How to track ChatGPT and AI traffic in GA4, and AI Overviews in Search Console

Traffic from ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot shows up in GA4 in the AI Assistant channel, which Google added in May 2026, and as sessions from those assistants' domains. AI Overviews and AI Mode, by contrast, count as Google organic search; since June 2026, Search Console has a dedicated report that shows their impressions.

To check it on your own site: Online shops

This guide is the measurement part of the guide to e-commerce SEO for AI search, but it works for any website. A declaration of interest: this blog belongs to SmoothSeen, a web audit tool that measures visibility in search engines and AI assistants. It does not connect to Google Analytics or Search Console, so there are no product shortcuts here: everything is done in Google's own tools.

What can you measure, and what can't you?

You can measure anything that leaves a recorded visit or impression. What leaves nothing is a mention without a click: if an assistant names your shop in an answer and nobody clicks, neither GA4 nor Search Console will know.

This table summarises where each source shows up, according to Google's and OpenAI's documentation:

For a shop, that means two separate questions, each answered in a different tool. "How many visits and sales do assistants bring me?" is answered in GA4. "How often do I appear in Google's AI answers?" is answered in Search Console, and only as impressions.

How do you see ChatGPT traffic in GA4?

Since 13 May 2026, GA4's default channel group includes a channel called AI Assistant6. Google defines it as the channel through which users arrive from sources such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Deepseek, Copilot or Grok, and it explicitly excludes AI Overviews and AI Mode1. GA4 sets the medium to ai-assistant when the referrer matches a list of AI assistants1.

To see it:

1. Open Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition7.
2. Leave the session default channel group as the primary dimension and look for the AI Assistant row.
3. Switch the dimension to Session source / medium to see each assistant separately.
4. Add key events or revenue as a metric: for a shop, what matters is what those visitors buy.

Two limitations to keep in mind. Google does not publish the full list of assistants it recognises: the channel definition names ChatGPT, Gemini, Deepseek, Copilot and Grok1, the announcement adds Claude6, and Perplexity appears in neither. And Google's help does not say whether the channel also applies to data from before May 2026; if you compare long periods, check the session source as well as the channel.

To look back in time there is another dimension, aimed mainly at the advertising reports: on 11 June 2026 Google added Source Group, which consolidates different spellings of the same source, includes built-in grouping for ChatGPT (OpenAI) and Perplexity, and is populated retroactively6.

The ChatGPT UTM parameter

OpenAI explains that ChatGPT automatically adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to referral URLs from its search results, so you can track that traffic in tools such as Google Analytics2. That makes it the easiest source to spot.

There is a technical catch. GA4 explains that if any UTM parameter is present on a URL, it derives all traffic-source dimensions from the UTM parameters alone, and missing ones show as (not set)8. ChatGPT only adds utm_source, and Google does not document how that interacts with the AI Assistant channel. If you see chatgpt.com sessions with an odd medium, check the source before trusting the channel.

How do you build your own channel group for AI?

If you want to decide for yourself what counts as an assistant, or separate AI from referrals in older reports, create a custom channel group. Google documents the steps9:

1. Go to Admin > Data display > Channel groups.
2. Click Create new channel group, which starts from a copy of the default group with all its channels.
3. Add a channel called, say, "AI assistants", with a Source condition that matches regex using the expression below.
4. Click Reorder and move it above "Referral": traffic is assigned to the first channel whose definition it matches, in the order of the group9.
5. Save the group and pick it as the dimension in the Traffic acquisition report.

A sample regular expression, written for this guide; check your source report for the domains that actually send you traffic and adjust it:

.*(chatgpt|openai|perplexity|gemini|copilot|claude).*

The .* at each end matters. According to Google's help, Analytics regular expressions are full-match by default: without those wildcards, chatgpt would only match a source called exactly "chatgpt", not chatgpt.com10. Google's own help includes a sample AI assistants channel built the same way9.

Three facts from the help that save surprises9:

• A standard property allows two custom channel groups, on top of the default one, with up to 50 channels each.
• Custom channel groups apply to your reports retroactively, so you can use them to look at past months.
• Deleting a group cannot be undone.

What does Search Console show for AI Overviews and AI Mode?

Search Console counts appearances in Google's AI features within normal search traffic. Google says sites appearing in AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in Search Console's overall traffic, under the "Web" search type of the Performance report3.

