The humans-only filter
The Humans only filter is a toggle in your dashboard toolbar that controls whether AI agents are counted in your reports. This article explains what it does, what the default is, and how it relates to the Exclude bots filter sitting next to it.
[Screenshot: The toolbar showing the Humans only and Exclude bots buttons side by side]
Where to find it
Look at the top of your site’s dashboard, near the period selector. You will see two small buttons next to each other:
- Humans only
- Exclude bots
The Humans only button is the agent filter this article is about. It appears on the reports that share the dashboard toolbar — the main dashboard, Pages, Referrers, and Geo.
What the toggle does
Every visit to your site is classified server-side into one of four classes:
- a human,
- a verified agent,
- an unverified agent, or
- an adversarial bot.
These classes describe the software making the request, never the person behind it.
The Humans only toggle decides whether AI agents (verified and unverified) are counted in your reports:
- Off (the default) — reports count humans plus AI agents. The agentic web stays visible in your headline numbers.
- On — AI agents are excluded too, so the numbers describe people only.
It is a single sticky click. Your choice is remembered per user across sessions, so once you set it, it stays set the next time you sign in.
When it is on, the button is highlighted, and you will see the screen-reader status Humans only — AI agents hidden; when off, AI agents included in reports.
The default, and why
Humans only is off by default. The default report counts humans plus AI agents on purpose, so the agentic web stays visible in your everyday numbers rather than being silently hidden. If you want the deep dive on agent traffic specifically, that lives on the AI Visibility tab, not behind this toggle.
When to turn it on
Turn Humans only on when you want your reports to describe people only — for example:
- You are reporting traffic to a client or stakeholder and want a clean human number.
- You are comparing against another analytics tool that excludes agents.
- A surge of agent crawling is inflating a page’s pageviews and you want to see the human picture underneath.
Turn it back off when you want the full picture, including the AI agents hitting your site.
How it relates to the “Exclude bots” filter
The toolbar has two filters, and they do different jobs. They stack — one does not replace the other.
| Filter | What it controls | Default | How it sticks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exclude bots | Classic crawlers, monitoring bots, and social-preview bots. | On (those bots excluded). | Applies to the view you are looking at. |
| Humans only | AI agents (verified and unverified), in addition to the above. | Off (AI agents counted). | Remembered per user. |
In other words:
- Classic crawlers (uptime monitors, link-preview bots, and the like) are excluded by default through the Exclude bots filter. Nothing you do with Humans only changes that.
- AI agents are a separate group. They are counted by default, and Humans only is the switch that removes them.
So flipping Humans only on, on top of the default Exclude bots behaviour, gives you the cleanest human-only view: no classic crawlers, no AI agents, just people.
Troubleshooting
My numbers dropped after I toggled Humans only. That is expected — you removed AI agent traffic. Toggle it back off to include agents again.
The toggle did not seem to change anything. If your site has little or no AI agent traffic in the selected period, there is nothing to remove, so the numbers look the same. Check the AI Visibility tab to see how much agent traffic you actually have.
My setting reset. The choice is saved per user. If you signed in as a different user, or the save failed (for example, your session expired), it will not have persisted. Try toggling it again.
I want to see agent numbers, not hide them. This toggle only removes agents from existing reports. To see agent traffic broken down by operator, open the AI Visibility tab — its AI agents section is shown regardless of this toggle.
Related
- The AI Visibility tab — where to actually see agent traffic.
- Understanding AI agents vs visitors from AI — agents are software; visitors from AI are people.
- Understanding your dashboard — the reports this toggle affects.