How to build Plausible Analytics dashboards in Metabase

Plausible Analytics is a privacy-first, cookieless web analytics tool reporting visitors, sources, goals, and campaign performance. Metabase is where you turn that marketing data into shared, trustworthy dashboards. This guide covers two complementary paths: a lightweight MCP + CLI route that pulls live data with the Plausible MCP (community) and loads a CSV into Metabase with the Metabase CLI, and a durable pipeline route that syncs Plausible Analytics daily stats into a database so you can build dashboards anyone can read.

How do you connect Plausible Analytics to Metabase?

Most teams combine both routes: use MCP and CLI uploads for a fast first pass, then move recurring marketing reporting to a warehouse-backed model.

What can you analyze from Plausible Analytics data in Metabase?

• Visitors and pageviews trend — built from visitor and pageview aggregates and the related sources and UTM campaigns, goals and conversions, entry pages data your sync exposes.
• Traffic sources and campaign mix — built from visitor and pageview aggregates and the related sources and UTM campaigns, goals and conversions, entry pages data your sync exposes.
• Goal conversion rates by source — built from visitor and pageview aggregates and the related sources and UTM campaigns, goals and conversions, entry pages data your sync exposes.
• Top entry pages and their bounce rates — built from visitor and pageview aggregates and the related sources and UTM campaigns, goals and conversions, entry pages data your sync exposes.
• Country and device breakdowns — built from visitor and pageview aggregates and the related sources and UTM campaigns, goals and conversions, entry pages data your sync exposes.

Which Plausible Analytics dashboards should you build in Metabase?

How do you use the Plausible MCP (community) with the Metabase CLI?

Pair the Plausible MCP (community) with the Metabase CLI for fast, hands-on analysis. MCP is useful for scoped lookups and summarized exports; the Metabase CLI's upload command loads CSV data into Metabase and creates a ready-to-query table and model.

Example workflow

• Ask the MCP server for a daily summary of visitor and pageview aggregates for the last 90 days.
• Export the result as CSV, keeping stable IDs, channels, campaigns, and dates.
• Run mb upload csv to load it into Metabase as a table and model, then build questions and dashboards on top.

Be honest about the limits

• MCP lookups are excellent for exploration, not scheduled reporting.
• A CSV upload is a snapshot; refresh it with mb upload replace or move to the pipeline for real history.
• Daily rollups by channel and page are required for traffic and conversion trends.
• mb upload csv needs an uploads database configured under Admin → Settings → Uploads.

How do you set up Plausible Analytics MCP and the Metabase CLI?

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "plausible": {
      "url": "https://plausible-mcp.sentry.dev/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer your-plausible-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Plausible publishes no official MCP server; this one is community-built (by the Sentry team) and wraps the Stats API v2, so it works with both Cloud and self-hosted instances.

# Install the Metabase CLI
npm install -g @metabase/cli

# Log in (opens your browser; requires Metabase v62+)
mb auth login --url https://your-metabase.example.com

# Load a visitor-and-pageview-aggregates export — creates a table AND a model
mb upload csv --file plausible-visitor-and-pageview-aggregates.csv --collection root

# Refresh that same table later from a new export
mb upload replace <table-id> --file plausible-visitor-and-pageview-aggregates.csv

Can you generate a Plausible Analytics dashboard with AI?

Yes. Use the prompt below with any assistant that can run the Plausible MCP (community) and the Metabase CLI. It works end to end: if Plausible Analytics tables already exist in Metabase it analyzes those; otherwise it pulls scoped, summarized data over MCP, loads it with mb upload csv, then builds the dashboard and caveats any metric that needs missing history.

Create a polished Metabase dashboard for Plausible Analytics web analytics analytics.
Work end to end: get the data into Metabase if it isn't there yet, then build.

Goal: Help marketing and growth leaders understand traffic by channel, landing-page conversion, organic search performance, and the paid vs. organic mix from Plausible Analytics data.

Step 1 — Find or load the data:
- First, check what already exists in Metabase (search for plausible tables and
  models). If durable Plausible Analytics data is already present — synced from a warehouse
  or uploaded earlier — use it and skip to Step 2.
- If nothing is there, pull a scoped, summarized export with the Plausible MCP (community):
  visitor and pageview aggregates, plus sources and UTM campaigns, goals and conversions, entry pages.
  Prefer daily aggregates over raw events. Write each result to a CSV,
  then load it with the Metabase CLI — run "mb upload csv --file <export>.csv" so
  each upload creates a table and a ready-to-query model. Use "mb upload replace
  <table-id> --file <export>.csv" to refresh an existing table instead of creating
  duplicates.

