# VisitorType

> VisitorType is first-party AI channel analytics: it shows site owners which AI platforms (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Copilot) send them visitors — traffic that tools like GA4 file under "Direct" — with verified attribution, landing pages, and conversions. It classifies every visit (human, AI crawler like GPTBot/ClaudeBot, AI search bot like OAI-SearchBot/PerplexityBot, AI assistant fetching for a live user like ChatGPT-User, or agentic browser), verifies claimed agents against vendor-published IP ranges, and lets owners fire different tags, pixels, and content for each visitor type.

Key facts: one JavaScript snippet plus optional server-side reporting (AI crawlers don't execute JavaScript); claimed crawler identities are verified against vendor-published IP ranges; AI referrals (humans arriving from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini answers) are detected via referrer and UTM fusion; privacy-first — no cookies, no fingerprinting, no visitor IP storage, GPC/DNT honored. Free plan available; paid plans add capacity.

## Docs

- [Getting started](https://visitortype.ai/docs): Install the snippet and see your first AI visitor
- [Installing the snippet](https://visitortype.ai/docs/installation): One script tag, WordPress plugin, or Shopify
- [Server-side tracking](https://visitortype.ai/docs/server-side): Catch the AI crawlers that never run JavaScript
- [Tags, triggers & versions](https://visitortype.ai/docs/tags-and-triggers): GTM-style rules keyed on visitor type, 23 platform templates
- [Connect your AI via MCP](https://visitortype.ai/docs/agents): Let Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor manage your account
- [API reference](https://visitortype.ai/docs/api): Collect endpoints and the MCP server

## AI Agent Directory

- [GPTBot](https://visitortype.ai/agents/gptbot): OpenAI's training crawler — feeds future GPT models.
- [OAI-SearchBot](https://visitortype.ai/agents/oai-searchbot): The crawler that builds ChatGPT search's index.
- [ChatGPT-User](https://visitortype.ai/agents/chatgpt-user): A live ChatGPT user's assistant, fetching your page mid-conversation.
- [ClaudeBot](https://visitortype.ai/agents/claudebot): Anthropic's training crawler for Claude models.
- [Claude-User](https://visitortype.ai/agents/claude-user): Claude fetching a page for the person in the conversation.
- [PerplexityBot](https://visitortype.ai/agents/perplexitybot): Perplexity's index crawler — the source of its citations.
- [Perplexity-User](https://visitortype.ai/agents/perplexity-user): Perplexity fetching a page because a user asked about it.
- [CCBot](https://visitortype.ai/agents/ccbot): The nonprofit crawl behind many AI training datasets.
- [Google-Extended](https://visitortype.ai/agents/google-extended): The robots.txt switch for Gemini training — not a crawler you'll see in logs.
- [GoogleOther](https://visitortype.ai/agents/googleother): Google's generic crawler for R&D and non-Search products.
- [Meta-ExternalAgent](https://visitortype.ai/agents/meta-externalagent): Meta's crawler for AI training and product indexing.
- [Bytespider](https://visitortype.ai/agents/bytespider): ByteDance's aggressive, sparsely documented crawler.

