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Module 9 · Lesson 9.2 · AI traffic in GA4 and Search Console · 3 min

ChatGPT and AI traffic in GA4 and Search Console

Lesson 9.2 of the free AEO and GEO course: how to see traffic from ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity in Google Analytics 4 (the AI Assistant channel and a custom channel group), AI features in Search Console, the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools, and the limits of this data.

The video for this lesson is coming soon to YouTube. Meanwhile, the full transcript is right here.

Transcript

0:00Introduction

Lesson 9.2: AI traffic, in Google Analytics and in Search Console.

0:07Citations and visits

Getting cited and getting visits are two different things. You can show up in an answer, and nobody clicks. You measure citations with the audit. You measure visits with Google's free tools, and Bing's. Let's see what they tell you, and what they don't.

0:23The AI Assistant channel in GA4

Let's start with Google Analytics 4. Since May 2026, the default channel group has a new channel: AI Assistant. It collects the visits that come from assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot. You'll find it under Acquisition, Traffic acquisition. Watch out for one detail: it excludes Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode. Those visits stay in organic search.

0:49Your own channel group

If you want to decide for yourself which sources to count, you can create a custom channel group. Go to Admin, Data display, Channel groups. Create a channel called AI assistants, with a condition on the source that matches a regular expression, with the names of the engines. Put it above Referral: GA4 assigns each visit to the first channel it matches. And it applies to past data too.

1:14Search Console

Then there's Search Console. AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in the Performance report, under Web. A click on a link in the answer counts as a click. Since June 2026 there's also a view dedicated to AI features, live for every site since August 31, 2026. It shows impressions: how many times your pages appeared in Google's AI answers, by page, country, device and date.

1:44Bing Webmaster Tools

And Bing Webmaster Tools, the one you connected in Module 0, has an AI Performance report. It shows how many times your pages are cited in Copilot, and which searches led the engine to them. Bing points out that it measures how often you're cited, not your ranking.

2:01The limits of the data

Now the limits, because they matter. Many visits from AI arrive without saying where they come from: from the apps, or from a link someone copied and pasted. In Analytics, they end up as direct visits. So the number in the AI channel is a floor, not the total. Use it to watch the trend, and to see which pages get visits from AI.

2:24Your task for today

Your task for today: in GA4, open the AI Assistant channel for the last ninety days, and note the visits and conversions. Then look at the AI view in Search Console, and at Bing's AI report. Write it all down in the Report tab of the course worksheet.

2:56Next lesson

In the next lesson: from leads back to AI, and how an Italian tour operator traced its quote requests back to the engines. See you there.

Your task

In GA4, open the AI Assistant channel for the last ninety days, and note the visits and conversions. Then look at the AI view in Search Console, and at Bing's AI report. Write it all down in the Report tab of the course worksheet.

Track it in the course worksheet.

Sources

Checked 19 October 2026.

  • Google Analytics Help, «Default channel group» (https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9756891): «AI Assistant is the channel by which users arrive at your site from sources like ChatGPT, Gemini, Deepseek, Copilot, or Grok. It excludes Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode.» Announced in GA4's «What's new» on May 13, 2026.
  • Google Analytics Help, «Custom channel groups» (https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/13051316): «In Admin, under Data display, click Channel groups»; the «matches regex» condition; «Traffic is included in the first channel whose definition it matches»; «Custom channel groups can be applied to your reports retroactively»; two custom groups in standard properties. The same steps are described in AI & LLM Referral Traffic Conversion Rates (2026 Data).
  • Google Search Central, «AI features and your website» (updated December 10, 2025): AI features are «reported on in the Performance report, within the "Web" search type»; Search Console Help: a click on a link in an AI Overview or in AI Mode «counts as a click».
  • Google Search Central Blog, «Introducing Search Generative AI performance reports in Search Console», June 3, 2026: impressions in Search's AI features and in Discover, by page, country, device and date; «As of August 31, 2026, we've rolled out these insights to all websites worldwide.»
  • Bing Webmaster Tools Blog, «Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools (Public Preview)», February 10, 2026: citations in Microsoft Copilot and in Bing's AI summaries, with the «grounding queries»; «This reflects how often pages are cited, not page importance, ranking, or placement.»
  • Visits without a referrer: a limit described qualitatively (apps, copied links); the figures available come from tool vendors and are not used.
  • CiteProof: read-only GA4 connection, with the people who arrived from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Copilot on the Today page (Connect Search Console and Google Analytics, AI Bots: who reads your site and who it sends you).