GEO & AI search

AI Assistant channel

GA4

Definition

A channel in GA4's default channel group for visits from AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Deepseek, Copilot and Grok. Its rule is that the medium exactly matches ai-assistant. GA4 sets that medium, and the campaign (ai-assistant), when the referrer matches Google's list of AI assistants. Google says the channel excludes its own AI Overviews and AI Mode.

Defined in GA4's AI Assistant Channel: What It Counts, What It Misses, and the Regex for the Rest.

How else it gets framed

The same term carries different emphasis depending on the surface it’s used on. Both readings are correct.

A channel in GA4's default channel group, added in 2026. GA4 sets the medium to ai-assistant and the campaign to (ai-assistant) when the referrer matches Google's list of AI assistants, which it describes as including ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Copilot and Grok. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode are excluded.

The Monthly AI-Attributed Revenue Report: What to Put in It and How to Build It →

A channel in GA4's default channel group for sessions that arrive from AI assistants. GA4 assigns it automatically when the referrer matches Google's list of recognized assistants, setting the medium to ai-assistant and the campaign to (ai-assistant). Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode are excluded and counted in Organic Search.

AI Traffic and Attribution: How to Measure What ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Mode Send Your Store →

Where AI Assistant channel comes up

The guides that put this term to work, rather than just defining it.

Related terms

AI Overviews: The AI-generated summary Google shows at the top of some regular search results pages, with links to the sources it draws on. Search Console treats an AI Overview as a single position on the results page: every link inside it gets that same position.
AI Mode: Google Search's conversational mode, launched in the U.S. on May 20, 2025. Google describes it as using a "query fan-out" technique that breaks a question into subtopics and searches each one. In Search Console, a follow-up question in AI Mode counts as a new query.
Default channel group: GA4's built-in set of rules that sorts every session into a channel such as Organic Search, Paid Search, Referral, Direct or AI Assistant, based on source, medium and campaign. Google says you can't edit it. You can copy it into a custom channel group and change the copy.
AI-attributed revenue: Purchase revenue from sessions whose source GA4 can identify as an AI assistant, using last-click attribution within the session. It excludes purchases influenced by AI answers that arrived through Organic Search, Direct or another channel, so it understates AI's total effect.
Custom channel group: A copy of GA4's default channel group that you can edit: add channels, change conditions and reorder them. Traffic goes to the first channel whose definition it matches. Standard properties can have two custom groups, 360 properties five, each with up to 50 channels. Google says custom groups can be applied to reports retroactively.
OpenAI Measurement Pixel: OpenAI's browser SDK for ChatGPT Ads. You install a script, initialize it with a Pixel ID created in the Conversions section of Ads Manager, and call oaiq("measure", ...) when a conversion happens, such as order_created for a purchase.

All 157 terms

What is AI invisibility costing you?

Revenue at risk from AI shopping channels, with the formula shown so you can check the maths.

Open the calculator Commerce GEO