Since May 13, 2026, Google Analytics 4 groups visits from ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude in a dedicated “AI Assistant” channel. To see it, open Reports, then Acquisition and Traffic acquisition. Part of this traffic still lands in Direct, when the link arrives with no referrer and no UTM parameter.
What GA4 changed on May 13, 2026
You want to know whether ChatGPT sends you visitors, how many, and to which pages. Until this spring, you had to build your own filter or channel group to find out. For the most part, not anymore.
On May 13, 2026, Google added an “AI Assistant” channel to the default channel group in Google Analytics 4. Three changes, applied automatically:[1]
- Medium: a visit whose referrer matches a recognized AI assistant gets the value “ai-assistant”.
- Channel: these visits are grouped under “AI Assistant”.
- Campaign: they carry the reserved name “(ai-assistant)”.
Google gives ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Copilot and Grok as examples. Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode are not part of it: they stay in Organic Search.[2]
A month later, on June 11, 2026, Google added a “Source group” field that brings the variants of a platform under one name, with built-in grouping for ChatGPT and Perplexity. It also applies to your historical data.[1] Learn more: our analytics approach.
Where to see ChatGPT traffic in GA4
Four steps, in order:
- Open the report. In the left menu: Reports, then Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition.[3]
- Read the AI Assistant row. The report opens on the session default channel group. The AI Assistant row shows the sessions, engagement and key events that came from AI assistants.
- Isolate ChatGPT. Switch the dimension to Session source / medium:[3] chatgpt.com shows up on its own row, separate from the other assistants.
- Add the landing page. As a secondary dimension, it shows which pages AI sends your visitors to. Compare them with your most visited pages from Organic Search: the gap tells you what AI retains from your website.
What the AI Assistant channel does not count
The channel is good news. It does not tell the whole story, though, and this is where the numbers need a careful read.
- Unsigned visits. GA4 puts in Direct any visit whose source is “(direct)”, meaning it arrived with no referrer and no campaign parameter.[2] An address typed by hand, or copied without its parameters, arrives unsigned.
- Google’s AI Mode and AI Overviews. They are counted in Organic Search, with the rest of Google’s traffic.[2]
- Visitors who decline cookies. With consent mode and Quebec’s Law 25, part of your visits is not measured, or only modeled, depending on your setup. Learn more: Consent Mode v2 and Quebec’s Law 25: what your website must do, and what your data no longer tells you.
- Citations without a click. An AI engine can cite your business, recommend it or describe it without anyone clicking. GA4 only sees visits.
October 2026: a week of ChatGPT traffic filed as Direct
The news just gave us an example. On October 7, 2026, OpenAI launched GPT-6 for paid ChatGPT subscribers, then for free accounts the next day.[4] In the following days, ChatGPT links lost their utm_source=chatgpt.com parameter and their referrer: the visits they sent landed in Direct.[5]
Cedric Huesler, from Adobe, measured the effect on about 500 pages where ChatGPT drove at least 5% of visits. From October 9 to 13, compared with the previous week: 31,000 fewer visits a day attributed to ChatGPT, and 26,000 more in Direct, on the same pages. On October 15, he announced it was a bug and that ChatGPT was tagging its links again.[5]
What we take from it for your reports:
- Note the period. Between the GPT-6 launch and October 15, 2026, part of your ChatGPT traffic is probably filed as Direct. Keep that note next to your October reports.
- Read both channels together. A drop in the AI Assistant channel paired with a rise in Direct, on the same pages, points to a measurement problem, not a loss of interest.
- Keep a benchmark outside GA4. A measure that does not depend on clicks, such as the visibility tests described below, does not move when a link loses its signature.
A custom channel group to stay in control
The default channel relies on the list of assistants Google recognizes. To track an AI engine that might not be on it, or to keep control of your own rules, create a custom channel group: in Admin, under Data display, click Channel groups, copy the default group, then add an “AI” channel whose source matches a regular expression like this one.
chatgpt|openai|perplexity|gemini|copilot|claude|deepseek|grokThree precautions, taken from Google’s documentation:[6]
- Order matters. A visit goes to the first channel whose definition it matches: put your AI channel above Referral.
- History follows. A custom group can be applied to your reports retroactively.
- The number is limited. Two custom groups per standard property, five in Google Analytics 360, in addition to the default group.
