Cohorts and segments represent distinct ways to group and analyze users based on shared characteristics or behaviors. Cohorts specifically focus on users who share a common experience or action during the same time period, like signing up in January 2024 or activating a specific feature within their first week.

Segments divide users based on specific attributes or behaviors, regardless of timing. These could include demographic factors like location and age, or behavioral patterns like feature usage frequency and subscription status. This granular grouping enables product teams to identify patterns that might be invisible when looking at the overall user base.

Understanding these grouping methods helps teams track how different user subsets interact with products over time, measure the impact of product changes, and identify opportunities for targeted improvements. The key difference lies in timing — cohorts emphasize temporal relationships while segments focus on characteristic-based groupings.