Since May 2026, Google Analytics 4 puts visits from recognised AI assistants, such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot, into their own AI Assistant channel. That's the first place to look. But that channel is not a full measure of AI influence. Visits without usable source information may appear as Direct or retain attribution to an earlier source. Some AI tools may not be recognised, and clicks from Google's own AI Overviews and AI Mode count as Organic Search. Older AI visits may appear under Referral or other channels, depending on the source and medium recorded at the time. In this guide we show where to find AI visits, what GA4 can't see, and how to set up a custom channel group that gives you a cleaner view, including for older data.

What the AI Assistant channel in GA4 is

GA4 sorts every session into a "default channel group", such as Organic Search, Referral or Direct. On 13 May 2026, Google added a new channel for AI tools. According to Google's "What's new" log (checked 27 October 2026), GA4 now assigns the medium ai-assistant "when the referrer matches a recognized AI Assistant", files those visits under the AI Assistant channel and labels them with the campaign name (ai-assistant).

Google's default channel group definitions (checked 27 October 2026) describe the channel as the one "by which users arrive at your site from sources like ChatGPT, Gemini, Deepseek, Copilot, or Grok". Google doesn't publish the full list of AI tools it recognises on that page, so treat those five as examples, not a complete list.

You don't need to switch anything on. If your property is collecting data, the channel applies automatically to new sessions.

Where to find AI visits in your GA4 reports

  1. Open GA4 and go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition.
  2. Make sure the table's first column shows Session default channel group. Look for the row called AI Assistant.
  3. To see which AI tools sent the visits, change the dimension to Session source / medium. AI visits show as, for example, chatgpt.com / ai-assistant.
  4. To see which pages people landed on, add a secondary dimension of Landing page + query string.
  5. Check the Key events column (if you've set key events up, such as enquiry form submissions or WhatsApp clicks) to see whether those visits led anywhere useful.

Menu labels in GA4 change from time to time. If a label doesn't match, the report you want is the one that breaks sessions down by channel and by source.

What the AI Assistant channel does not show

The AI Assistant channel only catches visits where GA4 can tell an AI tool sent the person. Several common cases slip through:

What happens Where the visit ends up in GA4
Someone clicks a link in an AI app that does not pass referrer information May appear as Direct, unless usable campaign tags or earlier attribution identify another source
Someone copies an untagged web address from an AI answer and pastes it into a browser May appear as Direct or retain attribution to an earlier source
Someone reads about your business in an AI answer, then searches your name on Google Organic Search
Someone clicks a link inside Google AI Overviews or AI Mode Organic Search (these are part of Google Search, not a separate AI assistant)
The AI tool is not recognised, but sends a usable referrer May appear as Referral; campaign tags can change the classification
An older visit came from an AI tool It may appear under Referral, Direct or another channel, depending on the source and medium recorded

A custom channel group can regroup older or otherwise unrecognised AI traffic when its recorded source or medium identifies the tool. It cannot recover source information that was never recorded or identify all visits influenced by an AI answer. Google documents both missing source information and session attribution to earlier non-direct sources. That's one reason AI visibility is better judged with several signals, not one report. Our guides on checking whether ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity mention your business and on whether AI Overviews are behind a traffic drop cover the other signals.

Check the sources in your own report rather than assuming an assistant is included or excluded. For example, if a visit appears as perplexity.ai / referral, it is not in the default AI Assistant channel for that session. You can include identifiable visits like these in a custom channel. Google's separate Source Group dimension also groups sources such as Perplexity, but that is not the same as the default channel group.

How to set up a custom AI channel group (including older data)

A custom channel group lets you decide which sources count as AI. Google says "custom channel groups can be applied to your reports retroactively" (Google Analytics Help: custom channel groups, checked 27 October 2026). That lets you compare identifiable AI-attributed traffic across older and newer periods using the same rules.

What you need: Editor access or higher on the GA4 property. Standard (free) properties can have two custom channel groups, each with up to 50 channels.

  1. Go to Admin > Data display > Channel groups.

  2. Click Create new channel group. GA4 starts you with a copy of the default group.

  3. Name it something clear, such as "Channels with AI".

  4. Add a new channel called AI tools.

  5. Add a condition: Source > matches regex, and paste a pattern such as:

    chatgpt\.com|chat\.openai\.com|perplexity\.ai|gemini\.google\.com|copilot\.microsoft\.com|claude\.ai|deepseek\.com|grok\.com|meta\.ai

  6. Add a second condition joined with OR: Medium > exactly matches > ai-assistant. This keeps anything Google already recognises.

  7. Drag the AI tools channel above both AI Assistant and Referral, and any other channel whose rules overlap. The copied group already contains AI Assistant. Google assigns traffic to the first channel it matches, so the new combined channel needs to come before the existing channels that would otherwise capture it.

  8. Save, then go back to the Traffic acquisition report and switch the channel group to your new one.

The regex above is a starting list, not an official one. AI tools change their web addresses, and new ones appear. Every few months, look at your Referral sources for AI tools you haven't included and add them. Google's own help page makes the same point: update the pattern when the list of assistants you want to measure changes.

How to read AI traffic without over-reading it

If your site records only a small number of AI-attributed sessions, a few points help keep the numbers in proportion:

  • Look at trends over months, not days. Small numbers swing a lot. One week with 12 visits and the next with 4 tells you very little.
  • Check landing pages. If AI-attributed visits mostly land on one guide or service page, that may be a page an AI tool is linking to. That can help you decide which content to review. Analytics alone does not show the exact answer or citation that produced the visit.
  • Check what the visits did. A handful of AI visits that end in enquiries matter more than a large number that leave straight away.
  • Expect a gap. Use the AI tools row in your custom group as one view of identifiable AI-attributed sessions. Do not add it to the default AI Assistant total: the two views overlap. Neither is a complete count of AI influence, and attribution can sometimes misclassify a visit.

Hypothetical example: [Business name], a renovation contractor, sees 9 sessions in the AI Assistant channel last month, all from chatgpt.com, and 6 of them landed on its "HDB renovation permit" guide. Two led to an enquiry form submission. The useful conclusion is not "AI sends us 9 unique visitors". It is "GA4 attributed 9 sessions to ChatGPT, including 6 landing on our permit guide, and 2 sessions led to enquiries. That is a reason to keep the guide accurate and up to date, not proof of a particular citation or a complete count of AI influence." (This is an illustrative example, not a client result.)

What's in your control, and what isn't

In your control:

  • Making sure GA4 is installed correctly on every page and your key events are set up.
  • Creating a custom channel group so AI visits, including older ones, are grouped the way you want.
  • Allowing the search crawlers AI tools use to read your site, if you want to appear in their answers. Our guide to robots.txt and AI crawlers explains the options.
  • Keeping the pages AI tools are likely to cite clear, accurate and current.

Out of your control:

  • Whether an AI tool passes referrer information or tags its links.
  • Which AI tools Google recognises in the default AI Assistant channel.
  • Whether, and how often, any AI tool mentions or links to your business. An analytics setup measures traffic; it does not guarantee mentions or links.

A simple monthly routine

Once a month:

  1. Open Traffic acquisition with your custom AI channel group.
  2. Note AI sessions, top AI sources and top landing pages in a spreadsheet.
  3. Check Referral for new AI tools to add to your regex.
  4. Note any observed tracking changes or unusual weeks so you can investigate them before drawing conclusions.