This article is for GA4 properties. Default channel grouping for Universal Analytics (UA) properties is covered in this article.
We recently made improvements to default channel grouping for Google Analytics 4 properties. Learn more
Channel groupings are rule-based definitions of your website's traffic sources that let you monitor the performance of all of the channels sending traffic to your website.
When you navigate to the Acquisition > Traffic acquisition report, you'll see that the data is organized by the Session default channel grouping dimension. (Click 
Default channel definitions
These definitions reflect Analytics' current view of what constitutes each channel. The following definitions are provided for your reference and may evolve as the market changes.
Channel definitions aren't case sensitive and can't be edited.
| Channel | Definition |
|---|---|
| Channels for Google Ads traffic | |
| Paid Search |
Traffic is Google Ads AND Google Ads ad network type is one of ("Google Search", "Google Partners") |
| Paid Video |
Traffic is Google Ads AND Google Ads ad network type is one of ("YouTube Search", "YouTube Videos") |
| Display |
Traffic is Google Ads AND Google Ads ad network type is one of ("Google Display Network", "Cross-network") |
| Paid Social |
Traffic is Google Ads AND Google Ads ad network type is one of ("Social") |
| Channels for Display & Video 360 traffic | |
| Display |
Traffic is DV360 AND DV360 creative format is one of (“Standard", "Expandable", "Native site square", "Backdrop", "Templated app install interstitial", "Deprecated","Native app install", "Native app install square", "Native site", "Templated app install", "Lightbox”) |
| Paid Video |
Traffic is DV360 AND DV360 creative format is one of ("Native video", "Video", "Templated app install video", "Flipbook") |
| Audio |
Traffic is DV360 AND DV360 creative format is one of ("Audio") |
| Paid Other |
Traffic is DV360 AND DV360 creative format is one of ("Publisher hosted", "Tracking", "Unknown") |
| Channels for manual traffic | |
| Direct |
Source exactly matches direct AND Medium is one of ("(not set)", "(none)") |
| Paid Shopping |
(Source matches a list of shopping sites OR Campaign Name matches regex ^(.*(([^a-df-z]|^)shop|shopping).*)$) AND Medium matches regex ^(.*cp.*|ppc|paid.*)$ |
| Paid Search |
Source matches a list of search sites AND Medium matches regex ^(.*cp.*|ppc|paid.*)$ |
| Paid Social |
Source matches a list of social sites AND Medium matches regex ^(.*cp.*|ppc|paid.*)$ |
| Paid Video |
Source matches a list of video sites AND Medium matches regex ^(.*cp.*|ppc|paid.*)$ |
| Display | Medium is one of (“display”, “banner”, “expandable”, “interstitial”, “cpm”) |
| Organic Shopping |
Source matches a list of shopping sites OR Campaign name matches regex ^(.*(([^a-df-z]|^)shop|shopping).*)$ |
| Organic Social |
Source matches a regex list of social sites OR Medium is one of (“social”, “social-network”, “social-media”, “sm”, “social network”, “social media”) |
| Organic Video |
Source matches a list of video sites OR Medium matches regex ^(.*video.*)$ |
| Organic Search |
Source matches a list of search sites OR Medium exactly matches organic |
|
Source = email|e-mail|e_mail|e mail OR Medium = email|e-mail|e_mail|e mail |
|
| Affiliates | Medium = affiliate |
| Referral | Medium = referral |
| Audio | Medium exactly matches audio |
| SMS | Medium exactly matches sms |
| Mobile Push Notifications |
Medium ends with "push" OR Medium contains "mobile" or "notification" |
unassigned is the value Analytics uses when there are no other channel rules that match the event data.
(other) is the value Analytics uses for an aggregated row due to cardinality limits. Learn more
Analytics' list of sources and categories
If you would like us to add your search, social, video, or shopping site to the list or if you would like to make a change to your current listing, contact us at googleanalytics-channelgrouprequests@google.com. Google Analytics reviews these requests at least once per year and often more frequently. Inclusion is based on Google’s assessment of a number of factors including but not limited to whether a significant volume of traffic is sourced from a given search engine, social site, or shopping site.