How to see ChatGPT traffic in Google Analytics (Malaysia)

To see ChatGPT traffic in Google Analytics 4 (GA4), select Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition, from the left-hand menu and look for the AI Assistant channel. Google added it on 13 May 2026 for visits from assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot. It is not a full count. Google's own AI Overviews sit under Organic Search, and assistant visits that lose their referrer land in Direct.

Last updated: 14 September 2026. The Google Analytics menu paths below were checked against Google's own help pages on that date.

Key takeaways

• Google Analytics now has an AI Assistant channel. Google listed "New AI Assistant traffic measurement" on 13 May 2026, for chatbots "like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude" (Google Analytics Help).
• Google's own AI answers are not in it. The channel "excludes Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode", which Google counts as Organic Search (Google Analytics Help).
• The channel misses some AI visits. Assistant traffic that arrives without a referrer still lands in Direct (Search Engine Journal).
• Your Malaysian customers are already asking AI. Roughly half of Malaysians now use AI to look things up (Vodus AI Consumption Study Malaysia 2026).

Does Google Analytics show visitors from ChatGPT now?

Yes. Since 13 May 2026, Google Analytics 4 sorts recognised AI assistant visits into an AI Assistant channel in its Default Channel Group reports. When the referrer matches a recognised assistant, Google sets the medium to "ai-assistant" and the campaign to "(ai-assistant)". Before this change, referred AI chatbot traffic landed in the Referral channel by default, according to Search Engine Journal.

Google describes the purpose plainly:

"This feature helps you monitor how generative AI impacts your business by tracking user clicks, trending AI sources, and how this traffic compares to traditional channels like organic search."

Google Analytics Help, What's new in Google Analytics

Google's AI Assistant definition and announcement name ChatGPT, Gemini, Deepseek, Copilot, Grok and Claude between them. Google has not published the full list of assistants the channel recognises, Search Engine Journal reported (Search Engine Journal).

The visits this channel counts come from being named or linked inside an assistant's answer. If you are wondering whether you can pay for that placement instead, read whether Malaysian businesses can run ChatGPT ads yet.

How do I find ChatGPT traffic in Google Analytics 4?

Open your property and select Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition, from the left-hand menu. The Traffic acquisition report shows where new and returning visitors come from, and recognised assistant visits are grouped under AI Assistant. To see which assistant sent each visit, switch the table to Session source / medium and search for the tool's name, starting with chatgpt.

1. In Google Analytics 4, select Acquisition > Traffic acquisition from the left-hand menu (Google Analytics Help).
2. Find the AI Assistant row in the channel table.
3. Change the table's dimension to Session source / medium.
4. Type chatgpt, gemini or perplexity in the search box above the table.
5. Rows with the medium ai-assistant are visits Google recognised.

OpenAI says ChatGPT automatically adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to the links in its search results, so chatgpt.com is the source to search for (OpenAI).

Why are Google AI Overviews not in the AI Assistant channel?

Because Google counts its own AI answers as search. The AI Assistant channel "excludes Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode", and Google's definition of Organic Search includes both. A Malaysian customer who clicks your link inside an AI Overview is recorded as a Google search visit, in the same channel as a normal search click, not under AI Assistant.

The gap matters in Malaysia, where 44% of Malaysians who recently used AI say they use AI embedded in search engines (Vodus). When that AI is Google's, the click is counted as Organic Search, as our guide to how long AI search work takes to show results also notes.

Why do some ChatGPT visits show up as Direct?

Because Google Analytics records a visit as Direct when it has no clear referral source, and AI assistant visits often arrive without one. Search Engine Journal lists in-app browsers, mobile apps and copied-and-pasted links as causes. The AI Assistant channel is matched on the referrer, so an assistant visit that loses its referrer still lands in Direct instead.

The link tag can survive when the referrer does not. A link can hide the referrer while keeping its tag, Clickport notes. In its 30-day snapshot saved on 23 April 2026, 35.7% of recognised AI Search sessions had a source tag but no recorded referrer (Clickport). That is why the Session source search in the steps above is worth doing, not just a glance at the AI Assistant row.

