What is session-based recommendation?

Updated May 16, 2026

Short answer

Session-based recommendation predicts next items based on current session behavior.

Deep explanation

Unlike long-term user profiling, session-based systems rely only on recent user actions within a session. Models like RNNs, GRUs, or Transformers capture sequential patterns to predict next clicks or purchases.

Real-world example

E-commerce recommending next product during browsing session.

Common mistakes

  • Ignoring temporal order of interactions.

Follow-up questions

  • Why use session-based models?
  • What models are used?

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