# Can I see how big an audience is before building the experience on Hydrogen?

Asked by Beatriz Alencar on 2026-10-07. Tags: hydrogen, audiences, planning.

Before I wire a new experience on our Hydrogen storefront I want a sense of how
many shoppers a candidate audience would actually match. I would rather not spend
the effort building content and slots for a segment that turns out to be a
rounding error of our traffic.

Is there a way in Croct to size an audience up front, before I commit to building
the experience around it? Thanks in advance!

## 2 answers

### Answer from Priya Raghavan (2026-10-08)

Yes, there is a live audience estimator. As you write the CQL condition it
shows you the size of the audience it would match, so you can tell whether a
segment is worth building for before you touch any slots or content. You can
tighten or loosen the condition and watch the number move, then only commit
once it is a share of traffic that justifies the work.

Heads up on plan: the estimator is part of the Growth feature set, alongside
experience segmentation, so it is available once you are on that tier.

### Answer from tomdev83 (2026-10-09)

Worth knowing what the number represents. Audiences are evaluated in real time
per interaction, so the estimate reflects live matching against your actual
traffic rather than a stale nightly snapshot. Once you are happy with the size,
the same CQL condition you tuned in the estimator is what attaches to the
experience, so there is nothing to re-derive, the thing you sized is the thing
that runs.