Traceten vs Google Analytics 4
Google Analytics 4 is free, widely used and, since May 2026, groups AI referrals into an AI Assistant channel. Traceten adds what GA4 does not publish: a confidence and a method on every AI visit, native payment integrations and AI crawler logs, which GA4 excludes by design.
Which one should you choose?
Choose Traceten if
- You want each AI visit named with a confidence score and a detection method.
- You want revenue from Stripe, Shopify, Lemon Squeezy, Polar or Paddle without sending purchase events yourself.
- You want AI crawler visits recorded, where GA4 excludes known bots and cannot be set to keep them.
- You want to see which AI answers mention your brand, and which of your pages they cite (Beta).
Every plan also includes
- AI traffic by assistant
- Revenue attribution
- Verified AI crawler logs
- AI visibility and citationsBeta
- Goals and funnels
- Real-time and visitor journeys
- API, MCP, CLI and webhooks
Choose Google Analytics 4 if
- You want web analytics free of charge, from a tool most marketers already know.
- You advertise on Google Ads and want conversions shared between the two.
- You want a raw event export to BigQuery on the free tier.
Side by side
Traceten and Google Analytics 4, row by row. Every Google Analytics 4 fact links to its source.
AI traffic
Which AI assistant sent each visit, and how sure the classification is.
| Feature | Traceten | Google Analytics 4 |
|---|---|---|
| AI referral channel out of the boxVisits from AI assistants are grouped as their own source with no setup. | Yes | YesThe "AI Assistant" channel, since May 2026Source |
| Named assistant on each visitWhich assistant sent the visit, not only that it came from AI. | 25+ assistantsChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Grok and more | PartialFrom the source and referrerNames ChatGPT, Gemini, Deepseek, Copilot and GrokSource |
| Confidence and detection method on every visitA confidence score and the method behind it (referrer, UTM tag or user agent) on each AI visit. | YesReturned with every session in the API | Not published |
| AI traffic in real timeCurrent visitors, with the AI source that sent each one. | YesThe live view shows each current visitor's AI source | PartialBy first user sourceThe last 30 minutesSource |
Revenue
Which AI assistant sent the buyers, from your payment provider's own records.
| Feature | Traceten | Google Analytics 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Native payment integrationsPayment providers that connect directly, with no events for you to send. | Stripe, Shopify, Lemon Squeezy, Polar and PaddlePlus a payment API for any other provider | NoRevenue comes from purchase events you sendSource |
| Revenue per AI sourceAttributed revenue broken out by the assistant that sent the buyer. | Yes | YesBy default channel groupSource |
| Refunds netted outRefunds come off revenue on the day they happen. | Yes | YesFrom the refund events you sendSource |
| Multi-currencyRevenue in other currencies, converted at the rate for the day of the order. | 30 currenciesConverted at the order date's rate | YesAt the prior day's rateSource |
AI crawlers
Which AI bots read your pages, and whether they are who they claim to be.
| Feature | Traceten | Google Analytics 4 |
|---|---|---|
| AI crawler visit loggingCrawlers never run JavaScript, so they have to be seen on the server. | Server or edge middlewareNext.js, Express, Hono and Cloudflare | NoKnown bots are excluded, and that cannot be turned offSource |
| Crawler verificationChecks that a crawler comes from the network its vendor says it uses. | IP ranges and reverse DNSWhere the crawler's vendor supports them | NoBots are excluded, not verifiedSource |
| Crawls includedAI crawler requests included before any limit applies. | 100,000 to 1,500,000 a monthStarter 100,000, Growth 650,000, Pro 1,500,000. Separate from your events. | NoNo crawler loggingSource |
| Past the crawl allowanceWhat happens when AI crawlers use up the allowance. | Opt-in overage at $0.00004 / crawl hitOn Growth and Pro. Without it, totals stay exact with less detail. Starter pauses at the limit. | NoNo crawler loggingSource |
AI visibilityBeta
Whether AI answers mention your brand, on prompts you choose.
