See which AI crawlers and agents actually reach your site
Before you rewrite content for AI, confirm the machines can reach it. CiteTrack AI reads the server-side requests GA4 misses, separates verified crawlers from unverified names and possible impersonators, and shows which pages, engines and AI answer fetches deserve attention.
Watch the measurement workflow and inspect the connected evidence
The tour shows the current CiteTrack workflow. The interface tabs show how visibility evidence becomes a saved task with source context.
Find the crawl problem before you blame the content.
If ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity never reaches an important page, better copy will not make that page show up in AI answers. Crawler analytics shows whether the issue is access, trust, speed, crawl waste, spoofing or simply not enough live-answer demand yet.
See activity GA4 misses
AI crawlers do not run analytics JavaScript. CiteTrack reads their server-side requests without making your team interpret raw logs.
Trust the identity
CiteTrack verifies identity where official network evidence exists, so a claimed crawler name does not automatically become a success metric.
Fix the right failure
Know which crawler, page, status code and date range need work, then continue in Optimize or Tasks and verify the result.
Do not optimize for a crawler that never reached the page
CiteTrack distinguishes four situations before your team spends hours changing content.
Verified access
A supported official-network check confirms that the operator requested the page. Now inspect status, recency and usefulness.
Unverified name
The request identifies as a known crawler, but the operator does not provide enough official network evidence to verify it.
Possible impersonator
A claimed crawler identity conflicts with available official network information. Keep it out of verified metrics.
Access setting only
A robots or AI-access directive expresses permission. It is not evidence that a crawler actually visited the page.
Instead of asking a developer to inspect raw logs, cross-check networks and clean URL data manually, the workspace keeps identity, access result, affected page and next diagnostic together.
Your AI crawl activity, at a glance
A live read of who's crawling, what they're here for, and whether to trust them.
Crawls by AI engine (last 30 days)
Crawler activity populates as verified AI bots visit your site.
What you get
A current crawler catalog
Recognize current AI, search, training, live-answer and agent crawlers. CiteTrack can refresh the catalog as operators publish changes instead of freezing detection at install time.
AI answer impressions
When an engine fetches your page mid-answer (ChatGPT-User, Perplexity-User...), we surface it as the closest thing to an impression inside the AI reply.
Evidence-based identity states
Official network information is used where supported. Reports separate verified crawlers, unverified claimed names and possible impersonators instead of counting every user-agent claim as genuine.
By purpose & intent
Training vs. live-answer vs. search vs. agentic, know whether a bot is feeding a model or quoting you right now.
Top crawled pages
Which URLs AI reads most, and which it ignores, so you know where attention is going.
Privacy-reduced storage
Crawler analytics stay in your WordPress database. Raw visitor IP addresses are not retained, and credentials, query strings and fragments are removed from stored URLs.
Real bot, or an impostor?
Anyone can set their user-agent to "GPTBot." CiteTrack checks requests against official network evidence where the operator provides it, and keeps unverified names separate from trusted crawler activity.
- Reverse-DNS confirmation for engines that publish host suffixes.
- Published IP-range checks for OpenAI, Microsoft, Perplexity and more.
- Spoof flag on anything that claims a bot identity from the wrong network.
| Time | Engine | Type | Verified | URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2m ago | OpenAI | AI | verified | /pricing/ |
| 5m ago | Perplexity | AI | verified | /features/track-ai-citations/ |
| 11m ago | Anthropic | AI | verified | /blog/aeo-guide/ |
| 18m ago | "GPTBot" | AI | spoofed | /wp-login.php |
| 24m ago | AI | verified | / |
AI vs. human traffic
The split GA4 can't show you, because AI crawlers never appear there.
It's the start of the loop
Crawler analytics answer "who's reading me?" The next questions, "do they cite me?" and "what's it worth?", are where CiteTrack goes beyond a crawler logger. Pair this with citation tracking to see if those crawls turn into citations, and attribution to tie AI referrals to revenue.
Not just who crawled, what it means
Beyond the live log, CiteTrack turns raw crawl data into the answers you actually ask: which pages AI reads, how often each engine returns, and where bots are wasting effort.
Most-crawled pages
See exactly which URLs AI reads most over 30 days, with hit counts, how many distinct bots, and when each was last fetched. Know where AI attention is going.
Days since last crawl
For any page, how long since an AI bot last fetched it, so a cited page going stale (see <a href="https://citetrackai.com/glossary/crawl-budget/">crawl budget</a>) is obvious before it costs you a citation.
Crawl frequency by engine
How often GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and Google-Extended come back, hits per 7d / 30d / day, and last-seen, per engine.
Error log & wrong URLs
Every AI-bot 4xx/5xx, with 404s flagged as “wrong URL”, catch bots probing dead links or wasting <a href="https://citetrackai.com/crawl-academy/what-is-crawl-waste/">crawl budget</a> on URLs that can never be cited.
AI crawler analytics FAQ
Why cannot Google Analytics show me AI crawlers?
GA4 runs client-side JavaScript, and AI crawlers do not execute JavaScript, so they are invisible to it. CiteTrack reads server-side requests, which is the only place these bots appear.
Which AI crawlers does it detect?
CiteTrack uses an automatically updated crawler catalog covering current AI training, search, user-fetch and general search crawlers. Requests are separated into verified crawlers, unverified names and possible impersonators instead of treating every matching user-agent as genuine.
What is an "AI answer impression"?
When a user-facing fetch bot (like ChatGPT-User or Perplexity-User) pulls your page while an AI is actively answering someone, that live fetch is the closest equivalent to an impression inside the AI answer. CiteTrack surfaces it as its own metric.
How does spoof detection work?
For engines that publish reverse-DNS host suffixes or IP ranges, CiteTrack confirms each request actually comes from that network. A request claiming to be GPTBot from an unrelated IP is flagged as spoofed.
Will it slow my site down?
Tracking work is kept lightweight, large scans run in the background, and slow outside services are prevented from holding up normal WordPress requests. Human visits and crawler traffic are stored separately for cleaner analytics.
Where is the data stored?
Crawler and analytics records stay in your WordPress database. CiteTrack does not retain raw visitor IP addresses, and removes credentials, query strings and fragments from URLs before storage.
See who AI sends to read your site
Track every AI crawler, verified, classified and on your own site.
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