How do you measure traffic from ChatGPT in Google Analytics?
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By creating an “AI assistants” channel in Google Analytics 4, as Google itself documents. In a custom channel group, this channel recognizes visits whose source contains chatgpt, openai, gemini, perplexity, copilot or another assistant. It must be placed before “Referrals”: a visit is assigned to the first channel that matches it. It also applies to past data. It only counts visits that arrive with their origin: those that arrive with no indication of origin are counted as direct, and part of the traffic coming from AIs therefore escapes it.
For what type of question? This is a practical measurement question, for a company that has a site tracked by Google Analytics 4 and wants to know whether AIs send it visitors. The steps come from Google's official help, consulted on November 9, 2026.
Why AI traffic is not visible right away
By default, Google Analytics 4 assigns visits to predefined channels: organic search, social networks, email, referrals, direct access… There is no “AI” channel in this default channel group. A visit coming from ChatGPT or Perplexity therefore ends up mixed in with the others, and Google asks you to place the AI channel above Referrals, where these visits would otherwise be assigned.
To see it separately, you need to create a custom channel group. That is what Google describes in its help on custom channel groups, with an example named “AI assistants”. The procedure requires the Editor role on the Google Analytics property.
Google's steps
In Admin, then Data display, open Channel groups. Create a group from a copy of the default channel group. Add a channel named “AI assistants”, with a “matches regex” condition on the source. Google provides an expression that covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Claude and Perplexity. Then reorder the list so that “AI assistants” sits above “Referrals”: a visit is assigned to the first channel whose condition it meets.
The new group can then be chosen as a dimension in the Acquisition reports. It applies to past data, which lets you see the trend of recent months right away. A standard property can have two custom groups in addition to the default channel group, each with fifty channels at most.
Checking what the channel counts
The expression in Google's example is deliberately broad. Before reading the figures, look at the list of sources that the channel has actually assigned: it may catch one that is not an assistant, or miss a new one. Google says so itself: the expression must be modified when the list of assistants changes.
AIs also need to be able to read your site. OpenAI states that a site that refuses its search robot, OAI-SearchBot, in its robots.txt file does not appear in ChatGPT's search answers. It can then only appear as a navigational link. A site that blocks these robots will have almost nothing to count.
What the measurement does not see
The channel only counts visits that arrive with their origin. A visit that arrives without it is counted under “(direct) / (none)”, along with addresses typed by hand and bookmarks. We do not know how to measure what share of the traffic coming from AIs is lost this way, and OpenAI no longer documents, on an official page, how ChatGPT flags its links.
Nor does the measurement see what happens without a click. A customer can read your name in an answer, then type your address or call you: nothing in Google Analytics links that contact to the AI. The “AI assistants” channel counts visits, not the influence of AIs on the choice. A simple question to your new customers, “how did you hear about us?”, usefully complements the measurement.
Where FaireDuBruit stands
FaireDuBruit, the publisher of this page, does not install any measurement tool and has no access to your Google Analytics. It is a distribution service: it regularly publishes articles on your site and on three specialist media, so that AIs have more sources to read when a customer looks for what you do. The channel described here lets you track, on your side, whether these visits are increasing.
A monthly report indicates which AIs read your articles on our media. It is a read by a robot, not a visit from a customer, and this report says nothing about your sales. No citation by an AI is promised.
What we do not know
Steps recorded on November 9, 2026 in the Google Analytics 4 help, which may change. The OpenAI help page that described the tagging of ChatGPT links is no longer online at that date. We do not know how to measure the share of visits coming from an AI that arrive without an origin. This page only covers Google Analytics 4.
Sources
- Google — Google Analytics Help, “Groupes de canaux personnalisés”, example “Assistants IA”, .
- OpenAI — “Overview of OpenAI Crawlers”, .
- FaireDuBruit measurements, from September 4 to 16, 2026 — see “How we measured”.