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User Mapping (Aliasing) API

Feature availability

This feature is available in accounts with a Growth or Enterprise plan with the Portfolio add-on.

With Amplitude's Portfolio add-on, you can generate a holistic view of how your users interact with your entire product portfolio. If you've instrumented multiple platforms or product lines, Portfolio can give you unparalleled insight into your users’ complete journey.

It's not uncommon for user IDs for the same user to differ across projects within the same organization. The user mapping (aliasing) API lets you map users with different user IDs together in Amplitude.

In this example, three user records, each with a different user ID, are all merged into the user ID mike@hooli.com. This new user ID is that user's "global" user ID in the cross-project view. This way, you can get an accurate count of the number of unique users across your entire product portfolio.

diagram showing three different user profiles as aliased with a single user ID

Considerations

Keep these considerations in mind when using this API.

  • When you map User 1 to User 2 (the global user ID) the event stream on User 2 contains all the events associated with User 1 and User 2. However, User 1 only contains the events associated with User 1.
  • When you map users, user properties aren't merged. This means the user properties attached to each event are from the original user who triggered the event. User properties persist only on the original user_id and aren't transferred between User 1 and User 2.
  • Users are merged in aggregated counts, however when applying a group, the user IDs are listed.
  • When you use the User Lookup feature in Amplitude, the UI indicates a mapped user with "Remapped User IDs" or "Remapping Into User ID..."
  • Contact Support if you need a list of merged user IDs.

Limits

The aliasing API has the following limits:

  • Batch limits:
    • Max of 2000 requests/events in a batch.
    • Max size of 1MB.
    • You can't increase batch limits.
  • Rate limits:
    • By default, Amplitude supports up to 50 events per second over a 30-second window, equalling 1500 alias calls (not batches) total in a 30-second window.
    • If you go over the limit, Amplitude throttles all requests until calls in the 30-second window fall below the limit.
    • If you need this limit increased, contact Amplitude Support.

Endpoints

Region Endpoint
Standard Server https://api.amplitude.com/usermap

Usage

You can access the aliasing API endpoint by sending a POST or GET request to https://api.amplitude.com/usermap, with two query parameters.

Get interactive examples for this API

The Amplitude Developers Postman profile has a collection of the example requests included in this documentation, including detailed responses for each call. You don't need a Postman account to browse.

If you already use Postman, you can fork and run the collection in Postman.

Query parameters

Name
Description
api_key Required. String. an API Key for any project in your organization.
mapping Required. Either a single JSON mapping object or an array of JSON objects, each of which represents a single mapping.

mapping format

Notes about the mapping parameter's format:

  • A mapping object must have a user_id key.
  • If unmap is set to True, then there can't be a global_user_id. Otherwise, there must be a global_user_id:
Name
Description
user_id Required. String. A UUID (unique user ID) specified by you, for the user you want to map. Each JSON mapping object can contain one user_id to map.
global_user_id Required unless unmap is true. String. A UUID (unique user ID) specified by you. The unified identity you want to map the other user_id to.
unmap Optional. Boolean. When true, the current mapping for user_id is removed.

User mapping

Map a user ID to a global user ID. Remember that you can map a single user ID per JSON mapping object.

This is a basic request with only the required parameters. See the examples below for more detailed requests.

curl --location -g --request POST 'https://api.amplitude.com/usermap?mapping=[{"user_id":"<USER_ID", "global_user_id": "<GLOBAL_USER_ID"}]&api_key=API_KEY'
POST /usermap?mapping=[{"user_id":"<USER_ID", "global_user_id": "<GLOBAL_USER_ID"}]&api_key=API_KEY
HTTP/1.1
Host: api.amplitude.com
Examples (click to expand)
Map user ID to a global user ID

Maps the user ID "63629@hmail.com" to the global user ID "mike@hooli.com".

Request

curl --location -g --request POST 'https://api.amplitude.com/usermap?mapping=[{"user_id":"63629@hmail.com", "global_user_id": "mike@hooli.com"}]&api_key=123456789'
POST /usermap?mapping=[{"user_id":"63629@hmail.com", "global_user_id": "mike@hooli.com"}]]&api_key=123456789 HTTP/1.1
Host: api.amplitude.com

Result

The user "63629@hmail.com" is mapped to "mike@hooli.com".

