ChatGPT Traffic Drop Appears To Be A Tracking Problem via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern
ChatGPT’s referral traffic in Google Analytics 4 dropped by 22% to 57% of baseline for sites tracked by Graphite, starting October 9, according to CEO Ethan Smith. Graphite estimates this represents a 45% decline from previous levels. The drop stems from OpenAI’s removal of the utmsource=chatgpt.com tag and referrer data from links in answer text, which now appear as Direct traffic in GA4…
Key points
- ChatGPT referrals in GA4 fell 22% to 57% of baseline after October 9, per Graphite’s tracking
- OpenAI removed `utm_source` tags from inline links in answer text, causing misattribution as Direct traffic
- Adobe’s Cedric Huesler reports a partial fix began October 15, restoring tagged clicks to ~95–100% of pre-change levels
Analysts note the change aligns with GPT-6’s rollout on October 7, which introduced a new answer format omitting tags in inline links. Peec AI’s Tomek Rudzki found direct URLs in 42% of ChatGPT responses (up from 8–10%) between October 9–13, with 54% pointing to homepages. Profound observed a drop in tagged source links from 98% to 66% over the same period, while Intelligent UI formats surged from 2% to 35% of answers. Experts urge publishers to annotate October 8–15 data and compare ChatGPT/Direct traffic side-by-side, as the fix won’t retroactively restore lost attribution.
Model page: GPT-6 →
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ChatGPT Traffic Drop Appears To Be A Tracking Problem via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Search Engine Journal · 15 October 2026
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