ChatGPT's missing UTM tags confirmed as a bug, traffic attribution fully restored
lilyraynyc · x · 2026-10-16
The disappearance of utmsource=chatg.com tags that made ChatGPT referrals look down 60% last week was a bug, and OpenAI's fix has rolled out. Timeline: tags vanished Oct 8 (2pm PT), attribution dropped to 1/3 of normal within hours; Oct 13 investigation showed visits weren't lost but counted as direct; OpenAI confirmed the known bug Oct 14; by Oct 15 9am PT tagged clicks across thousands of domains were back to 95-100% of the prior week. Advice: annotate Oct 8-15 in GA4/AA, don't rebuild attribution models, and keep counting UTM rather than referrer since referrers are still mostly missing.
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