No, the $insert_id property is not automatically created by Mixpanel in most cases. It's a property that you need to provide when sending events to Mixpanel.
According to the documentation:
- For the /import API endpoint, $insert_id is required on all events. This makes it safe to retry import requests without creating duplicate events Import Events.
- If you're using Mixpanel's client-side SDKs (JavaScript, Android, iOS), they will automatically generate the $insert_id for you Default Properties.
- If you're sending events without an $insert_id, Mixpanel will generate one for the event, but it won't qualify for the deduplication process Track Event Deduplication.
The $insert_id is important because it's used for deduplication. Events with identical values for (event, time, distinct_id, $insert_id) are considered duplicates, and only one of them will be considered in queries.
