Visits from AI, counted on your real traffic
Visits from AI is the number that says whether being named in an AI answer brought anyone. Citeon AI counts it on your real traffic: a session whose referrer or utm_source is an AI engine, split by engine, with paid clicks and shop forms left out, from a one line script on your site and from Search Console and GA4 connected read only. Every rule that decides what counts is on this page.
- A visit from AI is a session whose referrer or utm_source is an AI engine: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek, Mistral and others.
- Paid clicks never count, whatever their source: a bought click with an AI utm_source is stored as paid, with no engine.
- Our own scans cannot create a visit; a cross check on one workspace gave 167 ChatGPT sessions here against 156 in an independent tool.
What counts as a visit from AI
The demo workspace at citeon.ai/portal, sample data, captured on 7 October 2026.
A browser session on your site that arrived from an AI engine: the referrer host is one of the engines listed below, or the utm_source names one. Each visit is stored with its engine, so the dashboard shows ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Copilot separately, next to search, social, direct and internal traffic. The only special case is bing.com, which is both a search engine and Copilot's old home: only its chat and copilot paths count as AI.
The engines recognised
| Engine | Referrer hosts that count |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT | chatgpt.com, openai.com |
| Gemini | gemini.google.com, bard.google.com |
| Claude | claude.ai, anthropic.com |
| Perplexity | perplexity.ai, perplexity.com |
| Copilot | copilot.microsoft.com, copilot.cloud.microsoft, edgeservices.bing.com, and bing.com on its chat and copilot paths |
| Grok | grok.com, x.ai |
| DeepSeek | deepseek.com |
| Mistral | mistral.ai |
| Other AI | you.com, meta.ai, poe.com, phind.com, kagi.com, duck.ai, kimi.ai, venice.ai |
Rules follow what each product actually sends, verified against their traffic on 29 August 2026. A utm_source of chatgpt, openai, perplexity, gemini, claude, copilot, grok, deepseek or mistral counts the same way.
What is left out, on purpose
| Left out | Why |
|---|---|
| Paid clicks | A utm_medium of cpc, ppc, cpm, cpv, cpa, paid, display, ads, affiliate, retargeting, remarketing or sponsored marks a bought click; it is stored as paid with no engine, even with an AI utm_source |
| Our own scans | The daily scans are API calls and a scraper; no browser opens your site, so no session is created |
| Links from previews and local development | A referrer of localhost or a preview address is not a referral |
| Navigation inside your site | A referrer on your own host is internal, not a visit |
| Shop and utility forms | Add to cart, country switch and similar forms are not leads; the history from before that rule is kept apart and never counted |
A number beside a score has to be right. Not measured is empty, never zero.
Citeon AI, the traffic rule
Two sources: your site, and Google
| Source | What it gives | How it connects |
|---|---|---|
| Your site | Every session by referrer and engine, the pages, the form events; the number the dashboard leads with | One line of script, 6 KB, a beacon to Citeon AI; served by the WordPress plugin or the connectors, or pasted |
| Search Console | Queries, pages, clicks and impressions from Google, the search side of the picture | Connect with Google, read only (webmasters.readonly), one sign in |
| GA4 | Sessions and conversions as Google counts them, for the cross check | Same sign in, read only (analytics.readonly) |
Search Console added a generative AI performance report in June 2026. What Citeon AI reads from it is queries, pages, clicks and impressions, shown as Google reports them; the split by engine comes from your own traffic.
From visit to lead
A lead is a form submitted by a visitor who came from an AI engine, when the form is a contact or booking form rather than a shop or utility form. The dashboard shows the visits and the leads per engine, so the question “does being named in ChatGPT bring anyone” has a number, not an opinion.
Why this number matters
The daily measurement says whether the engines name you; this says whether that brought a person. Both are on every plan, from 59 euro a month, and the AI visibility tool puts them side by side so a fix can be judged on what it changed, not on what it promised.
Questions people ask
How do I track traffic from AI Overviews and ChatGPT?
Two ways, and Citeon AI uses both. On your own site, a one line script records each session's referrer and utm_source; a session whose referrer is chatgpt.com, gemini.google.com, claude.ai, perplexity.ai, copilot.microsoft.com and the others listed on this page is a visit from AI, split by engine. From Google, Search Console and GA4 connected read only add the search side. Search Console added a generative AI performance report in June 2026; what Citeon AI reads from Search Console is queries, pages, clicks and impressions, and the split by engine comes from your own traffic.
Does a click on a ChatGPT ad count?
No. A click whose utm_medium says it was bought (cpc, ppc, paid, display, sponsored and the like) is stored as paid, with no engine, whatever its source. This rule exists because on 30 September 2026 a workspace showed 175 visits from AI of which 47 were clicks on a ChatGPT ad campaign; those were reclassified and the rule was added.
Do Citeon's own scans inflate the number?
No. The scans are API calls and a scraper; no browser ever opens your site during a scan, so they cannot create a session. A cross check against an independent analytics tool on one workspace gave 167 ChatGPT sessions in Citeon and 156 in the other tool for the same month.
What does the tracking script send?
The page, the referrer, the utm parameters and form events, by a beacon to Citeon AI. It is 6 KB. The classification into AI, search, social, direct, internal or paid happens on our side with the rules on this page.
What is a lead here?
A form submitted by a visitor who arrived from an AI engine, when the form is not a shop or utility form. Add to cart and country switch forms do not count; before that rule, they did, and the history from before it is kept apart and never counted.
Which Google permissions does the connection need?
Read only on both: webmasters.readonly for Search Console and analytics.readonly for GA4, granted through Google's own consent screen with one sign in. Citeon AI cannot change anything in either product.
Sources
- Citeon AI, the visit classification (lib/pulse.ts) and the tracking line (public/p.js). engine rules, the paid exclusion, source classes, as deployed on 7 October 2026
- Citeon AI, Connect with Google (lib/google-oauth.ts). webmasters.readonly and analytics.readonly only
- Google, Search Console Help, Performance report. what Google reports per query and page