Set up AI Chatbot tracking with WordPress

Cloud On-Premise

AI chatbots retrieve website content through HTTP requests and typically do not execute client-side JavaScript embedded in the page. This means their activity cannot be captured using the standard Matomo JavaScript tracker (matomo.js).

This guide explains how to set up AI chatbot tracking in WordPress using one of the supported plugins: Matomo for WordPress or Connect Matomo.

If your website also uses Cloudflare or Amazon CloudFront, configure only one integration to avoid recording the same chatbot request more than once.

How AI chatbot telemetry works in Matomo

AI chatbot telemetry uses the standard Matomo tracking endpoint (matomo.php) but follows a dedicated processing path. When a request is detected from an AI chatbot:

  • No visit attribution logic is executed.
  • No data is written to visit-related tables such as log_visit or log_link_visit_action.
  • Telemetry data is stored in dedicated chatbot telemetry tables.
  • URLs are resolved through log_action without performing visit lookups.
  • The telemetry request includes Page URL, User-Agent, HTTP status code, Response size, and Server processing time.
  • Requests are not tracked for images, robots.txt, admin-ajax.php, sitemap pages, and WordPress admin pages.

This behaviour is automatic and does not require additional configuration once telemetry requests are sent.

Supported AI chatbots and detection rules

Matomo detects AI chatbots based on User-Agent substring matching to ensure AI chatbot traffic is always processed separately from human visits. A request is classified as a chatbot when its User-Agent contains one of the following substrings (minimum supported list):

ChatGPT-User
MistralAI-User
Gemini-Deep-Research
Claude-User
Perplexity-User
Google-NotebookLM

Detection cannot be overridden and requests identified as AI chatbots are always processed in no-visit mode.

AI Chatbots reports in Matomo

AI chatbot reports only collect data after setting up chatbot tracking. If you open an AI chatbot report and see a No data collected message, you will need to configure chatbot telemetry for your environment.

  1. In Matomo, click on AI Insights in the top right menu.
  2. Open an AI Chatbots report, for example AI Chatbots Overview.
  3. Where a report shows no data has been collected, click the link Set up AI Chatbot tracking now.
    open ai chatbots report
  4. Choose the WordPress tracking method to access the setup instructions.

Selecting a tracking method in Matomo does not install or activate the integration. Follow the WordPress setup instructions to configure AI chatbot tracking for your website.

Install with WordPress

Matomo supports server-side AI chatbot tracking from Matomo for WordPress version 5.7.0 and Connect Matomo version 1.1.0. Once enabled, it detects supported AI chatbot requests processed by WordPress and sends the telemetry to Matomo.

Before you start

If a caching plugin serves static HTML directly via .htaccess (bypassing PHP by delivering a saved version of the page directly from the server), WordPress cannot send AI chatbot telemetry because its code does not execute. In this case, AI chatbot requests will not be tracked.

WordPress administrators
If you manage your site directly in WordPress and have not configured AI chatbot tracking in a CDN, follow the instructions below to Install with WordPress.

Advanced configuration (CDN or caching)
If you have configured AI chatbot tracking in your CDN, do not enable AI chatbot tracking in WordPress as well. If AI chatbots are tracking in both the CDN and WordPress, Matomo will record the same request twice.

Step 1: Check the requirements

To set up AI chatbot tracking with WordPress, you will need:

Step 2: Enable AI chatbot tracking

  1. In your WordPress administration dashboard, open the Matomo plugin settings.
  2. Locate the Track AI Bots setting under Tracking settings.
  3. Toggle the setting on to enable AI Bot tracking.
  4. Save your changes.

Verify AI chatbot tracking

AI chatbot traffic is not user-initiated, so data may not appear immediately after setup. After AI chatbots access your site and Matomo receives valid chatbot telemetry, the No data message on reports disappears automatically.

To send a test request, open a terminal and run the following command, replacing the example URL with a public page on your WordPress website. In Windows PowerShell, use curl.exe instead of curl:

curl -A "ChatGPT-User/1.0" "https://www.example.com/"
  1. In your WordPress administration dashboard, open the Matomo reporting interface.
  2. Navigate to AI Assistants > AI Chatbots Real-time.
  3. Check whether the simulated request appears as ChatGPT activity.
    ai chatbots realtime report
  4. If no AI chatbot data appears, check the following:
    • AI Bot tracking is enabled in the plugin settings.
    • The Matomo for WordPress or Connect Matomo plugin is updated.
    • A caching plugin or CDN serves requests without executing WordPress PHP.

Once Matomo receives valid AI chatbot telemetry, the No data collected message disappears automatically.

Data retention

AI chatbot telemetry is stored as raw log data in Matomo. This data follows the same retention and cleanup rules as other raw tracking logs. When the Delete old raw data from the database setting is enabled, Matomo automatically removes AI chatbot telemetry after the configured retention period.

  • No visit or aggregated data is created from this telemetry.
  • No additional configuration is required to enable cleanup.
  • Deletion affects all stored AI chatbot telemetry.

This behaviour applies to both Matomo Cloud and Matomo On-Premise instances.

Other set up methods

If you do not want to implement AI chatbot tracking directly in WordPress, you can configure tracking at the infrastructure level instead.

Matomo provides separate guides for setting up AI chatbot tracking with Cloudflare, Amazon CloudFront, or by using the HTTP Tracking API for custom server-side integrations. Read the set up guide for AI chatbot tracking and choose the method that matches your environment.

Previous FAQ: Set up AI Chatbot tracking with Cloudflare or Amazon CloudFront