React web analytics installation

Install the package

Required

Install posthog-js and @posthog/react using your package manager:

npm install posthog-js @posthog/react
yarn add posthog-js @posthog/react
pnpm add posthog-js @posthog/react

Add environment variables

Required

Add your PostHog API key and host to your environment variables. For Vite-based React apps, use the VITE_PUBLIC_ prefix:

.env
VITE_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_KEY=<ph_project_api_key>
VITE_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_HOST=https://us.i.posthog.com

Initialize PostHog

Required

Wrap your app with the PostHogProvider component at the root of your application (such as main.tsx if you're using Vite):

main.tsx
import { StrictMode } from 'react'
import { createRoot } from 'react-dom/client'
import './index.css'
import App from './App.jsx'
import { PostHogProvider } from '@posthog/react'

const options = {
  api_host: import.meta.env.VITE_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_HOST,
  defaults: '2026-01-30',
} as const

createRoot(document.getElementById('root')).render(
  <StrictMode>
    <PostHogProvider apiKey={import.meta.env.VITE_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_KEY} options={options}>
      <App />
    </PostHogProvider>
  </StrictMode>
)

defaults option

The defaults option automatically configures PostHog with recommended settings for new projects. See SDK defaults for details.

Accessing PostHog in your code

Recommended

Use the usePostHog hook to access the PostHog instance in any component wrapped by PostHogProvider:

MyComponent.tsx
import { usePostHog } from '@posthog/react'

function MyComponent() {
    const posthog = usePostHog()

    function handleClick() {
        posthog.capture('button_clicked', { button_name: 'signup' })
    }

    return <button onClick={handleClick}>Sign up</button>
}

You can also import posthog directly for non-React code or utility functions:

utils/analytics.ts
import posthog from 'posthog-js'

export function trackPurchase(amount: number) {
    posthog.capture('purchase_completed', { amount })
}

5
Send events
Recommended
Click around and view a couple pages to generate some events. PostHog automatically captures pageviews, clicks, and other interactions for you.
If you'd like, you can also manually capture custom events:
JavaScript
posthog.capture('my_custom_event', { property: 'value' })
6
Next steps
Recommended
After installing PostHog and ensuring autocapture is enabled, head to your web analytics dashboard to see your data. And then check out our getting started guide.
PostHog tip: Web analytics works with anonymous events. This means if you are primarily using PostHog for web analytics, it can be significantly cheaper for you.

React web analytics installation

Install the package

Add environment variables

Initialize PostHog

Accessing PostHog in your code

Send events

Next steps

Community questions

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