OpenAI appears to have removed UTM tracking parameters from links in ChatGPT, potentially causing visits from the AI platform to be incorrectly classified as direct traffic in website analytics.
The change was spotted following the release of GPT-6 in October 2026, raising concerns among marketers and SEO professionals about the accuracy of AI referral reporting.
What’s Happening
ChatGPT links appear to have stopped including the utm_source=chatgpt.com parameter that OpenAI introduced in June.
Adobe’s Cedric Huesler reported that links are now being opened using a method that suppresses referral information.
When both UTM parameters and referral data are missing, analytics platforms may classify those visits as direct traffic rather than attributing them to ChatGPT.
What the Data Shows
Huesler examined approximately 500 pages where ChatGPT previously accounted for at least 5% of visits, comparing October 9–13 with the preceding week.
The findings revealed:
- ChatGPT traffic: Down approximately 31,000 visits per day.
- Direct traffic: Up approximately 26,000 visits per day on the same pages.
- Search traffic: Down 7%, consistent with broader search trends.
- Traffic patterns: Two-thirds of pages losing ChatGPT referrals experienced an increase in direct traffic.
The analysis also found similarities between the behavior of newly classified direct visitors and previously identified ChatGPT visitors.
The Catch
The findings suggest an attribution problem rather than necessarily indicating a genuine decline in traffic from ChatGPT.
However, OpenAI has not confirmed whether the change was intentional, and the reported analysis does not establish that every missing referral was caused by the same issue.
Why We Care
Businesses monitoring AI-driven discovery could see misleading changes in their analytics dashboards.
A sudden decline in ChatGPT referrals alongside an increase in direct traffic may reflect a tracking change rather than a shift in user behavior.
Marketers should review referral trends, direct traffic, and landing-page performance together before drawing conclusions about ChatGPT’s effectiveness.
The Bigger Picture
As AI assistants become another source of website discovery, accurate attribution is becoming increasingly important for measuring their marketing impact.
Changes to how AI platforms handle outbound links can make that measurement more difficult, even when actual visitor numbers remain relatively stable.
The Bottom Line
ChatGPT’s apparent removal of UTM parameters could be masking AI-driven visits as direct traffic. Until the tracking behavior is clarified, marketers should treat sudden drops in ChatGPT referral traffic with caution.