What it measures
Session Intent classifies each session by its dominant purpose. Instead of inferring intent from the landing page alone, datataste accumulates evidence across the whole visit — every pageview and every event nudges the classification toward one of four intents.
The values
research
Gathering information. Blog articles, guides, informational content — reading-heavy sessions early in the journey.
comparison
Actively evaluating. Pricing pages, product and feature pages, case studies — the visitor is weighing options.
buying
Transacting. Cart, checkout, an order confirmation, a completed signup or demo request — the session crossed from evaluating to acting.
support
Seeking help. Help-center and documentation pages, support contact — typically an existing customer or user.
mixed
Two intents ended up equally strong with no clear winner — an honest tie rather than an arbitrary pick.
unknown
Not enough evidence to support any intent. Short or shallow sessions often stay unknown.
How intent is derived
Every pageview contributes evidence based on its page category: a pricing page adds comparison evidence, a blog article adds research evidence, a cart page adds buying evidence. Events contribute too, and everything is weighted by your property's detected business type.
Recent actions count more than early ones. A session that starts on a blog article and ends in the checkout began as research but is classified buying — the model deliberately lets intent evolve within a session, mirroring how visitors actually move down the funnel.
An intent is only assigned when its evidence clearly leads. When two intents end up equally strong, the session is mixed; when no intent gathers enough evidence, it stays unknown.
Decisive events
Some events end the debate on the spot. A purchase, an order-confirmation page, or a completed signup settles the session as buying immediately, regardless of what came before. And once settled with high confidence, the intent doesn't flip back on weaker evidence — a buyer who reads three blog posts after purchasing is still a buyer.
Good to know
- Business-type aware. Signals are weighted by your property's business model — checkout activity counts for more in a store, support-page activity counts for more on a support portal.
- Overrides win. You can manually override any session's intent; the engine never overwrites a manual value. See AI Derived Dimensions for the shared mechanics.