How do I use the AI referral regex in GA4?

In GA4 Traffic acquisition, add a filter or comparison where Session source matches regex, then paste the generated pattern. Validate it with a narrow date range before saving a recurring report or exploration.

Does this regex capture every visit influenced by an AI answer?

No. It captures attributable referrals when a browser or app sends a recognizable referrer. Some AI apps, browsers, redirects, and privacy tools omit that data, so direct and unattributed traffic can still include AI-influenced visits.

Is the generated pattern compatible with Looker Studio?

The pattern avoids lookbehind and other features that are not supported by RE2-style engines. You can use it with hostname or source dimensions, but confirm the exact field contains hostnames rather than full URLs.

Can I add a new AI platform or internal assistant?

Yes. Add one or more custom referrer domains. The tool normalizes protocols and paths, escapes regex characters, removes duplicates, and includes the domains in the generated pattern.

Free tools

Free AI Referral Traffic Regex Builder

Select AI platforms, add custom referrer domains, and generate a tested GA4 and RE2-compatible regex for AI referral reporting.

Copy-paste outputs

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Tool 01

AI Referral Traffic Regex Builder

Build, test, and export an analytics regex for attributable visits from AI answer platforms.

Choose AI referrers

Select known sources and add domains specific to your analytics setup.

Custom referrer domains

One domain per line or comma-separated. Protocols and paths are removed.

Generated hostname regex

Compatible with RE2-style filters used by GA4 and Looker Studio.

(^|\.)(chat\.deepseek\.com|chat\.mistral\.ai|chat\.openai\.com|chatgpt\.com|claude\.ai|copilot\.microsoft\.com|gemini\.google\.com|grok\.com|meta\.ai|perplexity\.ai|poe\.com|x\.com|you\.com)$

Test a referrer

Paste a hostname or full referral URL before saving the filter.

chatgpt.com: matches the generated filter.

Referral headers can be absent because of browser, app, or privacy behavior. Use this alongside landing-page and conversion analysis, not as a complete measure of AI influence.

Attribution workflow

Separate measurable AI referrals from assumed AI influence

AI referral reporting is useful only when the filter is precise and the limitation is visible. This workflow creates a reproducible source filter, tests it against real examples, and keeps unattributed visits out of claims they cannot support.

What the regex actually measures

The pattern matches the hostname portion of a known AI platform referrer. When a user clicks a cited or recommended link and the browser supplies that referrer, analytics can assign the session to the corresponding source. The result is attributable AI referral traffic, not the total number of people who discovered a brand through AI.

That distinction matters because desktop applications, mobile apps, redirects, browser privacy controls, and platform behavior can remove referral information. A defensible report labels the metric clearly and compares landing pages, conversions, and trends without presenting direct traffic as proven AI traffic.

Apply the regex to Session source or a hostname field.
Test known positive and negative examples before saving.
Keep source naming stable so period comparisons remain valid.
Review the domain list when platforms change their web properties.

Turn referral sessions into decisions

After the source filter works, segment by landing page and conversion event. A small number of high-intent sessions reaching pricing, comparison, or product pages can be more useful than a larger volume reaching low-intent content. Review assisted journeys as well as last-click outcomes.

Referral analytics shows what reached the site. It does not show every answer where the brand appeared or every crawler request made before that visit. Pair acquisition data with prompt monitoring and crawler evidence when you need the full path from AI answer to website activity.

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Track where your brand shows up in AI answers, close the content gaps that cost conversions, and stay visible across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Grok.

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