ChatGPT traffic showing as Direct? Check your October data

Your October report shows fewer visits from ChatGPT and more from Direct. Before you rewrite anything, check the dates.

Short answer. If ChatGPT visits fell and Direct rose together around 9 to 15 October 2026, it was most likely a tracking gap. ChatGPT stopped adding its utm_source=chatgpt.com tag to many links, so Google Analytics could not name it. The visits happened. The label went missing. You cannot fix the old data, but you can annotate it and explain it.

Who this affects#

This applies if you use Google Analytics 4 and you had ChatGPT visits before October. You do not need to act if:

• You never saw ChatGPT as a source in your reports.
• Your ChatGPT numbers were steady through October.
• You use a different analytics tool. The cause is the same, but the menu paths below are GA4's.

A drop in ChatGPT visits with no matching rise in Direct is a different question. This post does not explain that one.

What happened#

SISTRIX runs hundreds of thousands of ChatGPT prompts every day, logged out, and checked a random sample for this. It says only answers in ChatGPT's new format lost the tag. It reports that ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to links in its answers, and that Google Analytics uses that tag to recognise a ChatGPT visit.

Up to 8 October, every source link in its data carried the tag. From 9 to 15 October only 1 to 24 per cent did, depending on the day. On 16 October it was 42 per cent. Since 17 October it has been 99 to 100 per cent.

SISTRIX says the affected links also carried rel="noopener noreferrer", so the browser did not pass on a referrer. With no tag and no referrer, analytics has nothing left to go on, and the visit shows as Direct.

• 8 OctoberSISTRIX says industry reports date the start of the gap here. Its own data starts a day later.
• 9 to 15 OctOnly 1 to 24 per cent of ChatGPT links carried the tag (SISTRIX, daily).
• 14 OctoberAdobe's Cedric Huesler says OpenAI confirmed a known bug to him. I could only read this one way.
• 15 OctoberHuesler updates his post: ChatGPT is tagging its links again. Search Engine Land reports a fix rolling out that day.
• 16 October42 per cent of links tagged in the SISTRIX sample.
• From 17 Oct99 to 100 per cent tagged.

Huesler looked at about 500 pages where ChatGPT drove 5 per cent or more of visits. Comparing 9 to 13 October with the week before, ChatGPT was down about 31,000 visits a day and Direct was up about 26,000 a day on the same pages. Search was down 7 per cent, which he said matched the wider pattern. That is one analyst's sample across many sites. Your numbers will be far smaller and will not match it.

The 10-step check in GA4#

Annotating needs Analyst access. Editing channel groups needs Editor.

1. Sign in to Google Analytics and select Reports on the left, then Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition.
2. Set the date range to cover 1 to 31 October.
3. Change the primary dimension, the first column of the table, to Session source / medium. Google's Landing page help names this exact step.
4. Type chatgpt in the search bar above the table. Google's own help uses this search bar to find one source.
5. Note ChatGPT sessions for 1 to 8 October, then 9 to 16 October, then 17 to 24 October. Use equal-length windows where you can.
6. Clear the search and type (direct). Note the same three windows.
7. Go to Reports, then Engagement, then Landing page. Add the secondary dimension Session source / medium. Pick the three or four pages that used to get ChatGPT visits and compare their ChatGPT and Direct sessions in the same windows.
8. Look for the pattern. ChatGPT down, Direct up, same pages, same days, then back to normal from about 17 October. That fits a tracking gap.
9. If ChatGPT stayed down after 17 October, this post does not explain it. Check whether AI search can read your site and run an AI visibility check.
10. Write down both sets of numbers and the dates. You will need them for the annotation and any report.

Google says Direct is traffic with no clear referral source. It names links that lack UTM parameters as one cause. That is why Direct is the place to look.

Add an annotation#

Annotations are notes attached to your GA4 reports. Google says you need Analyst access or above at property level to create them.

1. In Google Analytics, click Reports on the left.
2. Open a report that has a line graph, such as Traffic acquisition.
3. Right-click any data point on the line graph.
4. Click Add annotation.
5. Give it a title of up to 60 characters and a description of up to 150. Choose a date range, 8 to 16 October.
6. Click Create annotation.

