GA4 AI Traffic Regex Generator

Shoppers increasingly ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini what to buy and click through to the stores they recommend. Unless you set up a custom channel group, GA4 files most of these visits under Referral, mixed in with blogs and directories, or under Direct when the app strips the referrer.

A custom channel pulls them out so you can see how much revenue AI assistants send and which pages they land on.

1. 01

   Create a channel group

   In GA4 go to Admin → Data display → Channel groups and create a new group. Start by copying the default group so everything else stays the same.

2. 02

   Add the channel

   Add a channel called AI assistants with one condition: Session source matches regex, then paste the pattern above.

3. 03

   Put it above Referral

   Channels are matched in order, top first. Drag AI assistants above Referral, otherwise those visits are claimed by Referral first.

4. 04

   Use it in reports

   Choose your new channel group as the primary dimension in Traffic acquisition. Custom channel groups also apply to past data.

• Google AI Overviews and AI Mode send visitors as normal Google organic traffic. There's no separate source to match.
• Apps that strip referrers show up as Direct. Some assistants add utm_source tags to links, which fixes this when present.
• New assistants won't be counted until you add them. Revisit the list every few months.