ChatGPT is sending you leads. Your analytics calls it direct.
Ask the only party who was there.
What is actually happening
Someone asks an assistant for a tool. You come up. They click through, or they copy the link into a browser, or they type your name in tomorrow. In two of those three cases there is no referrer at all — and even when there is, it frequently does not survive the trip.
That is the part people know about. Here is the part they do not: the most valuable fact of the whole interaction is what they asked. Not which assistant — what question they were trying to answer when your name appeared. That exists in one place, for about five minutes, and no pixel, log or integration can reach it.
referrer: —
Indistinguishable from someone typing your URL in from memory.
asked: “tools that show where B2B leads actually come from”
We ask what they were asking about, not for their transcript. People will tell you the topic. They will not paste the conversation, and they should not have to.
Why better tracking will not fix it
Google Analytics added an AI channel grouping in 2026, and it helps with the visits that keep a referrer. It does nothing for the ones that do not, and nothing at all for the prompt. No standard on the roadmap carries intent — Web Bot Auth proves identity, not purpose.
Counting AI referrals out of server logs goes wrong in the other direction. Assistants and browsers fetch pages ahead of anyone opening them, and a log cannot tell those from arrivals — so the number comes out high while the thing you wanted stays missing. Undercounted or overcounted, neither is the reason they came.
See what is actually in your direct bucket
Free while you are small — no card. $99 a month when you connect it to your CRM.