Clickport is careful about the limit: its study "did not measure a GA4 loss rate or the AI share of Direct traffic". Read a rise in Direct with the same care, because bookmarks, typed addresses and other unlabelled links produce the same gap. Acclaira's DNE Logistics case study explains why we stopped quoting the AI Assistant number at all.

Tagging has widened over time. When ChatGPT added UTM parameters to the links under its "more" section in June 2025, Glenn Gabe wrote:

"Heads-up, this should jump the traffic levels in GA4 and other analytics tools for ChatGPT."

Glenn Gabe, as reported by Search Engine Roundtable

Do I still need a custom AI channel group?

Usually not, but it still earns its place in two cases. Google has not published the full list of assistants its AI Assistant channel recognises, while Google's own custom channel group guide names Perplexity among the popular assistants to track. If Perplexity or a newer tool matters to your customers, a custom channel group lets you set the list of sources yourself.

Two rules from Google's guide decide whether it works (Google Analytics Help):

• Order. Put the AI channel above Referral. Google Analytics includes traffic in the first channel whose definition it matches, in the group's current order.
• History. Google says custom channel groups can be applied to your reports retroactively, so older visits are sorted too.

The cost is a slot. A custom AI group used one of only two available custom channel group slots in GA4, Search Engine Journal noted.

None of this counts visits that never happen. OpenAI ties ChatGPT referral tracking to publishers who allow its OAI-SearchBot crawler, and Perplexity recommends allowing PerplexityBot in robots.txt for a site to appear in its search results. Blocked crawlers are also one reason ChatGPT can hold wrong information about a business.

What should a Malaysian business track instead of visits alone?

Track enquiries by channel, not just sessions. AI visits are a small slice of traffic: in Clickport's snapshot, recognised AI Search made up 0.7% of all recorded sessions, and Similarweb says AI referrals remain a low single-digit percentage of most sites' total traffic. A handful of AI visits that become enquiries tells a Malaysian owner more than the visit count does.

To count enquiries, mark the event that means a lead as a key event. In Admin, under Data display, click Events, create the event and switch on Mark as key event. You need the Marketer role or above at property level (Google Analytics Help). The Key events column in the Traffic acquisition report then fills in for every channel, AI Assistant included.

Analytics only sees the click. Whether ChatGPT names your business at all is a separate test, covered in how to check if ChatGPT recommends your business. A useful agency report puts both side by side, as set out in what an AI search monthly report must show.

The audience is already there. Roughly half of Malaysians now use AI to look things up: in Vodus's census-stratified survey of 2,556 adults, 67% had used an AI tool in the past 3 months, and 81% of those recent users use AI to search for information. Even then, 78% of Malaysians searching with AI still use Google as part of the process (Vodus).

If you want AI to name your business before you measure it, Acclaira runs a free one-hour class with Dan Duar on Zoom every Thursday at 9.30pm Malaysia time. Message us on WhatsApp to register.

Sources

• Google Analytics Help, What's new in Google Analytics, entry dated 13 May 2026.
• Google Analytics Help, Default channel group.
• Google Analytics Help, Custom channel groups.
• Google Analytics Help, Understand (direct) / (none) traffic.
• Google Analytics Help, Traffic acquisition report.
• Google Analytics Help, Create or modify key events.
• OpenAI Help Center, Publishers and Developers FAQ.
• Perplexity, Perplexity Crawlers.
• Search Engine Journal, Google Analytics Adds AI Assistant As Default Channel Group.
• Search Engine Roundtable, ChatGPT Updates To Improve Tracking In Analytics With More UTM Parameters.
• Clickport, Why ChatGPT Traffic Shows as Direct in GA4 (2026), snapshot saved 23 April 2026.
• Similarweb, AI Referral Traffic by Industry: 2026 Data.
• Vodus, AI usage in Malaysia 2026, 2,556 Malaysian adults, census-stratified.