How they are counted, according to Search Console Help11:

• AI Overviews. Clicking a link to an external page counts as a click. The whole AI Overview occupies a single position in the results, and all its links are given that same position.
• AI Mode. Clicks and impressions follow the usual rules, and position is calculated as on a results page. A follow-up question counts as a new query.

The generative AI performance report

On 3 June 2026, Google announced on its Search Central blog dedicated performance reports for generative AI features, one for Search and one for Discover, first for a subset of sites; on 31 August 2026 it rolled them out to all sites worldwide12. The help describes the Search report like this4:

• It covers AI Overviews and AI Mode.
• It shows impressions only: how many times links to your site were shown in a generative AI feature on Google Search. It does not show clicks.
• It can be broken down by pages, countries, dates and devices, and filtered by search type: text or multimodal (image searches, such as Google Lens).
• Its data is also part of the "Web" search type in the general Performance report.

If you cannot see it, the help says the usual reason is that your site has not had enough impressions in those features, and notes that it may also be because you have excluded your site from them4. Google adds that it is looking at adding more metrics over time12, so the report is worth revisiting. What a page needs to appear in those answers is in the guide to Google AI Overviews.

For a shop, the practical use is to cross the two reports: which product and category pages appear in Google's AI answers (this report) and how many clicks they get overall (the Performance report).

Why does an assistant mention you while you see no visits?

Because a mention and a visit are different things. An assistant can name your shop, or recommend a product you sell, without linking to you; or link to you and nobody clicks. Either way there is no session to measure.

There are more technical reasons too:

• Visits with no referrer. GA4 recognises an assistant from the referrer or the medium of the visit1. If the visit carries neither, it has nothing to attribute it with.
• Links to another site. If the assistant links to a price comparison site or a marketplace that sells your product, that site gets the visit, not you.
• Small samples. With few visits, a week without AI traffic means nothing.

Google says clicks from search results pages with AI Overviews are higher quality, with users more likely to spend more time on the site, although it publishes no figures or methodology13. It also recommends looking at the overall value of visits, with conversion signals such as sales or sign-ups, rather than clicks alone13.

Knowing whether an assistant names you is therefore a different measurement, done by asking. On its paid plans, SmoothSeen runs the questions you define in ChatGPT and Gemini and tells you whether they name your brand; it does not measure visits, clicks or sales, which stay in GA4. How to work on your presence in ChatGPT is covered in the guide to ChatGPT SEO.

How do you present it in a report?

Whether you run the shop in-house or as an agency, keep the three figures separate and do not add them up:

Always compare like-for-like periods and log the changes you make to the site, so you can tie a rise to what you did. How to build the rest of the report, and how to explain what cannot be measured, is in the guide to the SEO client report.

Frequently asked questions

How do I see ChatGPT traffic in Google Analytics?

In GA4, open Reports, Acquisition, Traffic acquisition, and look for the AI Assistant row in the default channel group; to see ChatGPT on its own, switch the dimension to Session source / medium. OpenAI adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to the links in its search answers, so its source is easy to filter. For older data or your own definition, build a custom channel group.

Does Search Console show AI Overviews traffic?

Yes, but blended in: Google includes AI Overviews and AI Mode in the Web search type of the Performance report without separating them. There is also a generative AI performance report that shows them apart, though with impressions only, no clicks. Google rolled it out to all sites on 31 August 2026; if you cannot see it, the usual reason is that your site has too few impressions in those features.

Does GA4 count AI Mode as AI traffic?

No. Google defines the AI Assistant channel for assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot and explicitly excludes AI Overviews and AI Mode, which go to the Organic Search channel. If you want to follow Google's AI features, the place to look is Search Console, not GA4.

Why does ChatGPT mention me but I see no visits?

Because a mention without a click creates no session. ChatGPT can name your shop without linking to it, link to another site that sells your product, or show a link nobody clicks. To know whether it mentions you, you have to ask it your customers' questions and record the answers; analytics only measures visits.

What to do next

Open the Traffic acquisition report in GA4, find the AI Assistant channel and add key events as a metric. Then, in Search Console, check whether you have the generative AI report and which pages appear in it. What those pages need for an assistant to recommend them is in the guide to e-commerce SEO for AI search.