 to 48 hours, Meta Ads keeps recalculating campaign results for 28 days, and Pinterest releases nothing for the current day. The details per platform are in the next chapter.

That is why numbers for yesterday and for a few days back can still shift. This is not a fault: gas shows what the platform released at the time of the download and corrects the value at the next download.

What each platform recalculates

Delays and later corrections do not originate in gas, they are governed by the platforms. The following overview summarises what the platforms themselves state in their developer documentation: when the numbers are final, what still changes retroactively, and how far back they release data at all.

Facebook. Meta states in its documentation that most page statistics are recalculated once every 24 hours. Numbers for today and yesterday are therefore still incomplete, and gas downloads the last few days repeatedly, even if it has downloaded them once already. Retroactively, Meta releases the last two years of page statistics, and only in ninety-day chunks, so a longer period is filled in piece by piece. Anything older than two years Meta does not release at all.

Instagram. According to the documentation, the data Instagram calculates its statistics from can arrive with a delay of up to 48 hours. Instagram keeps profile statistics for 90 days back. For older periods, gas therefore shows what it has stored itself along the way; the data cannot be obtained from Instagram again. Instagram does not release the follower count and the number of followers currently online for profiles with fewer than 100 followers, and the number of followers currently online only for the last 30 days. Instagram will not return the audience breakdown by age, gender and location if the profile did not have at least 100 interactions in the selected period.

Meta Ads. Ad results are updated roughly every 15 minutes and stop changing 28 days after Meta first reported them. Until then they are provisional: Meta explicitly states that metrics are still adjusted for several days after an ad ends, because later conversions are attributed back to clicks. So only numbers older than 28 days are final. Meta Ads releases up to 37 months into the past.

Google Ads. For clicks, impressions and cost, Google commits to updating within one hour. Conversions measured directly in Google Ads usually appear within three hours for the "last click" model and within fifteen hours for other models, while conversions imported from Google Analytics take up to twelve hours. Even so, the numbers can be adjusted several days back: Google retroactively deducts invalid traffic (bots and accidental clicks) and some conversions happen only a few days after the click. Competitive comparison metrics, such as click share, are calculated once a day and have an additional three-day delay.

Google Analytics. Google states that data processing takes 24 to 48 hours and that numbers in the reports can change during that time. Daily data is usually ready in 12 to 24 hours depending on the size of the site, and longer for larger sites. The attribution of key events to the traffic source can also be adjusted for up to 12 days after the event happened. That is why this service has the lowest download frequency in gas: more frequent queries would only return incomplete numbers. The data retention setting in Analytics (2 or 14 months) does not apply to summary overviews, it only limits detailed analyses inside Analytics.

YouTube. Google states that it can take several days before data appears in YouTube reports. The interface also returns only days for which absolutely all the requested figures are complete, so the most recent days appear gradually. The earnings estimate is updated daily, arrives with roughly a two-day delay, and YouTube still corrects it retroactively for invalid activity. This is exactly why gas downloads YouTube once a day; more frequent downloads would bring numbers that are going to change anyway. YouTube releases statistics back to 1 July 2008.

Pinterest. For the current day, Pinterest does not release any numbers at all, because it is still processing them; the previous day is always the most recent one available. Pinterest releases daily statistics for profiles, pins and ads 90 days back, and a more detailed hourly breakdown only 8 days back. For pins it adds a summary for the last 90 days and for the whole period since they were created, and for profiles values that describe the current state, not the selected period.

TikTok. For videos, TikTok releases lifetime totals since publication (total views, likes, comments and shares), not a daily breakdown. gas downloads them roughly once an hour and calculates the daily increment as the difference between two consecutive measurements. If one measurement is delayed, the increment shows up only on the following day. TikTok does not provide daily history retroactively at all, so skipped days cannot be filled in.

