What is the AI Assistant channel in GA4?

A channel in GA4's Default Channel Group, added on 13 May 2026. Visits from recognised AI assistants get the channel AI Assistant, the medium ai-assistant and the campaign (ai-assistant), with no setup.

Which AI assistants does GA4 recognise?

Google's help describes the channel as traffic from sources like ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Copilot or Grok; the launch note also named Claude. Google does not publish the full list.

Why is some AI traffic still in Direct or Referral?

Visits without a referrer, from apps or pasted links, arrive as Direct. Sources that are not on Google's list stay in Referral.

Are AI Overviews counted in the AI Assistant channel?

No. AI Overviews and AI Mode are Google Search, so they count as Organic Search. Search Console's generative AI report covers them.

Should I delete my custom AI channel group?

No. Keep it for sources the default misses and for historical data, and place it above Referral.

Guide

GA4 AI Assistant Channel – What It Tracks and Misses

Since 13 May 2026, GA4 puts visits from recognised AI assistants into their own channel, AI Assistant, with the medium ai-assistant. It needs no setup. But it counts only visits that arrive with a known referrer, so it is a lower bound: visits from apps, unknown assistants and Google’s own AI Overviews end up elsewhere.

In one sentence

A free, automatic count of AI-referred visits – useful, but only the ones GA4 can see.

What changed on 13 May 2026

When a visit comes from a referrer on Google’s list of recognised AI assistants, GA4 now sets three values at once:

Dimension	Value
Default channel group	`AI Assistant`
Medium	`ai-assistant`
Campaign	`(ai-assistant)`

No setup is needed. The change was rolled out gradually and reached most properties in early June 2026. It is not applied to older data.

What it misses

Visits without a referrer. Links opened from AI apps, in-app browsers or copy-paste often arrive as Direct.
Sources not on Google’s list. Google’s help describes the channel as traffic from sources like ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Copilot or Grok, but does not publish the full list. Several analysts report that Perplexity still lands in Referral. Check your own Referral report for the rest.
AI Overviews and AI Mode. These are Google Search, so they count as Organic Search, not AI Assistant. Use Search Console’s generative AI performance report for them.
History. Data before the rollout keeps its old channel.

So treat the channel as a lower bound of AI-referred visits, not the full picture.

Keep a custom channel group

A custom channel group catches the sources the default misses, and Google applies custom channel groups to historical data too. Put the AI rule above Referral:

Channel: AI (all)
Session source matches regex:
(chatgpt\.com|chat\.openai\.com|perplexity\.ai|claude\.ai|gemini\.google\.com|copilot\.microsoft\.com|chat\.deepseek\.com|grok\.com)

Check any segment that filters on medium. A condition like “medium does not contain cpc” now also keeps or drops ai-assistant sessions, which may not be what you meant.

For stores

Add utm_source to links you control that assistants may quote – your product feed URLs, for example – so the visit keeps its source even without a referrer. Compare AI Assistant sessions with orders in GA4’s monetisation reports: AI-referred traffic is small for most stores, but it often converts differently from Referral. More in tracking AI search traffic in Magento 2.

Questions

What is the AI Assistant channel in GA4?: A channel in GA4’s Default Channel Group, added on 13 May 2026. Visits from recognised AI assistants get the channel AI Assistant, the medium ai-assistant and the campaign (ai-assistant), with no setup.
Which AI assistants does GA4 recognise?: Google’s help describes the channel as traffic from sources like ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Copilot or Grok; the launch note also named Claude. Google does not publish the full list.
Why is some AI traffic still in Direct or Referral?: Visits without a referrer, from apps or pasted links, arrive as Direct. Sources that are not on Google’s list stay in Referral.
Are AI Overviews counted in the AI Assistant channel?: No. AI Overviews and AI Mode are Google Search, so they count as Organic Search. Search Console’s generative AI report covers them.
Should I delete my custom AI channel group?: No. Keep it for sources the default misses and for historical data, and place it above Referral.

Sources

Checked 28 September 2026 against Google Analytics Help (default and custom channel groups) and the release coverage by Search Engine Journal. The list of recognised assistants is Google’s and changes.