| Feature | Traceten | Google Analytics 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Brand presence in AI answersRuns your prompts on answer engines and records whether your brand appears. | Yes | Not published |
| Answer enginesWhich engines your prompts run on. | Perplexity, Google AI OverviewsClaude and ChatGPT through each vendor's API, as an add-on | Not published |
| Prompts includedPrompts tracked for you, shared across every site on the account. | 1, 5 or 20 by planStarter, Growth and Pro | Not published |
Product analytics
Where the product suites go deeper than Traceten does.
| Feature | Traceten | Google Analytics 4 |
|---|---|---|
| FunnelsSee where visitors drop off between steps. | Up to 8 steps | YesFunnel explorationSource |
| GoalsCustom events and page matches you want to count. | 200 per site | YesKey eventsSource |
| Retention cohortsHow often users come back after a first action. | No | YesCohort explorationSource |
| Session replayRecordings of what individual visitors did on the page. | No | Not published |
| Feature flagsTurn features on for some users and not others. | No | Not published |
| ExperimentsTest a change against a control and measure the result. | No | Not published |
| HeatmapsWhere visitors click and scroll on a page. | No | Not published |
Privacy
Cookies, IP addresses and where the data lives.
| Feature | Traceten | Google Analytics 4 |
|---|---|---|
| CookiesWhat the tracking script stores in the visitor's browser. | First-party only | First-party cookiesConsent mode stops them when consent is deniedSource |
| IP addressesWhat happens to a visitor's IP address when it arrives. | Hashed on arrivalHMAC-SHA-256 under a per-site derived key | Not logged or storedSource |
| EU data hostingWhether your analytics data can be stored in the EU. | NoEU data residency is not available yet | PartialEU collection serversWhere the data is stored is not statedSource |
| Open source or self-hostedWhether you can read the code or run it yourself. | NoA hosted service | Not published |
Developer
Build on your data, or hand it to an agent.
| Feature | Traceten | Google Analytics 4 |
|---|---|---|
| REST APIRead your data over HTTP. | YesDocumented with OpenAPI | YesData APISource |
| MCP serverAsk an AI agent about your data through the Model Context Protocol. | Yes | PartialOfficial, run locallySource |
| CLIUse your data from a terminal or a coding agent. | Yes | Not published |
| Server SDKsSend events and payments from your backend. | Node, Python, Go | PartialMeasurement Protocol over HTTPSource |
| Outbound webhooksSend events to your own endpoint as they happen. | YesSigned with HMAC-SHA-256 | Not published |
| API rate limitsWe link each vendor's own rate-limit docs and print no figures, ours included. | Scales with plan | PublishedSource |
Pricing
What it costs to start, and what you pay for.
| Feature | Traceten | Google Analytics 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Free planA plan you can stay on without paying. | Starter, $060,000 events and 100,000 AI crawl hits a month | YesSource |
| Entry paid planThe cheapest paid plan. | Growth, $49 a month | 360 through salesSource |
| What you pay forThe unit a plan is measured in. | Events, plus AI crawl hitsPageviews, custom events and goals on one meter; crawls on their own | Not published |
| Data retentionHow long visit data is kept. | 2 yearsOn every plan | 2 or 14 monthsFor explorations; standard reports are not affectedSource |
Checked 24 September 2026. Product names and logos belong to their owners; used here only to identify them.
Running both
Most teams keep GA4 for marketing and Google Ads, and add Traceten for AI. The two snippets run side by side without touching each other. GA4 reports the channel; Traceten reports the assistant, the confidence, the revenue and the crawlers.
Questions
01Does GA4 track AI traffic?
Yes. Since May 2026, GA4's default channel group has an AI Assistant channel for sources like ChatGPT, Gemini, Deepseek, Copilot and Grok. It excludes Google's own AI Overviews and AI Mode. Traceten also records a confidence score and a detection method on every visit.
02Can GA4 see AI crawlers?
No. GA4 excludes known bot traffic automatically, and that exclusion cannot be turned off. Traceten records AI crawler visits server side, on their own allowance.
03How does revenue attribution differ?
GA4 reports revenue from the purchase and refund events you send, by channel group. Traceten connects to Stripe, Shopify, Lemon Squeezy, Polar and Paddle directly and nets refunds out of revenue per AI source.
04How long is data kept?
In GA4, explorations and funnels keep event data for 2 or 14 months, depending on your setting. Traceten keeps visitor events for 2 years on every plan.
AI is already sending you buyers. See the receipts.
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