Map multiple users in one request

Maps the user ID "63629@hmail.com" to the global user ID "mike@hooli.com", and maps the user ID "12345@hmail.com" to the global user ID "mike@hooli.com".

Request

curl --location -g --request POST 'curl --location -g --request POST 'https://api.amplitude.com/usermap?mapping=[{"user_id":"63629@hmail.com", "global_user_id": "mike@hooli.com"}, {"user_id":"12345@hmail.com", "global_user_id": "mike@hooli.com"}]&api_key=123456789'
POST /usermap?mapping=[{"user_id":"63629@hmail.com", "global_user_id": "mike@hooli.com"}, {"user_id":"12345@hmail.com", "global_user_id": "mike@hooli.com"}]&api_key=123456789 HTTP/1.1
Host: api.amplitude.com

Result

The users "63629@hmail.com" and "12345@hmail.com" are mapped to "mike@hooli.com".

User unmapping

This is a basic request with only the required parameters. Remember that you can unmap a single user ID per JSON mapping object. See the examples below for more detailed requests.

curl --location -g --request POST 'https://api.amplitude.com/usermap?mapping=[{"user_id":"<USER_ID", "unmap": true}]&api_key=API_KEY'
POST /usermap?mapping=[{"user_id":"<USER_ID>", "unmap": true}]&api_key=API_KEY
HTTP/1.1
Host: api.amplitude.com
Examples (click to expand)
Unmap a user ID

Unmaps the user ID "63629@hmail.com".

Request

curl --location -g --request POST 'https://api.amplitude.com/usermap?mapping=[{"user_id":"63629@hmail.com", "unmap":true }]&api_key=123456789'
POST /usermap?mapping=[{"user_id":"63629@hmail.com", "unmap": true}]&api_key=123456789 HTTP/1.1
Host: api.amplitude.com

Result

The user "63629@hmail.com" is unmapped from the global user ID it's mapped to.

Unmap multiple users in one request

Unmaps the user ID "63629@hmail.com" and user ID "12345@hmail.com".

Request

curl --location -g --request POST 'curl --location -g --request POST 'https://api.amplitude.com/usermap?mapping=[{"user_id":"63629@hmail.com", "unmap":true}, {"user_id":"12345@hmail.com", "unmap":true}]&api_key=123456789'
POST /usermap?mapping=[{"user_id":"63629@hmail.com", "unmap":true}, {"user_id":"12345@hmail.com", "unmap":true}]&api_key=123456789 HTTP/1.1
Host: api.amplitude.com

Result

The users "63629@hmail.com" and "12345@hmail.com" are unmapped from any global user IDs they're mapped to.

Get existing user mappings

Get the list of mappings that involve the provided user ids.

Info

User mappings uses a different URL than the map and unmap endpoints above, https://amplitude.com/api/2/usermap.

Query parameters

Name
Description
api_key Required. String. an API Key for any project in your organization.
secret_key Required. String. an API Secret Key for any project in your organization.
user_ids Required. A list of user ids. Minimum 1 user id, maximum 100 user ids in a single request.
    user_ids = ["<REPLACE ME WITH LIST OF USER IDS>"]

    request_data = {
        "user_ids": user_ids,
    }
    url = 'https://amplitude.com/api/2/usermap'

    API_KEY = "REPLACE_ME"
    SECRET_KEY = "REPLACE_ME"
    result = requests.get(url, auth=HTTPBasicAuth(API_KEY, SECRET_KEY), data=request_data)
    if result.status_code != 200:
        raise AssertionError(
            "Request failed. Error: code - %s, text - %s" % (result.status_code, result.text))
    else:
        print(result.json())

Response

The response for a POST request contains these fields:

Name
Description
user id A user id in the request list.
mappings The mappings associated with this user id. See next section. Empty if the requested user isn't found

The mappings key contains these fields:

Name
Description
amplitude_id The Amplitude ID of the requested user
mapped_from A list of objects that map into the requested user.
mapped_to A list of objects that the requested user maps into
 {
    "user1":
        {
           "mapped_from": [{
               "amplitude_id": 1234567,
               "user_id": "user3"
           }],
           "mapped_to": [{
               "amplitude_id": 1234567,
               "user_id": "user2"
           }]
         },
    "user2":
        {
           "mapped_from": [{
               "amplitude_id": 9988676,
               "user_id": "user1"
           }],
           "mapped_to": []
         }
}

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