Set up AI Chatbot tracking with the HTTP Tracking API
AI chatbots increasingly access websites through edge and server-side infrastructure such as CDNs and reverse proxies. Matomo supports AI chatbot telemetry through the existing HTTP Tracking API, allowing this traffic to be ingested separately from human website analytics.
AI chatbot requests are processed in a dedicated no-visit mode, meaning they do not create visits, sessions, or attribution data.
Note: The HTTP Tracking API does not install tracking automatically. A developer must create an integration that sends AI chatbot activity to Matomo. This integration could run in a server application, reverse proxy, CDN function, log processing pipeline, or another system that can detect AI chatbot requests.
Set up AI Chatbot tracking in Matomo
AI chatbot reports only collect data after setting up chatbot tracking.
- Go to AI Assistants > AI Chatbot Overview.
- If you see a No data collected message, you will need to configure chatbot telemetry for your environment.
Sending AI chatbot activity to Matomo
When using the HTTP Tracking API, your custom integration must:
- Identify AI chatbot requests.
- Collect information such as the User-Agent string and requested URL.
- Send the tracking request to Matomo using matomo.php.
- Include the required bot tracking parameters.
- You can optionally include additional chatbot telemetry (see Optional Bot info).
The following example shows how a custom integration can convert an incoming AI chatbot request into a Matomo Tracking API request:
Your website receives the following request:
User-Agent: ChatGPT-User/1.0; +https://openai.com/bot
URL: https://example.com/docs/intro
The integration could send the following Tracking API request to Matomo:
curl "https://your-matomo-domain.example/matomo.php?idsite=1&rec=1&recMode=1&ua=ChatGPT-User%2F1.0&url=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fdocs%2Fintro"
Your integration should then replace <user-agent> and <requested-url> with values from the original AI chatbot request.
Verify tracking is enabled
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 verify that tracking is enabled:
- In Matomo, open AI Assistants > AI Chatbot Overview.
- Confirm that the No data message no longer appears.
- Check that requests from supported AI chatbots are listed.
This approach is suitable when you control the request flow directly and tracking is implemented in server-side code or middleware. Tracking requests sent this way follow the same no-visit tracking rules as the Cloudflare / CloudFront integrations.
Read more about AI chatbot data retention and filtering and exclusions.