Last updated: 22 September 2026
Tracking AI traffic on a Shopify store got much easier this year. GA4 added an AI Assistant channel in May, Google opened its generative AI report in Search Console to every site on 31 August, and Shopify reports sales per AI channel in the admin. None of them costs anything.
Many marketers still find this hard. In a Semrush study of 481 marketers published on 3 June 2026, 45% said they struggle to measure visibility in AI-generated answers, and only 9% said they can measure all the metrics that matter (Semrush). A small store with one monthly routine can do better than that.
What does the Search Console AI Overviews report show?
It shows how many times links to your site appeared in Google's generative AI features. Google announced the reports in June and rolled them out to all websites worldwide on 31 August 2026 (Google Search Central).
There are two reports. The Search report covers AI Overviews and AI Mode. A separate report covers generative AI features in Discover. In the Search report you can break impressions down by page, country, date and device (Search Console Help). The report counts impressions only. It has no clicks, and it has no query dimension, so it does not show which searches triggered the AI answer.
To open it, choose your property in Search Console, open Performance and select Generative AI performance (Search).
How do you read AI Overview impressions?
Read them as a count of appearances. Four habits help:
- Sort by page. The pages at the top are the ones Google already shows in AI answers.
- Compare full months. Single days move around, and Google marks the newest data as preliminary because it can still change.
- Filter by country. For a Dutch store, the Netherlands and Belgium are the rows to read first.
- Look for missing pages. If your best seller never appears, its product page may need clearer facts such as materials, sizes and use.
If the report is empty, Google's reasons include a site that has not had enough impressions in AI features yet, or a site that is excluded from them.
That exclusion is a new setting under Settings > Search generative AI. The default is to include your site. If you opt out, your links and content stop appearing in AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover's AI features, so you get no impressions or traffic from them. Google says the setting does not affect ranking in the rest of Search (Search Console Help). It also does not control AI model training. That is a separate robots.txt rule called Google-Extended. A store that wants to be found should keep the default.
How do you find ChatGPT traffic in GA4?
Start with the AI Assistant channel. Google added it to the default channel group on 13 May 2026 (Analytics Help). GA4 puts a session in this channel when the referrer is on its list of AI assistants. The channel definition names ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Copilot and Grok as examples (Analytics Help).
- Go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition.
- Keep the default dimension, Session primary channel group, and find the AI Assistant row.
- Set the range to the last full month and note sessions, key events and revenue.
- To split the channel by assistant, change the dimension to Session source and search for chatgpt.com, gemini.google.com and copilot.microsoft.com.
- Also search for perplexity.ai and claude.ai. Perplexity is not named in the channel definition, and Search Engine Journal reported in July that its visits land under Referral. Claude is named in Google's May release note, but the current channel definition leaves it out, so checking claude.ai by source is the safe way to count it.
Some AI visits arrive with no referrer, for example from mobile apps, and land in Direct. Treat your AI numbers as a minimum. To catch part of that gap, add "An AI assistant recommended you" as an answer in your post-purchase "How did you hear about us?" question. We wrote about why these visitors matter in why AI traffic converts better.
For context, Similarweb data for August 2026 gave ChatGPT 55.5% of web traffic to AI chatbot sites, Gemini 25.6% and Claude 9.3%, as reported by The Decoder. Those figures cover websites only, not apps.
How do you see AI referral traffic in Shopify Analytics?
You do not need GA4 to see ChatGPT visits. ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to the links it sends (OpenAI Help Center), and Shopify reports can filter online store sessions by UTM source.
- In your Shopify admin, go to Analytics > Reports.
- Set Category to Acquisition and open Sessions by referrer (Shopify Help Center).
- In the configuration panel, add a filter on UTM source, keep the operator is and enter chatgpt.com.
- Save it as a custom report so next month takes one click.
OpenAI documents this tag for ChatGPT only, so for Perplexity, Gemini and Claude the GA4 source report above is more complete. The Shopify report is enough for a store that only wants to follow ChatGPT.
