--- title: Google Analytics counts bots as real traffic [New Test] description: A controlled experiment simulated bot traffic to a test site using Puppeteer, testing three scenarios: obvious non-browser user-agents (PostmanRuntime),... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/google-analytics-counts-bots-as-real-traffic-new-test--o72yo718n twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Google Analytics counts bots as real traffic [New Test] | daily.dev og:description: A controlled experiment simulated bot traffic to a test site using Puppeteer, testing three scenarios: obvious non-browser user-agents (PostmanRuntime),... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/google-analytics-counts-bots-as-real-traffic-new-test--o72yo718n og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/o72Yo718n.png og:image:alt: Google Analytics counts bots as real traffic [New Test] og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Google Analytics counts bots as real traffic [New Test] **[Plausible Analytics](https://daily.dev/sources/plausible-blog)** · 11 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A controlled experiment simulated bot traffic to a test site using Puppeteer, testing three scenarios: obvious non-browser user-agents (PostmanRuntime), realistic browser user-agents, and requests from data center IPs. Google Analytics 4 recorded all simulated bot traffic as real visits across all three tests, even after its 48-hour data processing window. Plausible Analytics rejected all bot traffic in every scenario. The difference stems from Plausible blocking ~32,000 data center IP ranges, filtering by user-agent headers, and detecting unnatural traffic patterns automatically, while GA4 relies primarily on a known bot list (IAB) and requires manual configuration to catch unlisted bots. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Most Googlebots are fake](https://daily.dev/posts/most-googlebots-are-fake-1tg9y0hfh) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Monitoring Legitimate Bot Traffic is Now a Cybersecurity Requirement](https://daily.dev/posts/monitoring-legitimate-bot-traffic-is-now-a-cybersecurity-requirement-nriqmyzgg) · Security Boulevard · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Someone is running mass vulnerability scans, spoofing AI bots like ClaudeBot](https://daily.dev/posts/someone-is-running-mass-vulnerability-scans-spoofing-ai-bots-like-claudebot-homewd2zq) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Do ad blockers block Plausible Analytics?](https://daily.dev/posts/do-ad-blockers-block-plausible-analytics--89ngldmum) · Plausible Analytics · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Dead internet theory becomes measurable fact as AI agents flood the web](https://daily.dev/posts/dead-internet-theory-becomes-measurable-fact-as-ai-agents-flood-the-web-4uwxc0w1l) · The Next Web · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#crawling](https://daily.dev/tags/crawling), [#google-analytics](https://daily.dev/tags/google-analytics) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/google-analytics-counts-bots-as-real-traffic-new-test--o72yo718n) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Google Analytics counts bots as real traffic [New Test]","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/google-analytics-counts-bots-as-real-traffic-new-test--o72yo718n","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/google-analytics-counts-bots-as-real-traffic-new-test--o72yo718n"},"datePublished":"2026-03-31T12:27:36.744Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T12:35:54.017Z","description":"A controlled experiment simulated bot traffic to a test site using Puppeteer, testing three scenarios: obvious non-browser user-agents (PostmanRuntime),...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/798b6a98c03d00f5288c1278447b55c4?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/798b6a98c03d00f5288c1278447b55c4?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Plausible Analytics","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Plausible Analytics","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--Jr-UQS80--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774960012/logos/plausible-blog?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/plausible-blog"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/google-analytics-counts-bots-as-real-traffic-new-test--o72yo718n","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"crawling,google-analytics","timeRequired":"PT11M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Plausible Analytics","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/plausible-blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Google Analytics counts bots as real traffic [New Test]"}]} ```