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By default, Algolia uses IP addresses to distinguish users. To get more accurate analytics, set a userToken on search requests. If you send searches from your backend, set a userToken to avoid grouping many users under the same server IP address. To learn what a user token is, how to generate it, and how to handle anonymous and authenticated users, see User token.
A userToken is also required for Personalization.

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Before you begin

Use the same userToken for searches and click and conversion events so analytics can associate activity with the same user.

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Set the user token in InstantSearch and Autocomplete

Set the insights option to true when initializing InstantSearch or Autocomplete. 
import { autocomplete } from "@algolia/autocomplete-js";
import algoliasearch from "algoliasearch/lite";

const appID = "ALGOLIA_APPLICATION_ID";
const apiKey = "ALGOLIA_SEARCH_API_KEY";

const searchClient = algoliasearch(appID, apiKey);

autocomplete({
	container: "#autocomplete",
	placeholder: "Search ...",
	insights: true,
	getSources({ query }) {
		// ...
	},
});

// Set an anonymous user token
window.aa("setUserToken", "ANONYMOUS_USER_TOKEN");

// Set an authenticated user token
window.aa("setAuthenticatedUserToken", "AUTHENTICATED_USER_TOKEN");
For more information, see:

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Set the user token in InstantSearch iOS and Android

Add the userToken as an API parameter to your search requests: 
val query = query {
    userToken {
        'ANONYMOUS_USER_TOKEN'
    }
}

val searcher = HitsSearcher(client, indexName, query)

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Set the user token with API clients

Use the same userToken in search requests and click and conversion events. To set the user token per search request: 
var response = await client.SearchSingleIndexAsync<Hit>(
  "INDEX_NAME",
  new SearchParams(new SearchParamsObject { Query = "query", UserToken = "user-1234" })
);
To set the user token when you initialize an API client: 
namespace Algolia;

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Text.Json;
using Algolia.Search.Clients;
using Algolia.Search.Http;
using Algolia.Search.Models.Search;

class GlobalAlgoliaUserID
{
  async Task Main(string[] args)
  {
    var client = new SearchClient(
      new SearchConfig("ALGOLIA_APPLICATION_ID", "ALGOLIA_API_KEY")
      {
        DefaultHeaders = new Dictionary<string, string>
        {
          { "X-Algolia-UserToken", "test-user-123" },
        },
      }
    );
    Console.WriteLine(client);
  }
}

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If you can’t set a user token

If you search from your backend and can’t or don’t want to set a userToken, you can forward user IP addresses to improve analytics accuracy.
Last modified on April 14, 2026