Drop-off
BeginnerDrop-off is the group of users who reached one step of a funnel but did not advance to the next step within the allowed window.
Drop-off is the exact complement of step-to-step conversion, so it should be reported both as a count and as a rate; the two answer different questions and do not substitute for each other. Drop-off is not the same as failure: the user may have reached the goal by another route, the step may be optional, or the conversion window may have closed before they returned. That last effect is why the final days of any range always look worse, since recent entrants have not had a full window. The largest drop-off in absolute terms usually sits at the top of the funnel where volume is highest, while the largest drop-off rate can sit on a low-volume step, and that step is often the actionable one.
How it is calculated
Drop-off = users who reached the current step minus users who reached the next step; drop-off rate = drop-off ÷ users who reached the current step
The counting basis is distinct users rather than events, and a user who repeats a step is counted once. The denominator is the population of the current step, not the entries to the first step; using the first step instead produces cumulative loss, a different figure that is often mistaken for step-to-step drop-off. The unit is a percentage and the conversion window is part of the definition.