In short. Matomo documents AI assistant acquisition in Cloud and On-Premise 5.5.0, with separate plugin and tracking requirements for agents and chatbots.
Definition: As of October 2026, Matomo's AI Assistants acquisition report measures visits referred from recognised AI assistant domains. It is available in Matomo Cloud and in Matomo On-Premise from version 5.5.0; attribution requires referrer information, which identifies the source of a visit.
Key facts
- Matomo's acquisition reporting guide documents On-Premise availability with version 5.5.0.
- The separate AI Agent Overview report starts with Matomo 5.6.0 and uses the
AIAgentsplugin. - Matomo's AI Chatbots Overview guide requires a server-side integration and activation of
BotTrackingfor On-Premise installations. - Matomo's permissions documentation gives users with View permission access to reports for the relevant website.
Which AI report has which requirements?
Matomo's AI Assistants guide links to separate setup and reporting guides for AI agents and chatbots. The name also appears under Acquisition, where it identifies visits arriving through assistant links.
The terminology guide explains that the acquisition channel uses a recognised referring domain, with chatgpt.com as an example. AI agents are autonomous systems that carry out tasks after an instruction. Matomo records their activity when they execute its JavaScript tracker or send tracking requests through its Tracking API, an interface for submitting tracking data. AI chatbots retrieve content directly from servers, and their requests require a supported server-side integration.
What configuration is required for agents and chatbots?
According to the AI Agent Overview guide, new Cloud and On-Premise instances have AIAgents enabled automatically. Existing On-Premise installations require manual activation. Enabling the plugin adds a column to the log_visit database table. The documented activation path is:
Administration > Plugins > Manage Plugins
Installed Plugins > Core > AIAgents > Activate
For chatbot requests, the AI Chatbots Overview guide documents integrations for Cloudflare, Amazon CloudFront and WordPress. Cloud has the chatbot reporting feature enabled; On-Premise requires manual activation of BotTracking. Both require the server-side integration. Setup starts at AI Assistants > AI Chatbots Overview with the button labelled Set up AI Chatbot tracking now. Data appears after chatbots access the website following configuration.
What access is needed to open the reports?
Matomo's permissions guide assigns View permission per website. Super User permission covers the whole installation and permits plugin activation and deactivation. Report viewing and plugin management therefore require different permissions.
The terminology guide documents these menu paths for referral visits and AI agent activity respectively:
Acquisition > AI Assistants
AI Assistants > AI Agent Overview
What happens to data collected before the update?
Matomo's acquisition reporting guide states that the Cloud AI Assistant channel applies to data collected after the update. Historical visits retain their original channels, such as Referral or Direct. The AI Assistants report may show older data through internal filtering of known AI referrers, while detailed channel reports and row evolution charts remain unavailable for that historical data.
Related terms
- AI referral traffic
- Where do I find AI assistant traffic in Matomo?
- How do I inspect individual AI referral visits in Matomo?
FAQ
Do you need a chatbot integration to see assistant referral visits?
The terminology guide bases acquisition reporting on referrer information from visits through assistant links. Server-side chatbot integrations record direct content requests in the chatbot reports.
Can you activate the plugins with View permission?
Matomo's permissions documentation reserves plugin activation for Super Users. View permission lets you read the reports for a website.
Sources
- Matomo, "AI Assistants", undated
- Matomo, "What are AI Assistants in Matomo", undated
- Matomo, "How to track and analyse traffic from AI Assistants (like ChatGPT) in Matomo reports", undated
- Matomo, "AI Agent Overview report", undated
- Matomo, "AI Chatbots Overview report", undated
- Matomo, "User permissions", undated
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