--- title: "AI Referral Tracking: Google AI Overviews Tag 0% of Links" url: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/chatgpt-utm-tracking-tags description: "AI referral tracking has a gap: Google AI Overviews and Perplexity tag none of their links, while ChatGPT tags 99.9% of them. See the data." lang: en --- Share Share on X: https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.suffdigital.com%2Fresources%2Fdata-studies%2Fchatgpt-utm-tracking-tags&text=Google%27s%20AI%20Overviews%20Add%20a%20Tracking%20Tag%20to%200%25%20of%20Their%20Links%20vs%2099.9%25%20for%20ChatGPT Share on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.suffdigital.com%2Fresources%2Fdata-studies%2Fchatgpt-utm-tracking-tags Share on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.suffdigital.com%2Fresources%2Fdata-studies%2Fchatgpt-utm-tracking-tags Share on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.suffdigital.com%2Fresources%2Fdata-studies%2Fchatgpt-utm-tracking-tags&title=Google%27s%20AI%20Overviews%20Add%20a%20Tracking%20Tag%20to%200%25%20of%20Their%20Links%20vs%2099.9%25%20for%20ChatGPT **99.9%** of the links ChatGPT cites carry a tracking tag, utm_source=chatgpt.com, that names ChatGPT as the source of the visit in your analytics. Google AI Overviews and Perplexity tag none of their links, and together with Google AI Mode they account for 82% of all AI citations. Analysis of 155,312 AI citations, including 20,275 ChatGPT citation links · answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI features, September 2026 ## Key Findings 1. 1. Google AI Overviews and Perplexity add a tracking tag to **0%** of the links they cite, against 99.9% for ChatGPT. Copy stat 2. 2. **99.9%** of the links ChatGPT cites carry the tracking tag utm_source=chatgpt.com, which names ChatGPT as the source of the visit in analytics. Copy stat 3. 3. Gemini tags **97.3%** of the links it cites with utm_source=gemini. Copy stat 4. 4. **82%** of AI citations come from Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, the AI engines that add no tracking tag to their links. Copy stat 5. 5. ChatGPT and Gemini, the two AI engines that tag their links, supply **18%** of all AI citations. Copy stat ## Summary A marketing manager opens her analytics to see how much traffic AI sends the company. ChatGPT is right there as a named source, with sessions, landing pages and conversions. Google's AI Overviews, which also cite her pages, are nowhere to be found. Their visits are in the report too, mixed into ordinary Google search traffic with nothing to set them apart. The difference is a tracking tag: a short code added to the end of a link, such as ?utm_source=chatgpt.com, that tells analytics tools where a visitor came from. Engines that add one make their traffic easy to measure. Engines that do not leave businesses guessing how much AI visibility is worth. The split is total. **99.9%** of the links ChatGPT cites carry its tag, and Gemini tags 97.3%. Google AI Overviews and Perplexity tag none, and Google AI Mode almost none. Because those three engines cite far more sources per answer, they account for 82% of all AI citations. ## What we measured On September 23, 2026 we asked 2,984 everyday questions to five AI engines from a US location: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews. We collected every link cited in the answers, 155,312 in all, including 20,275 links cited by ChatGPT, and checked each one for a tracking tag naming the AI engine. A tracking tag, or UTM parameter, is text added to the end of a web address that analytics tools such as Google Analytics read to label where a visit came from. A link counts as tagged when it carries a utm_source value naming the engine, such as utm_source=chatgpt.com. An untagged visit is still counted, but under a general label such as Google search or a referral, not under the AI engine's name. ## ChatGPT and Gemini tag their links, Google and Perplexity do not 99.9% of the links ChatGPT cites carry the tracking tag utm_source=chatgpt.com. Gemini also tags almost every link, 97.3% of them, with utm_source=gemini. The other three engines leave their links untagged: 0% for Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, and 0.02% for Google AI Mode. For Google's AI features, that means a click from an AI Overview looks the same in analytics as a click from a regular search result. Cited links with a tracking tag by AI engine ChatGPT 99.9% Gemini 97.3% Google AI Mode 0.02% Google AI Overviews 0% Perplexity 0% Source: Suff Digital analysis of 155,312 AI citations, including 20,275 ChatGPT citation links · answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI features, September 2026 ChatGPT's tag makes its traffic one of the easiest AI channels to measure. Filter analytics by the source chatgpt.com and you see the sessions that started from a ChatGPT answer, which pages they landed on and whether they converted. The 0.1% of ChatGPT links without a tag show up as direct or unlabelled referral visits. ## 82% of AI citations arrive without a tag **82%** of all AI citations come from Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, the engines that add no tag. These engines cite many more sources per answer than ChatGPT, so they account for most citations overall: 127,321 of the 155,312. ChatGPT and Gemini citations, the ones that are easy to identify by their link, make up 18%. Share of all AI citations by group of AI engines Untagged engines (Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity) 82% Tagged engines (ChatGPT, Gemini) 18% A report built only on tagged traffic therefore sees the engines that cite the fewest sources and misses the ones that cite the most. A business can look as if AI sends it little traffic when most of its AI citations come from Google's AI features, whose visits sit inside organic search numbers. ## What this means for marketers Set up a ChatGPT traffic report today. In Google Analytics 4 or your analytics tool, create a segment or exploration filtered on session source chatgpt.com, and another for gemini. Together they capture the tagged AI traffic and show which pages AI engines send people to and whether those visitors convert. Compare those landing pages with the pages you want AI to cite; the gap shows which pages need work. For Google's AI features and Perplexity, use other signals. Track which of your target searches show an AI Overview that cites you, watch Search Console trends for the pages that get cited, follow brand search volume, and read Perplexity visits from the referral report. Suff Digital works as an ai seo company (https://www.suffdigital.com/seo/ai-seo-services) that combines tagged traffic, citation tracking and search data into one AI traffic report. ## Embed this research Paste this on your site to embed the charts. It links back to the source automatically.