Try a title like "ChatGPT tag gap". For the description: "ChatGPT links often lacked the UTM tag. ChatGPT low, Direct high."

Google notes that each property has a limit of 1,000 annotations and suggests single dates if you expect many overlapping ranges.

You cannot fix the old data#

This is the part people want to skip. A visit that arrived with no tag and no referrer carries nothing that names ChatGPT. Google Analytics will not relabel it later.

So keep the numbers as they are. Do not move Direct visits into ChatGPT by hand. Do not change your attribution settings. Do not cut ChatGPT work because October looks bad.

In any report, say it plainly: "ChatGPT referrals are understated and Direct is overstated between 8 and 16 October because of a tagging gap, which has since recovered." Then compare November with September if you want a clean trend.

See AI traffic from now on#

Google's default channel group in GA4 includes an AI Assistant channel. Google describes it as visits from sources like ChatGPT, Gemini, Deepseek, Copilot or Grok. It excludes Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode. It needs a tag or a referrer too, so it would not have caught the untagged October visits either.

You can also build your own:

1. In Google Analytics, open Admin, then under Data display click Channel groups.

2. Click Create new channel group, then Add new channel.

3. Name it "AI assistants". Add a condition on Source, with matches regex.

4. Paste this regex:

   .*(chatgpt|openai|perplexity|gemini|copilot|claude).*
   

   It is a shorter version of the idea in Google's own example. Google's full example includes broad patterns such as ^.*ai and .*gpt.*, which can catch sources you did not mean, so I would not copy it as it stands. Check the channel after a few days and adjust.

5. Click Reorder and drag the channel above Referral, then Apply and Save group.

6. In Traffic acquisition, pick your new group as the primary or secondary dimension.

Google says traffic goes into the first channel whose rule it matches, which is why the order matters. You must be an Editor on the property to do this.

Update the regex if you see a new assistant sending visits. Google says the same in its example.

Swipe the table sideways on a phone.

What a tag does not catch#

A tag only names the source of a click. It cannot count people who read an AI answer and never click.

Google also says that sites appearing in AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in the overall search traffic in Search Console, in the Performance report under the Web search type. GA4's AI Assistant channel excludes them, so GA4 does not label those clicks as AI. For AI Overviews and AI Mode, Search Console is the place to look.

If you want the Search Console side, turn exports into client actions.

I did not check whether Gemini adds UTM tags to its links. I have seen conflicting reports about it, and I could not confirm either way from a primary page. Check your own data before you rely on it.

When to get help#

Most of this is a 10-minute job. Ask for help if:

• you cannot see ChatGPT or Direct in your reports at all
• the numbers did not recover after 17 October
• a client or boss is already asking why AI traffic fell
• you want a regular report that shows AI visits, search clicks and the gaps in one place

I do SEO, GEO and AI search consulting, and I fix small business sites. If your reports look wrong, get in touch.

Sources#

All opened on 4 November 2026. Where I could only read a page one way, I say so.

• SISTRIX, What changed in ChatGPT in October: GPT-6, UTM tracking and sources, published 30 October 2026. Tag share by day, the noreferrer note and the advice to flag the dates.
• Search Engine Roundtable, OpenAI Removes UTM Parameters From ChatGPT Results, 14 October 2026, updated 15 October. Huesler's 500-page figures and his update that it was a bug.
• Search Engine Land, ChatGPT drop in UTM tracking was a bug, 20 October 2026. I could only read this one way, so I rely on it only for OpenAI's confirmation on 14 October.
• Google, About annotations: how to create one, the limits and the roles needed.
• Google, Traffic acquisition report: where it sits in Reports, the Session source / medium dimension and the search bar.
• Google, Landing page report: the Engagement > Landing page path, and adding Session source / medium as a secondary dimension.
• Google, Understand (direct) / (none) traffic: what Direct means and why UTM-less links land there.
• Google, Default channel group: the AI Assistant channel and its exclusions.
• Google, Custom channel groups: the Channel groups path, the AI assistants example, the ordering rule.
• Google Search Central, AI features and your website: AI Overviews and AI Mode in Search Console's Web search type.
• OpenAI, ChatGPT release notes: I searched the page for UTM and tracking and found no mention. I could read this page through a scrape only.