How ClickTug counts clicks
ClickTug publishes how many real people click through to each listed tool. That figure is the whole product, so this page states exactly how it is produced. The thresholds and rules below are rendered from the same configuration the measurement code runs, so this page cannot describe a rule the software does not execute.
What counts as a click
A real user gesture on an outbound link, on a tool's own ClickTug listing page, reported by the visitor's browser.
Clicks on category cards, hub pages and comparison tables are recorded separately and arenot included in any published figure. That is deliberate: using one surface for both the numerator and the denominator is the only way published clicks divided by published views is genuinely the published click-through rate, rather than two numbers from different pages divided by each other.
What counts as a view
A listing page rendered in a visible browser tab for at least 1.5 seconds. Pages your browser loaded in the background because you hovered a link, or because a search engine prerendered a result, are not views.
What we exclude
Two kinds of rule. The first are applied when an event arrives: certain, cheap, and their worst case is one lost click. The second are applied when the daily figures are computed, because they need context beyond a single request or have a threshold that will need tuning.
Nothing is ever deleted for looking automated. Events are marked, never removed, so that a rule change can be applied backwards and so that every listing can publish how many clicks were excluded alongside how many were counted.
Applied when the event arrives
- Known crawler and automation clientsRequests identifying as a bot, crawler, spider, headless browser, HTTP library or command line client are refused before anything is stored.
- Requests that did not come from a ClickTug pageA report must arrive with a matching origin and the same-origin fetch metadata a browser sends automatically. A scripted client almost never reproduces all of it correctly, and a browser cannot get it wrong.
- Reports without a valid page signatureEvery trackable link carries a signature computed when the page was built. A report whose signature does not verify is refused. This stops a loop of forged requests. It does not stop a determined attacker, because the signature is visible in the page source, and we are not going to claim otherwise.
- Repeat clicks by the same visitor within 15 minutesOne counted click per visitor per tool per 15-minute window. The window is fixed rather than rolling, so a visitor clicking at 14:59 and 15:01 is counted twice while one clicking at 14:01 and 14:59 is counted once. Repeats are recorded as duplicates and reported in the excluded total.
- Prerendered and prefetched page loadsA page view is only recorded once the page has been in a visible tab for 1.5 seconds. Browsers load search results and hovered links in the background; counting those would inflate views and quietly deflate every click-through rate on this site.
Applied when the figures are computed
- Clicks with no matching page viewA click reported from a page load that reported no view of the same listing. Requires joining two tables across two requests, so it is decided after the fact.
- Visitors clicking more than 15 different tools in a dayNeeds the whole day to judge. A person cannot be classified on their third click, and guessing early would exclude genuinely curious readers.
- A single network accounting for over 40 percent of a tool's clicksApplied only on days where the tool had more than 20 clicks. Needs the day's whole distribution.
What we deliberately do not exclude
VPN and datacentre traffic is counted. A large share of genuine visitors to adult AI tools use a commercial VPN, and commercial VPN exit points live on datacentre networks. Dropping that traffic would look rigorous and would remove a substantial number of real people from the count. We record the network instead and judge concentration across a whole day.
Partner-link clicks are counted. Some outbound links carry a partner parameter and are marked on the listing that carries them. Those clicks are counted exactly like every other click. Excluding them would be a weaker claim than this one: money does not move the number, in either direction.
What we cannot measure
Clicks are counted in the browser on a real user gesture. A visitor with JavaScript disabled follows the same link and is not counted. There is no server-side redirect on this site to catch them, because a counting URL sitting in the page source is fetched by every link checker, unfurler and crawler on the internet, and filtering that would be a permanent arms race against the one number this business depends on.
Every published figure is therefore a floor, not a ceiling. We never estimate to close the gap. The moment one number here is modelled, every number here is.
When a figure is published
A number produced from too small a sample is worse than no number, so listings pass through three states. Counting began on 8 Aug 2026.
| State | Requires | Shows |
|---|---|---|
| Collecting | Fewer than 14 days of tracking, or fewer than 100 listing views | No figures. The date the listing will qualify. |
| Provisional | At least 14 days and 100 views, but fewer than 30 counted clicks | Views, clicks and click-through rate, badged as provisional. No rank. |
| Ranked | At least 30 counted clicks, and at least 5 qualifying tools in the category | Full figures, and a rank always stated with its denominator. |
A rank is never published as a bare position. "Third of forty-one ranked image generators" is a fact; "third" on its own is not. A category with fewer than 5qualifying tools is not presented as a ranking at all: it is ordered by editorial review and the page says so.
Freshness
Figures are recomputed and republished on a schedule, and every listing states the cutoff of its own data. A figure on this site is a statement about a period that ended on a date, not a live counter. That is deliberate: a number that changes when you reload is harder to quote and harder to check than one with a date attached.
How to audit us
If you operate a listed tool, your own analytics should show referrals from clicktug.com carrying a ref=clicktug parameter. We link to your real URL rather than through a redirect, and we do not suppress the referrer, precisely so that this check is possible.
If your number and ours differ by more than twenty percent, write tohello@clicktug.com and we will publish the reconciliation.
Privacy
No cookies, no identifiers stored on your device, no third-party analytics, and no raw IP address is ever stored. The visitor value used to deduplicate clicks is a one-way hash salted with a secret that changes daily, so it cannot be linked across days or reversed. Theprivacy policy sets this out in full.
Changes to these rules
When an exclusion rule changes, affected figures are restated and the change is recorded with its date. Rule changes are the reason excluded events are marked rather than deleted.
- 7 Aug 2026Version 1. Initial counting rules, as described on this page.
Methodology questions
Can a listed tool check ClickTug's numbers against their own?
Yes, and we would like them to. Our outbound links are direct links to the vendor's own URL carrying a ref=clicktug parameter, and we do not suppress the referrer, so our referrals appear in any normal analytics package. If your figure and ours differ by more than twenty percent, tell us and we will publish the reconciliation.
Why does ClickTug count VPN traffic?
Because a large share of genuine visitors to adult AI tools use a commercial VPN, and commercial VPN exit points sit on datacentre networks. Excluding datacentre traffic would look rigorous and would remove a substantial number of real people from the count. We record the network and judge concentration across a whole day instead of dropping traffic on sight.
Are ClickTug's figures complete?
No, and they are not meant to be. A click is counted in the browser on a real user gesture, so a visitor with JavaScript disabled follows the same link and is not counted. Every published figure is a floor rather than a ceiling. We would rather undercount than estimate, because the moment one number here is modelled, every number here is.
Does paying ClickTug change a tool's numbers or position?
No. There is no paid placement in any ranking on this site. Some outbound links carry a partner parameter and are marked as such on the listing that carries them; those clicks are counted exactly like everyone else's. That is a stronger position than excluding partner clicks would be, and it is the true one.
What happens to a figure if you change an exclusion rule?
It is restated, and the restatement is dated. Excluded events are marked rather than deleted precisely so that a rule change can be applied backwards to the data it should have applied to. A published figure that can never be audited because the underlying rows are gone is not a figure anyone should trust.