How do you track ChatGPT traffic in GA4?
You give AI assistants their own channel. Out of the box, GA4 files a visit from chatgpt.com under Referral, next to every other site that links to you, so it's easy to miss.
ChatGPT adds a source tag of chatgpt.com to many of the links it shows, and the other assistants pass their own domain as the referrer. A custom channel group catches those sources and reports them together, so you can see how many visits AI sends you, which pages they land on and whether they enquire.
How do you set up an AI channel in GA4, step by step?
It takes about ten minutes. You need Editor access to the GA4 property.
- In GA4, go to Admin, then Data display, then Channel groups.
- Copy the default channel group, so you keep every standard channel, and name it "Default plus AI".
- Add a new channel called "AI assistants".
- Set the condition to Source, matches regex, and paste the pattern shown below.
- Save, then reorder the channels so AI assistants sits above Referral. GA4 uses the first channel that matches.
- Open Reports, then Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition, and switch the channel group to your new one.
- Add your key events as a column, so you can see enquiries from AI, not just visits.
Which AI referrers should you include?
Start with the five main assistants, and add others as they show up in your referral report.
- chatgpt.com: ChatGPT. Older visits may show chat.openai.com.
- perplexity.ai: Perplexity.
- claude.ai: Claude.
- gemini.google.com: Gemini.
- copilot.microsoft.com: Microsoft Copilot.
What won't GA4 show you?
Three gaps are worth knowing, so you don't read too much into the figures.
- Visits with no referrer: some assistant apps and copied links arrive as Direct.
- Google's AI answers: clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode count as Google organic search. Use Search Console instead.
- Mentions without clicks: if ChatGPT names you and the buyer calls you, GA4 never knows. Ask new customers how they found you, and track mentions with a fixed set of prompts.
Which GA4 settings should a small business change first?
Four settings, before you trust any report. Most accounts we see have at least one of them wrong.
- Data retention: GA4 keeps event-level data for two months by default. Change it to 14 months in Admin, under Data collection and modification, so explorations can look back further.
- Internal traffic: define your office and home IP addresses in the data stream settings, test the filter, then make it active. Active filters permanently exclude data, so test first.
- Google Ads: link the accounts under Product links, so you can see what people from your ads did on the site.
- Enhanced measurement: switch it on in the data stream. It records page views, scrolls, outbound clicks, site search, file downloads and some video and form activity without extra work.
Which actions should count as key events?
The ones that make you money. GA4 calls them key events; they used to be called conversions. Without them, your AI channel only tells you about visits.
For a service business that's usually enquiry form submissions, phone clicks, email clicks and bookings. For a shop it's purchases, with add to cart and checkout steps along the way. Track forms when the thank-you message or page appears, not when the button is clicked, because clicks happen even when a form fails. Keep the list short: if a page view is marked as a key event, the figure means nothing.
What goes wrong with GA4 tracking?
Four problems come up again and again. Check for them after any change to your site.
- Tracking that quietly broke after a redesign, a new form plugin or a cookie banner change. Test key events yourself in DebugView.
- Duplicate tags, from a plugin and Google Tag Manager at once, which doubles your figures.
- Consent not wired up. Under UK GDPR and PECR you generally need consent for analytics cookies, and consent mode lets your tags respect the choice.
- Expecting GA4 to match Google Ads, Meta or your CRM. They count differently. Pick one source of truth per question.