Analytics and Scan Tracking¶
Every time a consumer scans a barcode or QR code that resolves through GTIN1, a scan event is recorded. These events power your analytics dashboard and give you visibility into how, where, and when your products are being scanned.
How Scan Events Are Recorded¶
When the GTIN1 resolver handles a Digital Link request, the scan recorder captures a comprehensive set of data about the interaction:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Trade item | The GTIN that was scanned |
| Brand | The brand that owns the trade item |
| Organization | The organization that owns the brand |
| Scan type | How the scan was resolved (see below) |
| Destination URL | Where the user was ultimately sent |
| Context key | GS1 context key, if provided |
| IP address | The requester's IP address |
| User agent | The requester's browser or app identifier |
| Referrer | The HTTP referrer, if available |
| Country code | Derived from the IP address |
| Device class | Mobile, Tablet, or Desktop |
| Bot detection | Whether the request came from a bot or AI crawler |
Scan events are attributed to the trade item, brand, and organization, enabling analytics at every level of your account hierarchy.
Scan Types¶
Each scan event is classified into one of two types based on how the resolver handled the request:
| Scan Type | Description |
|---|---|
| HOSTED_PAGE | The consumer was served GTIN1's hosted product page for this trade item |
| REDIRECT_ONLY | The consumer was redirected to an external URL (your brand's product page, a custom link, etc.) |
The scan type depends on how you have configured resolution for the trade item. If you have set a custom redirect URL, scans are classified as REDIRECT_ONLY. If the GTIN1 hosted page is the default destination, scans are classified as HOSTED_PAGE.
Context Key Tracking¶
The GS1 Digital Link standard supports a context key (the C parameter) that indicates the context in which a scan occurred. GTIN1 records this single-character value with each scan event.
Common context keys include:
| Key | Meaning |
|---|---|
G |
General consumer scan |
I |
Internal / inventory |
Context keys enable you to segment your analytics by scan context. For example, you can distinguish consumer-facing scans from internal warehouse scans of the same product.
Bot and AI Traffic Detection¶
GTIN1 automatically classifies incoming requests to separate human scans from automated traffic. Each scan event includes:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Is bot | Whether the request was identified as a bot |
| Bot reason | Why the request was classified as a bot |
| AI bot provider | The AI company (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) if identified |
| AI bot purpose | The purpose of the AI access (training, search indexing, user retrieval, agent) |
Bot-classified scans are excluded from your engagement metrics, so automated crawlers and AI bots do not skew your analytics.
AI Traffic Analytics¶
The analytics dashboard provides dedicated AI traffic insights:
- AI vs. Human breakdown: see what percentage of your scans come from AI bots
- By provider: which AI companies are accessing your product data
- By purpose: whether AI bots are training, indexing for search, or acting as agents
- Trend over time: AI traffic trends by hour, day, week, or month
Per-Trade-Item Analytics¶
Every trade item has its own analytics view showing:
- Total scan count over time
- Scan trend charts (daily, weekly, monthly)
- Geographic distribution (scans by country)
- Device breakdown (mobile vs. desktop vs. tablet)
- Scan type split (hosted page vs. redirect)
- Context key distribution
- AI traffic summary
Daily Summaries¶
For performance, GTIN1 pre-aggregates scan data into daily summaries for each trade item. These summaries provide fast access to:
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Total scans | All scans for the day |
| Human scans | Scans from real users (excludes bots) |
| Bot scans | Automated traffic |
| Hosted page scans | Scans that served the hosted page |
| Redirect only scans | Scans that redirected to external URLs |
| AI bot scans | Scans from identified AI crawlers |
| By country | Scan counts broken down by country code |
| By device | Scan counts by device class |
| By context | Scan counts by GS1 context key |
| By hour | Hourly scan distribution within the day |
| By AI provider | AI scan counts by provider |
| By AI purpose | AI scan counts by purpose |
Organization Dashboard Analytics¶
At the organization level, the dashboard aggregates scan data across all of your brands and trade items. This gives you a high-level view of:
- Total scans across your entire portfolio
- Top scanned products
- Geographic heat maps
- Traffic trends and growth
- AI traffic proportion
Subscription Plans¶
GTIN1 uses a subscription-based billing model with three tiers. Billing is based on resource limits (trade items, batches, serial numbers), not scan volume. Scans are tracked for analytics only and are never metered for billing.
| Starter (Free) | Growth ($79/mo) | Scale ($249/mo) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trade items | 10 | 250 | 2,500 |
| Batches / lots | 5 | 1,000 | 10,000 |
| Serial numbers | -- | 10,000 | 100,000 |
| Brands | 1 | 3 | Unlimited |
| API requests/hour | 100 | 1,000 | 10,000 |
Feature Availability¶
Some features are only available on higher tiers:
| Feature | Starter | Growth | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full analytics dashboard | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Custom branding | ✓ | ✓ | |
| EPCIS event capture | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Serial number tracking | ✓ | ✓ | |
| FSMA 204 traceability | ✓ | ||
| EU Digital Product Passport | ✓ |
Overage Purchases¶
On Growth and Scale plans, you can purchase permanent one-time additions to your resource limits if you exceed your plan's included allocation. Overages are not recurring charges. They permanently increase your capacity.
Scan Analytics and Bot Filtering¶
Scans are not metered for billing. However, GTIN1 distinguishes between human scans and bot traffic for analytics accuracy:
| Human Scans | Bot Traffic (excluded from metrics) |
|---|---|
| Scans from browsers and mobile apps | Search crawlers, AI bots |
| Both hosted page and redirect scans | Automated monitoring tools |
Bot detection happens automatically at scan time based on user agent analysis. This filtering ensures your analytics dashboards reflect genuine consumer engagement rather than automated traffic.
Scan events are immutable
Once recorded, scan events cannot be modified or deleted. This ensures a reliable audit trail for analytics. If you believe scans have been incorrectly classified, contact support.
User Interactions¶
Beyond scan events, GTIN1 tracks user interactions for authenticated users and session-based visitors:
| Interaction Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Scan | The user scanned a product (recorded from resolver) |
| Save | The user saved a product to their collection |
| Claim | The user claimed ownership of a product unit |
These interactions enable personalized experiences, such as showing a user their scan history or letting them manage their saved products.