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12 AI chat sources resolved
ai referral tracking

Track every buyer that came from an AI assistant.

ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Copilot — when a chat sends a human to your site, Yovale captures the referrer and the landing path. Real attribution, no UTM hacks.

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free trial · attribution from minute one

liveYovale AI Referral Tracking
yovale.com/en/features/ai-referral-tracking
human visits from AI chat

ChatGPT sent 47 visitors yesterday.

The referral panel groups visits by AI source. Sort by sessions, conversions or top landing pages. See which AI assistants quote you and which ones don't.

ChatGPT referrals
47+22%
Perplexity referrals
31+14%
Claude referrals
12+8%
Conversions
6 / 90
recent referrals
live
  • 12:04:22OpenAIchatgpt.com/pricinghuman
  • 12:03:51Perplexityperplexity.ai/wordpress-hostinghuman
  • 12:03:18Anthropicclaude.ai/features/ai-visibilityhuman
  • 12:02:44OpenAIchatgpt.com/human
  • 12:02:09Googlegemini.google.com/pricinghuman
12
AI chat sources resolved
100%
of referrers captured server-side
0
GA4 events to configure
the gap

GA4 calls every AI referral 'direct'.

×GA4freebuckets AI visits as direct
×Plausible$9/moclient-side only, misses referrers
×Custom UTM$0AI doesn't write your UTMs for you

When someone asks ChatGPT for hosting and clicks your link, the browser sometimes strips the referrer. GA4 puts the visit in 'direct / none'. Your attribution model misses the entire AI channel.

UTMs help only if you have control over the link — which you don't, because the AI wrote it. Custom GA4 events help only if you can recognise the source — which you can't, because GA4 doesn't ship that intelligence.

Yovale sniffs the referrer server-side, falls back to the Sec-CH-UA hint, and resolves 12 AI chat sources before the page renders. Attribution lands in the dashboard, not in the gap.

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$149
/year
capabilities

Attribution that survives the referrer drop.

Four signals stacked so AI referrals don't fall through the cracks.

  • 01
    01
    primary signal

    Server-side referrer capture

    We read the Referer header before it ever reaches the browser. Visits from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, claude.ai, gemini.google.com, copilot.microsoft.com all classify cleanly.

    12 hosts mapped
  • 02
    02
    fallback

    Client-hint fallback

    When the referrer is stripped, the Sec-CH-UA hint reveals the parent browser. Combined with session timing, we recover most of the lost attribution.

    ~90% recovery
  • 03
    03
    context

    Landing-page breakdown

    See which URLs AI assistants most often quote. /pricing might be ChatGPT's favourite while /docs is where Perplexity sends technical buyers.

    URL-level view
  • 04
    04
    outcomes

    Conversion attribution

    Tag a conversion goal (signup, purchase) in the dashboard and Yovale joins it back to the AI source on the first visit. Last-click, first-touch, both.

    first + last touch
side by side

What AI attribution should actually do.

Analytics platforms

AI referrers classified
bucketed as 'direct'
Referrer-strip recovery
no fallback
Server-side capture
client-side JS
Per-URL view
aggregate only
Conversion join
manual UTM dance
Cost
$9-$300/mo extra
Result — AI channel invisible

Yovale built in

AI referrers classified
12 sources resolved
Referrer-strip recovery
client-hint + session signal
Server-side capture
edge, before render
Per-URL view
URL-level, per source
Conversion join
automatic, first + last touch
Cost
included with hosting
Result — named, counted, attributed

referral stack · how it works

Three signals, one resolved source.

Yovale stacks server-side referrer, client hints and session timing to identify which AI assistant sent each visitor. If two signals agree, attribution is high-confidence; if they don't, we mark it as ambiguous instead of silently miscategorising.

Referrer
Client hint
Confidence
12
AI hosts mapped
Referrer
edge-side header read

The first signal: the Referer header, read at the edge before the page renders. Direct match to one of 12 known AI chat hosts.

~90%
recovery rate
Client hint
Sec-CH-UA fallback

When the referrer is stripped, the Sec-CH-UA hint reveals the parent. Combined with session entry timing, this recovers most stripped sessions.

2/3
signals required
Confidence
two-of-three rule

If at least two signals agree, attribution is high confidence and counted. If they disagree, the visit is tagged 'ambiguous AI' rather than silently misclassified.

honest attribution
pricing

Attribution included, not upsold.

Every plan gets the full referral resolver, the conversion join and the per-URL breakdown. No analytics add-on tier, no per-event pricing.

$149
/year

Starter, 2 sites, full attribution on both. Annual only.

12 AI sources resolvedServer-side captureClient-hint fallbackConversion attributionPer-URL breakdown90 day retention
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internal links

Build the full picture.

AI visibility
Make sure AI assistants actually have you to cite.
AI bot tracking
Bot hits feed referral signal calibration.
AI analytics
Charts and trends on top of every referral event.
Web intelligence
Schema and freshness drive cite-worthiness.
Pricing
Attribution is in every plan from $149/year.
related features

Goes well with these.

WordPress hosting
Docker-isolated PHP-FPM where attribution happens before render.
WooCommerce
Join AI referrals to product views and revenue.
Performance
Fast TTFB lets the resolver run without slowing the visit.
Pricing
All plans include attribution.
questions

Things buyers ask before trusting AI attribution.

Which AI chat sources are recognised?+

chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, claude.ai, gemini.google.com, copilot.microsoft.com, you.com, poe.com, character.ai, kagi.com (Kagi Assistant), grok.x.ai, deepseek.com, qwen.ai. New sources added as we see real traffic.

What about referrer-strip from Safari and Brave?+

We fall back to the Sec-CH-UA client hint combined with session timing. Recovery is around 90%; the remaining 10% land in 'ambiguous AI' rather than 'direct'.

Does this need a tracking script on the page?+

No. All resolution happens server-side at the edge. The visitor's browser sees a normal page response with no third-party JS.

Can I tag a conversion goal?+

Yes. Define a goal URL (e.g. /thank-you) or an event (e.g. signup webhook) in the dashboard. Yovale joins it back to the AI source for first-touch and last-touch attribution.

Is this GDPR-compliant?+

Yes. The referrer and client hints are already in the request — we don't add cookies, fingerprints or third-party tags. The data is processed under our DPA, retention is 90 days.

Can I export the data?+

CSV for static exports, webhook for live downstream pipelines, REST endpoint for ad-hoc queries. All authenticated with a per-site token.

closing

Start counting the AI channel properly.

Move a site over in seven minutes. The first ChatGPT-sourced visit will show up in the dashboard before lunch.

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free trial · attribution from minute one