React product analytics installation

Install the package

Required

Install the PostHog JavaScript library using your package manager:

npm install posthog-js
yarn add posthog-js
pnpm add posthog-js

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-js/react'

const options = {
  api_host: import.meta.env.VITE_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_HOST,
  defaults: '2025-11-30',
} 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-js/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' })

Next steps

Recommended

Resource	Description
Capturing events	Learn how to capture custom events beyond autocapture
Identifying users	Associate events with specific users
Creating insights	Build trends, funnels, and retention charts
Group analytics	Track events at the company or account level

React product analytics installation

Install the package

Add environment variables

Initialize PostHog

Accessing PostHog in your code

Send events

Next steps

Community questions

Was this page useful?