How to Track ChatGPT and AI Traffic in Google Analytics 4

Can GA4 show how many visits come from ChatGPT?

Yes: the AI Assistant channel groups them automatically, and the Source dimension tells you which assistant sent each visit.

Yes. Since May 13, 2026, Google Analytics 4 assigns the medium “ai-assistant” and the campaign “(ai-assistant)” whenever the referrer matches a recognized AI assistant, and groups those sessions into the AI Assistant channel of the default channel group. Google names ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Copilot, Grok and Claude as examples. No setup required.

To see it, go to Reports, then Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition. With the “Session default channel group” dimension, look for the AI Assistant row. To separate ChatGPT from Perplexity or Gemini, switch the dimension to “Session source / medium” and filter on the ai-assistant medium.

ChatGPT helps on its side: according to OpenAI's publisher documentation, it appends utm_source=chatgpt.com to the links it shows in search answers. That lets GA4 attribute the visit even when the browser doesn't pass a referrer, which is common in mobile apps.

What the built-in channel doesn't solve: Google doesn't publish the full list of domains it recognizes, and it is unclear whether the change applies to data from before May 2026. The custom channel group in the next step covers both gaps.

How do you create an “AI” channel group in GA4? (step by step)

Copy the default group, add a channel with a regex on Source and move it above Referral.

A custom channel group lets you define your own AI channel with the domains you choose, and apply it to historical data, since GA4 lets you use these groups retroactively. You need the Editor role or above on the property. Standard properties allow 2 custom groups with up to 50 channels each, on top of the default group. Menu names below are from the English GA4 interface:

• 1. Go to Admin and, under Data display, click Channel groups.
• 2. Click Create new channel group. GA4 makes a copy of the default group for you to edit.
• 3. Give it a clear name, such as “Channels with AI”, and an optional description.
• 4. Click Add new channel and name it, for example, “AI assistants (extended)”.
• 5. Click + Add condition group, choose the Source dimension and the matches regex operator, and paste the expression from the next section.
• 6. Click Save channel.
• 7. Click Reorder and drag the new channel above Referral, because GA4 assigns each visit to the first channel whose definition it matches. Then click Apply.
• 8. Click Save group. In the acquisition reports, pick your new group from the dimension selector to see it.

Which regex should you use for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot?

One expression with the referrer domains, wrapped in .* because GA4 requires a full match and is case sensitive.

Use this expression in the Source matches regex condition: .*(chatgpt\.com|openai\.com|perplexity\.ai|gemini\.google\.com|copilot\.microsoft\.com|claude\.ai|chat\.deepseek\.com|grok\.com|meta\.ai).*

Two details break many setups copied from the internet. First, Google Analytics Help states that its regex is a full match by default: without .* at the start and end, a source like www.perplexity.ai would not match perplexity\.ai. Second, it is case sensitive; sources usually arrive in lowercase, so write the expression that way. The backslash before each dot makes it a literal dot rather than “any character”.

The table shows where each fragment comes from. Review it every quarter: assistants change domains and new ones appear.

Why doesn't Google AI Mode show up separately?

Because to GA4 it is still Google Search: it arrives as Organic Search and can't be reliably isolated.

The official AI Assistant channel definition explicitly excludes Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, which are counted as Organic Search. In your analytics, a click from AI Mode arrives with google as source and organic as medium, just like one from classic results. No regex separates it, so be wary of tutorials that promise to do it with URL parameters.

Where you can see it is Search Console. Traffic from Google's AI features is folded into the Performance report under the “Web” search type, and since June 2026 there is also a Generative AI performance report, rolled out to all sites on August 31, 2026. It shows impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode by page, country, device and date. It doesn't show clicks.

In practice, AI traffic lives in two places: external assistants in GA4 and Google's AI features in Search Console. Report them side by side, without adding them up as if they were the same metric.

What should you do with the data: cited pages and conversions?

Cross the AI channel with landing page and key events: that shows which content gets cited and whether it sells.

Volume only tells you the channel exists. The value is in two cross-checks. The first is landing page: in Reports, Engagement, Landing page, add a filter for your AI channel or the ai-assistant medium. Those URLs are, in practice, the pages assistants are citing, and they show which formats work for them: data-backed guides, comparisons, complete product pages.

The second is conversion. Compare the key event rate of AI sessions with that of organic search: form submissions, WhatsApp clicks, purchases. If AI traffic is small but converts better, it deserves its own content. If it converts worse, check whether the cited page has a clear path to your service.

To follow it monthly without opening GA4, connect the property to Looker Studio and build a dashboard with three blocks: sessions by assistant, landing pages for the AI channel and key events by channel. Next to it, add impressions from Search Console's Generative AI report.

What other tools measure AI visibility?

GA4 measures visits; for mentions and zero-click citations you need Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and manual sampling.

GA4 only sees people who click. For the times you are cited and nobody visits, there are three more sources. Search Console, with its Generative AI report for Google. Bing Webmaster Tools, which launched an AI Performance report in public preview in February 2026, showing your site's citations in Microsoft Copilot and Bing's AI summaries. And manual sampling: a fixed list of key questions checked monthly in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and AI Mode.

Third-party tools automate that sampling and estimate your “share of citations”. They can save hours, but Google reminds site owners that no third party has access to its internal ranking or AI systems. Use them as a trend line, not as truth.

If you are just starting, don't buy anything yet: rely on the built-in channel, create your channel group with the regex, check the Search Console report and write down your ten questions. Three months of data will tell you whether the channel deserves more investment. And if you want to understand why AI cites some pages and not others, start with our guide to GEO and AEO.