Source: Google's AI Overviews Add a Tracking Tag to 0% of Their Links vs 99.9% for ChatGPT - Suff Digital

## Cite this study APA Suff Digital. (2026). Google's AI Overviews Add a Tracking Tag to 0% of Their Links vs 99.9% for ChatGPT. https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/chatgpt-utm-tracking-tags Plain link Google's AI Overviews Add a Tracking Tag to 0% of Their Links vs 99.9% for ChatGPT - Suff Digital - https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/chatgpt-utm-tracking-tags ## Frequently asked questions ### Does ChatGPT add UTM parameters to links? ### How can I track traffic from ChatGPT? ### Do Google AI Overviews add tracking tags? ### How much AI traffic is untagged? ## Related studies - AI SEO Google AI Mode Puts Only 7.8% of Its Sources in the Answer Text vs 100% for ChatGPT: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ai-inline-citations - AI SEO 53.7% of AI Product Recommendations Name Brands Without Linking to Any of Them: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ai-brands-named-not-linked - AI SEO ChatGPT Cites 3.7 Sources per Answer vs 20 for Perplexity: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ai-citations-per-answer - AI SEO Google's Gemini Cites No Source in 61.2% of Its Answers vs 2.2% for ChatGPT: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ai-answers-no-links ## Structured data ```json [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#organization", "name": "Suff Digital", "alternateName": "Suff Digital Marketing", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#logo", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/logo.png", "contentUrl": "https://www.suffdigital.com/logo.png", "caption": "Suff Digital" }, "image": { "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#logo" }, "description": "Suff Digital is a full-stack digital marketing agency that turns websites into predictable revenue engines, SEO, paid media, content, CRO, and web design built around revenue, not vanity metrics.", "slogan": "Digital marketing built for what's next.", "email": "hello@suffdigital.com", "telephone": "+1-629-236-0099", "foundingDate": "2022", "founder": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Matt Suffoletto", "jobTitle": "Founder & CEO" }, "contactPoint": [ { "@type": "ContactPoint", "telephone": "+1-629-236-0099", "email": "hello@suffdigital.com", "contactType": "sales", "areaServed": "US", "availableLanguage": [ "en" ] } ], "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "Nashville", "addressRegion": "TN", "postalCode": "37219", "addressCountry": "US" }, "areaServed": { "@type": "Country", "name": "United States" }, "sameAs": [ "https://www.linkedin.com/company/suff-digital/", "https://www.instagram.com/suffdigital/", "https://www.youtube.com/@suffdigitalmarketing", "https://www.tiktok.com/@suffdigital" ], "knowsAbout": [ "Search Engine Optimization", "Pay-Per-Click Advertising", "Paid Social Advertising", "Conversion Rate Optimization", "Web Design", "Digital PR", "Link Building", "Website Migration", "Website Maintenance and Support", "Technical SEO", "Local SEO", "AI Search Optimization" ], "hasOfferCatalog": { "@type": "OfferCatalog", "name": "Suff Digital Services", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Search Engine Optimization (SEO)", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/ppc" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Paid Social Advertising", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/paid-social" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/cro" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Web Design", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/web-design" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Digital PR & Link Building", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/digital-pr" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Website Migration", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/website-migration" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Website Maintenance & Support", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/website-maintenance" } } ] } }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#website", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/", "name": "Suff Digital", "inLanguage": "en-US", "publisher": { "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#organization" } } ] }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Article", "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/chatgpt-utm-tracking-tags#article", "headline": "Google's AI Overviews Add a Tracking Tag to 0% of Their Links vs 99.9% for ChatGPT", "description": "99.9% of the links ChatGPT cites carry a tracking tag, utm_source=chatgpt.com, that names ChatGPT as the source of the visit in your analytics. 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Google AI Overviews and Perplexity tag none of their links, and together with Google AI Mode they account for 82% of all AI citations.", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/chatgpt-utm-tracking-tags", "creator": { "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#organization" }, "datePublished": "2026-09-24", "dateModified": "2026-09-24", "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "isAccessibleForFree": true, "measurementTechnique": "Answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews" }, { "@type": "FAQPage", "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/chatgpt-utm-tracking-tags#faq", "mainEntity": [ { "@type": "Question", "name": "Does ChatGPT add UTM parameters to links?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Yes. 99.9% of the links ChatGPT cites carry the tracking tag utm_source=chatgpt.com (September 2026)." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How can I track traffic from ChatGPT?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Filter your analytics by the session source chatgpt.com. 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