AI assistants and LLM-powered tools are increasingly driving visits to websites. GA4 often misattributes those visits (e.g., direct / (none)), so you need to set up explicit rules to capture and report them. This post shows an easy, repeatable setup: create a custom channel group, use regex filters in Explorations, validate traffic, and build audiences for remarketing or deeper analysis.
Why this matters (short)
AI tools are becoming a genuine traffic source. If GA4 doesn’t label them, you lose visibility into content that gets surfaced by AI — and you miss optimization and remarketing opportunities. Grouping AI referrals gives you a dedicated view of sessions, engagement, and conversions coming specifically from AI tools.
What you’ll need
- GA4 property with Editor access (to create channel groups and audiences)
- A simple list of AI referrers (examples below)
- Optionally: permission to add UTM tags where you control the links (e.g., in plugin integrations or shared links)
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Quick list of AI referrers to watch for
Common examples to include in rules/regex:
- chat.openai.com (ChatGPT)
- perplexity.ai
- bard.google.com (Google Bard / Gemini)
- copilot.microsoft.com
- claude.ai / claude.oai.hf (Anthropic / hosted variants)
You’ll expand this as new tools appear.
Create a Custom Channel Group
Why: Default GA4 channel groups are fixed. A custom channel group lets you create a single “AI Tools” channel that aggregates referrals from AI sources. (Google Help)
How:
- Open your GA4 property.
- Click Admin (bottom-left) → under the Property column click Data Settings → Channel Groups.
- Click Create new channel group (or edit an existing custom one).
- Add a new Channel and name it AI Tools.
- Add one or more rules for that channel using Source (or Session source/medium)
Avoid overly broad matches that accidentally capture unrelated sources. Test rules in Explorations first.
Build a reliable regex list
Regex lets you capture multiple AI sources in one rule (handy for Explorations and segments). Use matches regex and escape dots.
Example regex (starter):
^(?:chatgpt\.com|chat-gpt\.org|claude\.ai|quillbot\.com|openai\.com|blackbox\.ai|perplexity(?:\.ai)?|copy\.ai|jasper\.ai|copilot\.microsoft\.com|gemini\.google\.com|(?:\w+\.)?mistral\.ai|deepseek\.com|edgepilot|edgeservices|nimble\.ai|iask\.ai|aitastic\.app|bnngpt\.com|writesonic\.com|exa\.ai|waldo|cohere\.ai|huggingface\.co|anthropic\.com|chatglm\.cn|baichuan-ai\.com|zhipu\.ai|palm-ai\.google\.com|gemini-api\.google\.com|xiaoice\.com|quora\.com/poe|my-ai\.snapchat\.com|deepl\.com|you\.com|yiyan\.baidu\.com|ai\.baidu\.com|anthropic-api\.com|open-assistant\.io|huggingchat\.com|forefront\.ai|character\.ai|chat\.suno\.com|deepmind\.com|phind\.com|pi\.ai|komo\.ai|vicuna\.ai|firefly\.adobe\.com|grok\.x\.com|coze\.com|x\.ai|bard\.google\.com|lighton\.ai|spellbook\.rossintelligence\.com|notion\.so/ai|wordtune\.com|syntesia\.io|hyperwriteai\.com|sap\.ai|reka\.ai|app\.loora\.ai|uminal\.org|alphacode\.google\.com|ai21\.com|openrouter\.ai|magical\.team|useblackbox\.io|ai-coustics\.com|chinchilla\.ai|d-id\.com|wav\.ai|openchat\.so|floydhub\.com|bing\.com/chat|copilot\.azure\.com|turing\.microsoft\.com|cosmos\.microsoft\.com|orca\.microsoft\.com|phi\.microsoft\.com|megatron\.microsoft\.com|jarvis\.microsoft\.com|maia\.microsoft\.com|palm\.google\.com|deeplearning\.google\.com|vertexai\.google\.com|ai\.google\.com|deepmind\.google\.com|cloud\.google\.com/ai|cloud\.google\.com/vertex-ai|research\.google\.com/ai|ml\.googleapis\.com|tensor\.google\.com|t5\.google\.com)$
^(?:chatgpt\.com|chat-gpt\.org|claude\.ai|quillbot\.com|openai\.com|blackbox\.ai|perplexity(?:\.ai)?|copy\.ai|jasper\.ai|copilot\.microsoft\.com|gemini\.google\.com|(?:\w+\.)?mistral\.ai|deepseek\.com|edgepilot|edgeservices|nimble\.ai|iask\.ai|aitastic\.app|bnngpt\.com|writesonic\.com|exa\.ai|waldo|cohere\.ai|huggingface\.co|anthropic\.com|chatglm\.cn|baichuan-ai\.com|zhipu\.ai|palm-ai\.google\.com|gemini-api\.google\.com|xiaoice\.com|quora\.com/poe|my-ai\.snapchat\.com|deepl\.com|you\.com|yiyan\.baidu\.com|ai\.baidu\.com|anthropic-api\.com|open-assistant\.io|huggingchat\.com|forefront\.ai|character\.ai|chat\.suno\.com|deepmind\.com|phind\.com|pi\.ai|komo\.ai|vicuna\.ai|firefly\.adobe\.com|grok\.x\.com|coze\.com|x\.ai|bard\.google\.com|lighton\.ai|spellbook\.rossintelligence\.com|notion\.so/ai|wordtune\.com|syntesia\.io|hyperwriteai\.com|sap\.ai|reka\.ai|app\.loora\.ai|uminal\.org|alphacode\.google\.com|ai21\.com|openrouter\.ai|magical\.team|useblackbox\.io|ai-coustics\.com|chinchilla\.ai|d-id\.com|wav\.ai|openchat\.so|floydhub\.com|bing\.com/chat|copilot\.azure\.com|turing\.microsoft\.com|cosmos\.microsoft\.com|orca\.microsoft\.com|phi\.microsoft\.com|megatron\.microsoft\.com|jarvis\.microsoft\.com|maia\.microsoft\.com|palm\.google\.com|deeplearning\.google\.com|vertexai\.google\.com|ai\.google\.com|deepmind\.google\.com|cloud\.google\.com/ai|cloud\.google\.com/vertex-ai|research\.google\.com/ai|ml\.googleapis\.com|tensor\.google\.com|t5\.google\.com)$
To Check the Final results
- Go to Reports
- Click on Aacquisition
- Click on Traffic Acquisition
- Click on Session Primary Group Channel Dropdown
- Pick the Sessiona Ai Tools From dropdown
