How to measure the traffic you get from ChatGPT and other AI in GA4
Quick answer
GA4 has no AI channel by default, so visits from ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini fall into Referral, Direct or unassigned. The fix is to create a custom channel group with a regular expression on the session source, place it above Referral and review it every month. Even so, part of that traffic will still come in as Direct.
If you already get visits from ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini, your reports most likely aren’t telling you. GA4 has no AI channel by default, so those visits are spread across Referral, Direct and Unassigned depending on how they arrive. Here is the method to separate them and to know how much is still hidden.
Why you don’t see them
- With a referrer: if the browser sends where the visit comes from (for example,
chatgpt.com), GA4 stores it as Referral, mixed in with any other website that links to you. - With UTM only: ChatGPT adds
utm_source=chatgpt.comto many citation links. With no medium defined, that session can end up unassigned. - With no signal at all: some clicks, for example from certain mobile apps or when copying and pasting a link, arrive with no referrer and come in as Direct.
- Google AI Overviews: their clicks are counted as organic search and can’t be separated in GA4.
Step by step: create an AI traffic channel
- In GA4, go to Admin and, under data display, open the channel groups.
- Create a new channel group. Inside it, copy the default channels.
- Add a channel called AI traffic. The condition is: the session source matches the regular expression below.
- Place it above Referral. Rules are evaluated in order and the first one that matches wins.
- Save and, in Reports, open Traffic acquisition and choose your channel group.
A starting regular expression:
chatgpt\.com|chat\.openai\.com|perplexity\.ai|gemini\.google\.com|claude\.ai|copilot\.microsoft\.comReview the list every month. New assistants appear and sometimes the expression captures sources you didn’t want. A new channel group applies from the moment it is created, so don’t expect historical data.
What to look at in the report
- Sessions and users for the channel, to see whether it grows month by month.
- Landing pages: which pages receive that traffic. They are usually guides, comparisons and product pages.
- Purchases and revenue if you have ecommerce tracking switched on.
- Comparison with organic: conversion rate and value per session for each channel.
What this method doesn’t solve
It is a partial measurement. You won’t see the times an AI mentions you without anyone clicking, or the clicks that come in as Direct. For that you need two more things: review the Direct channel looking for spikes on pages that are only known through a citation, and run manual tests with buying questions, as explained in how to measure your visibility in ChatGPT.
With few sessions, avoid drawing conclusions. With fewer than a hundred visits a month, one conversion more or less changes the percentage a lot.
Frequently asked questions
Does GA4 detect ChatGPT traffic automatically?
It doesn’t group it into a channel of its own. Depending on how the visit arrives, it is recorded as Referral, Direct or unassigned.
Can I see how much traffic Google AI Overviews sends me?
Not separately. Those clicks are recorded as organic search.
Can I tag ChatGPT citations with UTM?
No, because you don’t control the links the AI generates. You can only tag links that you publish on other sites.
Does Search Console show ChatGPT traffic?
No. Search Console reports on Google Search, not on other assistants.
Sources consulted
- Semrush: how to track and measure AI referral traffic
- Ahrefs: how to track and analyse your AI traffic
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