## Blog

- [How to block AI bots on WordPress — with judgment, not a kill switch](https://visitortype.ai/blog/wordpress-block-ai-bots): Every WordPress guide shows the same 'block all AI' snippet. Here's the version with judgment: what each block costs, three ways to do it, and how to verify it worked.
- [Server-side vs client-side tracking for AI traffic: why your JS analytics sees almost nothing](https://visitortype.ai/blog/server-side-tracking-ai): AI crawlers don't run JavaScript, so client-side analytics is structurally blind to them. What each approach sees, what it misses, and why the answer is both.
- [Is your brand cited by ChatGPT? How to check — and how to change the answer](https://visitortype.ai/blog/check-brand-chatgpt-citations): A practical brand-monitoring loop for AI answers: test the prompts your buyers ask, read the machine signals on your own site, and fix the pages AI actually reads.
- [ChatGPT-User in your server logs: what it is and why it's good news](https://visitortype.ai/blog/chatgpt-user-agent-logs): Seeing 'ChatGPT-User/1.0' in access logs? That's a live person asking ChatGPT about you. How to read it, verify it's real, and find out which pages assistants fetch.
- [Google AI Overviews and your traffic: measure the drop before you panic](https://visitortype.ai/blog/ai-overviews-traffic): AI Overviews answer searches before the click. Here's how to measure what they actually cost YOUR site — impressions vs clicks, which queries, and what to do about it.
- [Perplexity SEO: how to become the answer, not just a result](https://visitortype.ai/blog/perplexity-seo): How Perplexity picks its citations, how PerplexityBot and Perplexity-User actually behave on your site, and the concrete changes that make your pages quotable.
- [AI traffic statistics that should change how you read your analytics](https://visitortype.ai/blog/ai-traffic-statistics): The measurements behind the AI-traffic shift: how much of AI referral traffic gets misattributed, how it converts, and why the crawler share of your logs is invisible to GA4.
- [What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)? SEO's successor, explained without the hype](https://visitortype.ai/blog/what-is-generative-engine-optimization): GEO is optimizing to be cited by AI answers — ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews — instead of ranked in blue links. What actually changes vs SEO, what stays, and the measurement gap nobody mentions.
- [Cloudflare's AI bot blocking: what the one-click switch actually does (and doesn't)](https://visitortype.ai/blog/cloudflare-ai-bot-blocking): Cloudflare can block AI crawlers at the edge with one toggle — even by default on new sites. When that's right, when it silently costs you AI search visibility, and why measure-then-decide beats block-everything.
- [robots.txt for AI crawlers: the complete guide (with every token that matters)](https://visitortype.ai/blog/robots-txt-for-ai-crawlers): Which user-agent tokens control GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended, what each block actually costs you, and why robots.txt is a request — not a lock.
- [How to exclude bot traffic from GA4 (and why its built-in filter isn't enough)](https://visitortype.ai/blog/how-to-exclude-bots-from-ga4): GA4 filters known bots automatically — from a list that predates the AI-traffic era. What its filter catches, what walks straight through, and how to fire the tag for verified humans only.
- [VisitorType grows a dataLayer: context_data, custom events, and human-verified conversions](https://visitortype.ai/blog/visitortype-datalayer-and-events): Declare page context like Tealium's utag_data, fire tags on custom events with aitm.track(), and combine both with visitor type — conversion tracking that only counts verified humans.
- [AI agents are browsing your site like humans — here's how to tell](https://visitortype.ai/blog/ai-agents-are-browsing-your-site): Agentic browsers — ChatGPT's agent mode, Perplexity Comet, Claude in Chrome — run real browsers, execute JavaScript, and fill your analytics as 'users'. What they are, why they matter, and how to detect them.
- [How to track AI bots on Shopify (and which ones you can't)](https://visitortype.ai/blog/how-to-track-ai-bots-on-shopify): One liquid snippet shows you the AI assistants and agentic browsers shopping your store. Here's the five-minute install — plus an honest note on which crawlers Shopify's architecture hides from everyone.
- [That "GPTBot" in your logs might be fake — how to spot spoofed AI crawlers](https://visitortype.ai/blog/fake-gptbot-spoofed-ai-crawlers): A user-agent string is a costume anyone can wear. Scrapers impersonate GPTBot and ClaudeBot to borrow their reputation. Here's how IP verification separates real AI crawlers from cosplay.
- [What is llms.txt — and does your site actually need one?](https://visitortype.ai/blog/what-is-llms-txt): llms.txt is a proposed standard: a markdown map of your site for AI systems, served at /llms.txt. Here's what it does, what it honestly doesn't, and how to add one in ten minutes.
- [How AI search engines decide which sites to cite](https://visitortype.ai/blog/how-ai-search-engines-decide-who-to-cite): ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews don't rank ten blue links — they pick a handful of sources to quote. Here's what actually makes a page citable, and how to check if AI engines can even see yours.
- [Why Gemini visits look like human traffic in your analytics](https://visitortype.ai/blog/why-gemini-visits-look-like-human-traffic): Google's Gemini fetches pages wearing two disguises: a bare 'Google' user agent, and a fake Chrome UA missing the token every real browser sends. Here's how to unmask both.
- [Should I block GPTBot? A decision guide for 2026](https://visitortype.ai/blog/should-i-block-gptbot): Blocking GPTBot doesn't hide you from ChatGPT users — it only opts you out of model training. Here's what each OpenAI crawler actually does, and how to decide with data instead of fear.
- [How to track AI bots on a WordPress site (without touching code)](https://visitortype.ai/blog/how-to-track-ai-bots-on-wordpress): GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot read WordPress sites every day — and never show up in your analytics, because crawlers don't run JavaScript. Here's how to see them with a plugin.
- [Does ChatGPT traffic show up in Google Analytics? Yes — but not where you think](https://visitortype.ai/blog/does-chatgpt-traffic-show-up-in-google-analytics): GA4 has no AI channel out of the box. ChatGPT visits land in Referral, Direct, or Unassigned depending on how the link was clicked. Here's exactly where to look, and how to fix it.
- [Your GA4 “Direct” traffic is hiding AI referrals — here's how to see them](https://visitortype.ai/blog/ai-referrals-hiding-in-direct-traffic): 35–70% of visits from ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini arrive with the referrer stripped. GA4 files them under Direct. Here's why it happens and how to measure what's really going on.

## Optional

- [Pricing](https://visitortype.ai/pricing): Free tier available; paid tiers scale by events
- [About](https://visitortype.ai/about): Who builds VisitorType and why
- [Privacy](https://visitortype.ai/privacy): What we store and — mostly — what we deliberately don't