The orders of magnitude
Do not expect a wave. Conductor measured the traffic of 1,215 client domains across ten industries, from May to September 2025: AI engines drove 1.08% of visits, and 87.4% of those visits came from ChatGPT.[7] The study does not focus on Quebec or Canada.
A small volume is not a small stake. What matters is what these visitors do: the pages they land on, how long they stay, the requests they send. Compare the key events of the AI Assistant channel with those of Organic Search, over the same period, before drawing a conclusion.
How we see it
GA4 answers one question: how many visitors AI engines send you. It does not answer the one that comes first: do AI engines talk about you, and how?
For that one, you need to ask the AI engines themselves, in a repeatable way. It is the core of our GEO (also called AEO) work: 100 strategic queries, asked to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini, scored on your brand’s position in each answer. Learn more: our testing protocol. Your website score then tells you why you are cited, or not. Learn more: our GEO score.
The measures work together. The tests tell you whether you are cited. GA4 tells you whether that citation becomes a visit, then a request. And to be cited, you first need an answer an AI engine can quote as is. Learn more: How to get cited by AI: writing an answer ChatGPT can quote.
We are data analysis experts and numbers obsess us: that is why we read all three together. Learn more: our approach to AI search optimization.
Cited. Visited. Measured.
Frequently asked questions
How do I see ChatGPT traffic in Google Analytics 4?
Open Reports, then Acquisition and Traffic acquisition. Since May 13, 2026, the “AI Assistant” row groups visits from ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and the other assistants Google recognizes. Then switch the dimension to Session source / medium to isolate chatgpt.com, and add the landing page to see where these visitors arrive.
What is the AI Assistant channel in GA4?
It is a channel of the default channel group in Google Analytics 4, added by Google on May 13, 2026. When a visit’s referrer matches a recognized AI assistant, such as ChatGPT or Gemini, GA4 gives it the “ai-assistant” medium and puts it in this channel, with no setup on your side. Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode are not part of it.
Why does my ChatGPT traffic show up as Direct?
Because the visit arrived with no referrer and no UTM parameter: GA4 then files it as Direct. That happens with an address typed by hand, or copied without its parameters. In October 2026, according to Search Engine Roundtable, a ChatGPT bug also removed this tagging for about a week. A drop in ChatGPT paired with a rise in Direct on the same pages points to a measurement problem.
Is Google's AI Mode counted in the AI Assistant channel?
No. According to the Google Analytics documentation, the AI Assistant channel excludes Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, which stay in Organic Search with the rest of Google’s traffic. To measure their effect on your visits, look at Organic Search, not at the AI Assistant channel.
Does GA4 measure my brand's citations in ChatGPT?
No. GA4 only sees visits: an AI engine can cite your business or recommend it without anyone clicking. To know whether you are cited, you need to ask the AI engines themselves, in a repeatable way. Our protocol asks 100 queries to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini, and scores your brand’s position in each answer.
Sources
- ↑ a b Google, “What’s new in Google Analytics“, Google Analytics Help, entries of May 13, 2026 (“New AI Assistant traffic measurement”) and June 11, 2026 (“New Source Group field”), accessed October 19, 2026.
- ↑ a b c Google, “Default channel group“, Google Analytics Help, accessed October 19, 2026.
- ↑ a b Google, “Traffic acquisition report“, Google Analytics Help, accessed October 19, 2026.
- ↑ OpenAI, “GPT-6 and Intelligent UI for everyone“, October 7, 2026.
- ↑ a b Barry Schwartz, “OpenAI Drops UTM Parameters From ChatGPT Results (GPT-6)“, Search Engine Roundtable, October 14, 2026, updated October 15, 2026. The article quotes the analysis Cedric Huesler (Adobe) published on LinkedIn and his October 15 update. It reports no statement from OpenAI.
- ↑ Google, “Custom channel groups“, Google Analytics Help, accessed October 19, 2026.
- ↑ Conductor, “The 2026 AEO / GEO Benchmarks Report“, updated July 6, 2026. Anonymized, aggregated data from 1,215 client domains, ten industries, May to September 2025: more than 3.3 billion sessions, including more than 35.7 million from AI engines. Google’s AI Mode is not broken out, as GA4 counts it with Google search.