# Channel type - Docs

Channel type is the type of acquisition channel the user came from, for example:

| Channel Type | Description of where the user came from |
| --- | --- |
| Direct | User typed in the URL directly or used a saved link. |
| Paid Search | An ad from a search engine, e.g. Google, Bing, or Baidu. |
| Paid Social | An ad from a social media platform, e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter |
| Paid Video | An ad from a video platform, e.g. YouTube or Twitch. |
| Paid Shopping | An ad from a shopping platform, e.g. Amazon or eBay. |
| Paid Unknown | An ad from an unknown platform. |
| Cross-Network | A cross-network ad |
| Organic Search | A non-ad search result from a search engine, e.g. Google, Bing, or Baidu. |
| Organic Social | A non-ad link from a social media platform, e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter |
| Organic Video | A non-ad link from a video platform, e.g. YouTube or TikTok. |
| Organic Shopping | A non-ad link from a shopping platform, e.g. Amazon or eBay. |
| Affiliate | An affiliate link. |
| Referral | A referral link. |
| Email | A link from an email. |
| Display | A display ad, e.g. an ad on Google Display Network. |
| SMS | A link from an SMS. |
| Audio | An audio ad, e.g. a podcast ad. |
| Push | A push notification. |
| Unknown | A link from an unknown source. |

It is calculated using the referring domain, [UTM tags](/docs/data/utm-segmentation.md), and advertising IDs that are present in the URL when the user first lands on your website.

## Custom channel types

![](https://res.cloudinary.com/dmukukwp6/image/upload/custom_channel_types_light_mode_8d1d5820c0.png)![](https://res.cloudinary.com/dmukukwp6/image/upload/custom_channel_types_dark_mode_dbc68eddcb.png)

You can define your own custom channel types in [your project settings](https://us.posthog.com/settings/project-web-analytics) under **Web analytics**. Your custom channel types will take priority over the default channel types.

## Default channel type calculation

We maintain a set of default channel type rules that are designed to be a useful starting point for everyone, and many users won't need to add any custom channel type rules.

Traffic is considered "Paid" if any of the following are true:

-   `utm_medium` is one of `cpc`, `cpm`, `cpv`, `cpa`, `ppc` or `retargeting`
-   `utm_medium` starts with `paid`
-   Either `gclid` or `gad_source` is present

We use a list of known values for `referring_domain`, `utm_source`, and `utm_medium`, which you can view in the [source code](https://github.com/PostHog/posthog/blob/master/posthog/models/channel_type/channel_definitions.json).

These rules are applied in order, and the first one that matches is used to determine the channel type.

| Channel Type | Logic |
| --- | --- |
| Cross Network | utm_campaign equals cross-network |
| Paid Search | Traffic is paid, and utm_source matches our list of search sources (e.g. google, bing, duckduckgo) |
| Paid Social | Traffic is paid, and utm_source matches our list of social sources (e.g. facebook, linkedin, twitter) |
| Paid Video | Traffic is paid, and utm_source matches our list of video sources (e.g. youtube, twitch, disneyplus) |
| Paid Shopping | Traffic is paid, and utm_source matches our list of shopping sources (e.g. amazon, etsy, ebay) |
| Paid Search | Traffic is paid, and referring_domain matches our list of search sources (e.g. google.com, bing.com, duckduckgo.com) |
| Paid Social | Traffic is paid, and referring_domain matches our list of social sources (e.g. facebook.com, linkedin.com, twitter.com) |
| Paid Video | Traffic is paid, and referring_domain matches our list of video sources (e.g. youtube.com, twitch.tv, disneyplus.com) |
| Paid Shopping | Traffic is paid, and referring_domain matches our list of shopping sources (e.g. amazon.com, etsy.com, ebay.co.uk) |
| Paid Shopping | Traffic is paid, and utm_campaign matches the regular expression ^(.*(([^a-df-z]\|^)shop\|shopping).*)$ |
| Paid Social | Traffic is paid, and utm_medium matches our list of social mediums (e.g. sm, social-media, social-network) |
| Paid Video | Traffic is paid, and utm_medium matches our list of video mediums (e.g. video) |
| Display | Traffic is paid, and utm_medium matches our list of display mediums (e.g. display, interstitial, banner) |
| Paid Search | Traffic is paid, and gad_source equals 1 |
| Paid Video | Traffic is paid, and utm_campaign matches the regular expression ^(.*video.*)$ |
| Paid Unknown | Traffic is paid |
| Direct | Referring domain is the special value $direct, and utm_medium is not set, and utm_source is either empty or equal to direct or (direct) |
| Organic Search | utm_source matches our list of search sources (e.g. google, bing, duckduckgo) |
| Organic Social | utm_source matches our list of social sources (e.g. facebook, linkedin, twitter) |
| Organic Video | utm_source matches our list of video sources (e.g. youtube, twitch, disneyplus) |
| Organic Shopping | utm_source matches our list of shopping sources (e.g. amazon, etsy, ebay) |
| Email | utm_source matches our list of email sources (e.g. email, e_mail, e-mail) |
| SMS | utm_source matches our list of SMS sources (e.g. sms) |
| Push | utm_source matches our list of SMS sources (e.g. firebase) |
| Organic Search | referring_domain matches our list of search sources (e.g. google.com, bing.com, duckduckgo.com) |
| Organic Social | referring_domain matches our list of social sources (e.g. facebook.com, linkedin.com, twitter.com) |
| Organic Video | referring_domain matches our list of video sources (e.g. youtube.com, twitch.tv, disneyplus.com) |
| Organic Shopping | referring_domain matches our list of shopping sources (e.g. amazon.com, etsy.com, ebay.co.uk) |
| Organic Shopping | utm_campaign matches the regular expression ^(.*(([^a-df-z]\|^)shop\|shopping).*)$ |
| Organic Social | utm_medium matches our list of social mediums (e.g. sm, social-media, social-network) |
| Organic Video | utm_medium matches our list of video mediums (e.g. video) |
| Affiliate | utm_medium matches our list of affiliate mediums (e.g. affiliate) |
| Referral | utm_medium matches our list of referral mediums (e.g. referral, link, app) |
| Email | utm_medium matches our list of email mediums (e.g. email, e_mail, e-mail) |
| Display | utm_medium matches our list of display mediums (e.g. display, cpm, interstitial, banner) |
| Audio | utm_medium matches our list of referral mediums (e.g. audio) |
| Push | utm_medium matches our list of referral mediums (e.g. push, notification, mobile) |
| Organic Video | utm_campaign matches the regular expression ^(.*video.*)$ |
| Push | utm_medium ends with push |
| Unknown | No previous rule matched |

You can read our list of known sources in the [source code](https://github.com/PostHog/posthog/blob/master/posthog/models/channel_type/channel_definitions.json).

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