Sklik. For each day, Sklik itself reports the state of its statistics recalculation: in progress, finished, or failed with an error. Only after it finishes are the numbers for that day final. The recalculation starts after the day ends and is usually finished in the early morning hours, occasionally it takes longer. Sklik accepts a conversion if it happens within 30 days of the click, but counts it towards the day it happened, not the day of the click. Conversions therefore do not retroactively increase numbers on older days.

Where to find when the data was last updated

Not every page shows this. You will find it here:

• Campaigns: the Last update time column in the list and the same value in the campaign detail.
• Goals: the Last update time column in the list; in the goal detail the time is next to the clock icon in the card footer.
• Custom measurement: the Last update time value in the measurement detail.
• Stories on Facebook and Instagram: the Last update time column in the table.
• Settings → Connected services → Sklik: the Last synchronization column next to the account.

When the numbers do not add up

Common problems: freshness and changing numbers

I see no numbers for today

For networks that are downloaded once a day, today appears only after the next night or morning download. For Google Ads, the current day is topped up roughly once an hour, for other networks according to the table above.

Yesterday's number changed overnight

The platform recalculated the value. This is typical for reach on Facebook, views on YouTube and campaign results in Meta Ads. As a rule, the older the day, the more stable the number.

The numbers in gas differ from the numbers on the platform

Usually it is one of these reasons: the platform has recalculated the value in the meantime and gas will take it over at the next download; you are comparing a different period or a differently defined metric; and with Meta Ads, gas additionally converts spend into Czech koruna using the Czech National Bank exchange rate, so the amount differs from the value in the account's original currency.

Google Analytics shows data that is several days old

This is intentional: Google makes complete website statistics available with a delay, so more frequent downloads would only bring incomplete numbers.

Common problems: new content and newly connected profiles

A new post or video has not appeared yet

New content is loaded as part of the regular download, within hours for Facebook and Instagram, and typically the next day for YouTube. Statistics for new content arrive a little later still, because the platform is only starting to count them.

I can no longer find the stories on Instagram or Facebook

Stories disappear from the platform after 24 hours. That is why gas downloads them several times an hour and stores them. In the application they stay available even after you can no longer find them on Instagram or Facebook.

I have just connected a profile and I see nothing

A connected profile is added to the download queue and the first data arrives with the next run, so for networks downloaded once a day it can easily be the next day. gas fills in the history separately and that takes a while.

Older history is missing for a newly connected profile

gas can only pull in what the platform releases retroactively. For Instagram and Pinterest that is 90 days, for Facebook page statistics two years, for Meta Ads up to 37 months, and for YouTube data back to 2008. TikTok does not release daily history at all, so its data starts on the day of connection. A period before the connection that the platform no longer offers cannot be filled in.

I reconnected and data for the outage period is missing

gas tries to fill it in retroactively, but only as far back as the platform offers: two years for daily Facebook page statistics, 90 days for Instagram and Pinterest, longer for advertising data. Values that the platform only releases as a current state (number of fans, number of followers, number of subscribers, ratings) cannot be filled in retroactively; only the value from the day of reconnection onwards will be added. The article about reconnecting after access expires describes this in detail.

Common problems: when data does not arrive

No data at all, even after two days

Then it is not about the schedule but about interrupted access. Two different causes are handled differently: either the whole service connection has expired (signing out, a password change, revoking consent on the platform), which is covered by the article about reconnecting after access expires, or the connection is alive but the permission for a specific page or account is missing, which is covered by the article about a missing permission for a profile. A third common variant: the profile was once connected by a colleague who no longer works at the company. In Settings → Customer account → Linked accounts you can spot this in the Who links the account column; the profile then has to be connected again by someone who has access on the platform.

A report contains different numbers than the page

A report is a snapshot of the data at the moment it was generated. The page shows the current state, so if the platform has recalculated the values in the meantime, they will differ. A new report over the same period will align the difference.

A goal has not moved even though the numbers are growing

Goal progress is calculated from the data gas has downloaded. Until newer data arrives, the progress stays where it is, even if you can already see the result on the platform.