# If I pause an experiment, what do visitors see?

Asked by wes_cro on 2024-11-05. Tags: experiments, workflow, content.

Running a homepage hero test for a client and the stakeholders want everything
frozen during a review week. If I hit pause on the experiment, what do visitors
actually get? I'm worried about an empty section or some cached variant leaking
through and messing with the sample. Also, is pausing safe statistically or does
it count as one of those mid-test changes that blows up your significance
Client is nervous so I need to give them a straight answer.

## 2 answers

### Answer from olegk (2024-11-05)

Nothing blanks out. A paused experience serves the default slot content, the
same thing users would see if the experiment never existed. That default
lives in your code as the slot fallback, so there is no empty section and no
cached variant hanging around.

Pausing and resuming is a dashboard action, so a marketer can do it without
any deploy. We paused one for two weeks over the holidays last year and
resumed it without drama.

### Answer from Martin Kessler (2024-11-06)

Adding the statistical side since you asked. Pausing is the safe lever here.
What Croct explicitly discourages mid-experiment is changing the traffic
distribution or adding and removing variants, because that invalidates the
stats. A pause does neither, it just stops serving the variants and stops
collecting data until you resume.

Two things worth telling your stakeholders:

1. During the pause everyone sees the default content, so the review week
   itself is a clean baseline experience.
2. The pause extends your calendar time to a decision, since the engine
   still wants each variant to hit its minimum visitors and conversions
   before recommending a winner. Budget for that when you promise a
   readout date.

So pause with a clear conscience, just do not touch the variant setup while
it is stopped.