Where does Shopify show sales from AI channels?
In your Shopify admin, go to Sales channels > Agentic. Agentic here means AI that can take actions for a shopper, such as finding a product and completing checkout inside a chat. The page shows sales, orders, online store sessions and online store conversion for your agentic channels. Sales include orders that came through a referral to your store and orders placed with direct checkout inside the AI channel. Shopify lists ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Mode and Gemini, Meta and Shop (Shopify Help Center).
The same section has a search preview tool. You type a shopping query and see how your products might rank in agentic channels, with lists of top search queries and of queries where your products appeared (Shopify Help Center). It shows shopping queries, which the Search Console report does not.
Two limits apply. The analytics are not yet available for headless stores. Staff accounts need two permissions to open the section: Products > View and App and sales channel > Agentic. The store owner sees it by default. For what the channel does, read our Shopify Agentic sales channel explainer and our post on selling through Meta AI on Shopify.
Where does a manual check fit?
The free reports count appearances, visits and orders. They do not show the words an assistant uses about you. For that, ask the assistants yourself once a month, with the same questions each time. Our 15-minute check of what AI says about your brand gives the method.
When you record answers, keep mentions and citations apart. A mention is your brand name in the answer. A citation is a link to your site as a source. An assistant can name you without linking to you.
Is a paid AI visibility tracker worth it?
For most small stores, not at the start. A tracker becomes useful when the manual check no longer fits in your month. These tools send a fixed set of prompts to several assistants on a schedule and log mentions and citations.
| Tool | What it tracks | Price | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search Console generative AI report | Impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, plus a separate Discover report | Free | Seeing which pages Google shows in AI answers |
| GA4 AI Assistant channel | Sessions, key events and revenue from AI assistant referrers | Free | Visits from ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot, with Perplexity and Claude checked by source |
| Shopify Sessions by referrer | Online store sessions, filtered by UTM source chatgpt.com | Included in Shopify admin | ChatGPT visits without setting up GA4 |
| Shopify Sales channels > Agentic | Sales, orders, sessions and conversion per agentic channel, plus a search preview of queries | Included in Shopify admin | Revenue from AI channels |
| Otterly Lite | 15 prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot | $29 a month, or $25 a month billed yearly. Google AI Mode and Gemini add-ons are $9 a month each. The Claude add-on is $29 a month. | A first automated check on a small budget |
Otterly prices are in US dollars, from otterly.ai/pricing in September 2026. Lite with the AI Mode, Gemini and Claude add-ons comes to $76 a month.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Search Console AI Overviews report show clicks?
No. It shows impressions only, with no clicks and no queries. Visits are in GA4 or Shopify Analytics, and orders are in your Shopify admin.
How do I see ChatGPT traffic in GA4?
Open Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition and find the AI Assistant row in the default channel group. To see ChatGPT alone, switch the dimension to Session source and search for chatgpt.com.
Why is Perplexity traffic not in the GA4 AI Assistant channel?
Google's channel definition does not name Perplexity, and its visits have been reported under Referral. Search for perplexity.ai under Session source to find them.
Can I see ChatGPT traffic in Shopify without GA4?
Yes. Open Analytics > Reports > Sessions by referrer and filter UTM source to chatgpt.com. ChatGPT adds that tag to the links it sends.
Where do I see ChatGPT sales in Shopify?
Go to Sales channels > Agentic in your Shopify admin. It shows sales, orders, sessions and conversion per agentic channel, including direct checkout inside the chat. It is not yet available for headless stores.
The short version
Once a month, open the generative AI report in Search Console, the AI Assistant row in GA4 (or Sessions by referrer in Shopify) and Sales channels > Agentic in Shopify, and write the numbers in one sheet. Then ask the assistants your standard questions and note mentions and citations. Add a tracker such as Otterly Lite when that routine no longer fits in an hour. If you would like help setting this up, you can start a conversation with us.