Open Google Analytics 4 and go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition. Since May 2026, GA4 has sorted visits from assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot into a channel of its own called AI Assistant, so that row is the quickest answer. Switch the table to Session source / medium and each assistant appears by name, such as chatgpt.com.
That shows the clicks GA4 can identify. It doesn’t show all of them: some app visits look like Direct traffic, and Google’s own AI Overviews and AI Mode count as ordinary Google search. Below is a 15-minute setup that also covers older months and ties AI visits to leads, then a plain list of what stays hidden. You don’t need anyone’s help to do it. Getting mentioned in the first place is a separate job, covered on our SEO and AI visibility page.
Step 1: check the built-in AI Assistant channel (2 minutes)
- In GA4, open Reports, then Acquisition > Traffic acquisition (Google’s help page has the details).
- Set the date range to the last 90 days.
- Look down the channel column for AI Assistant. Google’s channel definitions describe it as visits “from sources like ChatGPT, Gemini, Deepseek, Copilot, or Grok.”
- Open the dimension dropdown at the top of that column and choose Session source / medium. AI visits show the assistant as the source and
ai-assistantas the medium.
ChatGPT is the easiest one to spot, because it adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to the links it sends. OpenAI said so in its FAQ for publishers; that help page has since moved, so confirm it in your own reports by looking for chatgpt.com as a session source. That tag survives even when the browser passes no referrer.
Google added the channel in its May 13, 2026 release. Before that, the same visits counted as Referral, or as Unassigned when a tagged link carried no medium.
Step 2: build your own “AI tools” channel group (10 minutes)
The built-in channel is a good start, but you can’t edit its list, and it is new. A custom channel group fixes both. Google says custom channel groups “can be applied to your reports retroactively,” so a group that matches on source shows AI visits in the months before May 2026 too. You need the Editor role or higher.
- Go to Admin, and under Data display click Channel groups.
- Click Create new channel group. GA4 starts you with a copy of the default group.
- Name it something like “Channels with AI tools.”
- Click Add new channel, name it “AI tools,” and set one condition: Source, matches regex, with this value:
.*(chatgpt|openai|perplexity|copilot|gemini\.google|claude\.ai).*- Save the channel, then click Reorder and drag “AI tools” to the top of the list. GA4 puts each visit in the first channel it matches, so a lower spot would let Referral claim these visits first.
- Click Apply, then Save group.
Back in Traffic acquisition, pick the new group from the same dimension dropdown. The full steps are in Google’s custom channel groups help.
A few notes. Regex in GA4 is case sensitive and limited to 250 characters, per Google’s filter help. Sources come through in lower case, so the pattern above works as written. A standard property can have two custom channel groups. When a new assistant starts sending visits, add its domain to the pattern.
Step 3: tie AI visits to leads (3 minutes)
Visits are interesting. Leads pay the bills.
- Mark your form as a key event. Key events are GA4’s name for conversions. In Admin > Data display > Events, star the event your form sends (Google’s steps). If you don’t track form submissions yet, our guide to a quote request form covers a thank-you page event and how to test it.
- Read the Key events column. In Traffic acquisition, the AI tools row now shows how many sessions ended in a lead. The column header lets you narrow it to one event.
- See which pages assistants send people to. Open Reports > Engagement > Landing page, click + Add filter, choose Session source, set the match type to matches partial regex, and enter
chatgpt|openai|perplexity|copilot|gemini\.google|claude\.ai. The list shows where AI visitors land and which of those pages produce leads. - Ask people. Add an optional “How did you hear about us?” field to your form. An answer like “ChatGPT suggested you” catches visits that GA4 filed somewhere else.
What GA4 still can’t show you
Treat the AI number as a floor, not a total.
- App visits with no referrer. AI apps on phones and computers often open links without telling your site where the visitor came from. Unless the link carries a tag like ChatGPT’s, GA4 files the visit as Direct, which Google defines as arriving “via a saved link or by entering your URL.” Orbit Media’s guide to AI traffic in GA4 makes the same point about apps.
- Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google’s channel definitions say AI Assistant “excludes Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode,” and they put those clicks in Organic Search. Search Console works the same way: Google’s page on AI features and your website says these appearances “are included in the overall search traffic in Search Console,” inside the Web search type.
- Google’s AI impressions, without clicks. Search Console’s Generative AI performance report counts how often links to your site appeared in Google’s AI features. Google says it reached all websites as of August 31, 2026, though sites with few AI impressions may not see it. It reports impressions only, so the clicks stay mixed in with regular search.
- Mentions nobody clicks. If an assistant names your business and the person calls you instead, analytics records nothing.
- The second search. Someone reads an answer, then searches your name or types your address. That visit counts as Organic Search or Direct.
- Visitors GA4 never counts. People whose browser or consent choices block Google Analytics don’t appear in any channel, AI or otherwise.
What to look at in Bing Webmaster Tools
Copilot answers draw on Bing’s index, and other AI search tools have used it as a source too, which is why Bing’s reports belong in this check. In February 2026 Microsoft added AI Performance as a public preview. It covers Microsoft Copilot, Bing’s AI summaries and some partner integrations Microsoft doesn’t name. Each month, look at:
- Cited pages. Which of your pages appear as sources. Compare them with the landing pages from Step 3.
- Grounding queries. A sample of the searches behind those citations. A question you can answer but don’t get cited for is a page to improve.
- The newer views. In June 2026 Bing started rolling out Intents, Topics, Citation Share and Compare, also in preview.
These are citations, not visits, so read them next to GA4. If Bing isn’t set up yet, our guide to Bing Webmaster Tools for AI search walks through it.
A 10-minute monthly check
- Traffic acquisition with your AI group: sessions and key events against last month.
- The Landing page filter: which pages AI visitors reach.
- Session source: any new AI domains to add to the pattern.
- Search Console’s Generative AI report, if your site has it.
- Bing’s AI Performance: cited pages and grounding queries.
- Your form’s “How did you hear about us?” answers.
If the numbers are flat, the fix is on your pages, not in your reports. Our checklist on how to show up in AI answers covers crawler access, Bing indexing and writing facts plainly.
How we can help
Measuring what arrives is part of our SEO and AI visibility work. Nobody can promise an assistant will mention you, but you can know exactly what’s arriving and what it’s worth. If you’d like your GA4 setup looked over, send your site address through our contact page.