Step 2 — Inspect before querying:
Do not assume exact table or column names. Inspect available fields, channels,
campaigns, dates, and whether daily history exists before creating trend or
pacing cards.

Important:
- Build on whatever data is present; don't claim Metabase connects natively to
  Plausible Analytics — it reads a database or CLI-uploaded tables.
- Never try to load raw event or click streams into Metabase; use daily
  aggregates, campaign-grain stats, and entity tables.
- Only compute rates (CTR, conversion rate, ROAS, CAC) when both numerator and
  denominator exist — and state the attribution model when reporting conversions.
- Exclude test campaigns and internal traffic from headline cards, and keep
  currency consistent when spend spans accounts.
- A single CSV is a point-in-time snapshot: only build trend cards if there is a
  usable date column or multiple periods have been uploaded.

Dashboard title: Plausible Analytics Web Analytics Overview

Sections:
1. Executive summary: Sessions last 30 days; Conversion rate; Key events;
   Organic clicks; Paid vs. organic share.
2. Traffic: Sessions by channel by week; top landing pages; engagement rate.
3. Conversion: Conversion rate by channel; landing-page conversion table.
4. Organic: Clicks and impressions by week; top queries; branded vs. non-branded.
5. Mix: Paid vs. organic sessions and conversions over time.

Filters: Date range, Channel, Campaign, Country, Device, Segment.

Output: Build the dashboard if you have permission; otherwise provide the exact
questions, SQL, model definitions, and layout. Include caveats for any metric
that cannot be calculated from the available data.

How do you sync Plausible Analytics data into a database or warehouse?

For dashboards that need history and reliability, land Plausible Analytics daily stats and entities in a database first, then connect Metabase to that database.

Connector options

• Managed ETL — use a connector when one covers the objects you need.
• Custom pipeline — use the Plausible Stats API v2 for control over grain, fields, and refresh cadence.
• MCP + CSV — use this for quick exploration and one-off slices.

No managed connector exists — script the Stats API (a Business-plan feature on Plausible Cloud) to land daily aggregates. Self-hosting Community Edition? Point Metabase directly at Plausible's ClickHouse database and skip the API entirely.

Notes

• Decide the rollup grain first (daily per campaign/channel is the workhorse) — it drives warehouse cost and every trend card.
• Land raw entity tables first, then build clean Metabase models on top.
• Normalize channel, source, medium, campaign, landing-page, date, sessions, and conversions fields.

How should you model Plausible Analytics data in Metabase?

Core tables

Modeling advice

• Build a clean traffic_rollups model with common columns across tools, so multi-channel dashboards don't fork definitions.
• Separate entity tables (campaigns, audiences, pages) from daily time-series rollups.
• Exclude test campaigns and internal traffic from headline metrics; keep channel and campaign as explicit columns.
• Use stable IDs for campaign, channel, and user joins; display names change.

Which Plausible Analytics metrics should you track in Metabase?

What SQL powers Plausible Analytics dashboards in Metabase?

These assume a cleaned analytical model in a warehouse (PostgreSQL dialect). Adjust table and column names to match your pipeline.

SELECT
  channel_group,
  date_trunc('week', session_date) AS week,
  SUM(sessions) AS sessions,
  SUM(key_events) AS conversions,
  ROUND(100.0 * SUM(key_events) / NULLIF(SUM(sessions), 0), 2)
    AS conversion_rate_pct
FROM traffic_rollups
GROUP BY 1, 2
ORDER BY 2, sessions DESC;

SELECT
  landing_page,
  SUM(sessions) AS sessions,
  SUM(key_events) AS conversions,
  ROUND(100.0 * SUM(key_events) / NULLIF(SUM(sessions), 0), 2)
    AS conversion_rate_pct
FROM traffic_rollups
WHERE session_date >= CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '30 days'
GROUP BY landing_page
HAVING SUM(sessions) >= 100
ORDER BY conversions DESC
LIMIT 20;

SELECT
  date_trunc('week', stat_date) AS week,
  SUM(clicks) AS clicks,
  SUM(impressions) AS impressions,
  ROUND(100.0 * SUM(clicks) / NULLIF(SUM(impressions), 0), 2) AS ctr_pct,
  ROUND(AVG(position), 1) AS avg_position
FROM gsc_performance_daily
GROUP BY 1
ORDER BY 1;

What are common mistakes when analyzing Plausible Analytics in Metabase?

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FAQ