A data analysis of how many people now search with AI, what AI answers do to clicks, where AI referral traffic goes, and which pages AI engines cite, as of October 2026.
AI search is now the default, not an experiment. Google says AI Overviews reach over 2.5 billion users a month and AI Mode passed 1 billion monthly users about a year after launch, per its June 2026 investor presentation. OpenAI counts 1.2 billion weekly users in its DevDay 2026 recap. The cost for websites shows up in the click data: when a Google AI summary appears, users click a regular result in 8% of visits instead of 15%, per Pew Research Center. The numbers below cover usage, clicks, referrals and citations, then what to do about them.
Key takeaways
- AI Overviews reach over 2.5 billion people a month and AI Mode has passed 1 billion monthly users (Google)
- ChatGPT has 1.2 billion weekly users, up from 900 million in February 2026 (OpenAI)
- The Gemini app has 950 million monthly active users, more than double its 450 million in mid-2025 (Google)
- 42% of US adults use chatbots to search for information, the top use, and 60% read AI summaries at the top of search results (Pew Research Center)
- Clicks on regular results nearly halve when a Google AI summary appears (8% vs 15% of visits), and only 1% of visits click a link inside the summary (Pew)
- AI Overviews correlate with a 58% lower click-through rate for the top-ranking page, up from 34.5% a year earlier (Ahrefs)
- AI platforms sent 770.7 million referral visits a month, up 117.4% year over year (Similarweb)
- ChatGPT’s share of AI chatbot web visits fell from about 76% to 53% in a year as Gemini and Claude grew (Similarweb)
- Only 12% of links cited by ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot rank in Google’s top 10 for the same prompt (Ahrefs)
How many people use AI search?
Google runs the largest AI search product by far. AI Overviews have over 2.5 billion users each month, per Alphabet’s June 2026 investor presentation, up from over 2 billion a year earlier. ChatGPT is the largest standalone assistant, with 1.2 billion weekly users per OpenAI.
- AI Overviews: over 2.5 billion monthly users in June 2026, per Google.
- AI Overviews: over 2 billion monthly users across more than 200 countries and territories and 40 languages in July 2025, per Sundar Pichai’s Q2 2025 remarks.
- AI Mode: over 1 billion monthly active users since its global expansion in October 2025, per Google’s Q2 2026 earnings remarks. It had over 100 million monthly users in the US and India in July 2025 and over 75 million daily users in Q3 2025.
- ChatGPT: 1.2 billion weekly users at DevDay on September 29, 2026, per OpenAI. A separate OpenAI post puts its products at more than one billion weekly active users and 2.5 million businesses.
- ChatGPT: more than 900 million weekly active users and more than 50 million consumer subscribers in February 2026, per OpenAI, up from 700 million weekly users during its 2025 usage study.
- Gemini app: 950 million monthly active users, with daily active users tripling in a year, per Google’s Q2 2026 remarks.
- Gemini app growth: 450 million (Q2 2025), 650 million (Q3 2025), 750 million (Q4 2025) monthly active users, per Google’s Q2, Q3 and Q4 2025 remarks.
- Perplexity Computer: cumulative queries reached 84 times their first-week total by May 27, 2026, per Perplexity. We found no current company-wide query or user count published by Perplexity itself, so we do not give one.
- Bing and Edge have taken share for five straight years, per Microsoft’s FY26 Q4 earnings call; Microsoft’s search advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs grew 10% that quarter, per its results release.
What it means: the audience for AI answers is not a niche of early adopters. Most people meet AI search inside Google, which already showed them an AI answer before they chose an AI tool.
How do people use AI for search?
Search is the most common reason Americans use chatbots. 42% of US adults say they use chatbots to search for information, ahead of work tasks (38% of employed adults), per Pew Research Center’s February 2026 survey of 5,119 adults.
- 49% of US adults now use AI chatbots, up from 33% in 2024, per Pew.
- 24% of US adults use chatbots daily, including 12% several times a day and 4% almost constantly, per the same survey.
- 13% of US adults use chatbots to get news, per the same survey.
- 60% of US adults say they read AI summaries at the top of search results; 30% say they do not and 10% are not sure, per the same survey.
- 44% of US adults have used ChatGPT, up from 34% a year earlier; Gemini is at 24%, Copilot 17%, Meta AI 14%, Grok 8% and Claude 6%, per Pew.
- Adults under 50 are about twice as likely to use ChatGPT as those 50 and older (57% vs 28%), per Pew.
- “Seeking Information” grew from 14% to 24% of ChatGPT messages between July 2024 and July 2025, and OpenAI’s researchers call it “a very close substitute for web search,” per the OpenAI/NBER usage paper.
- 49% of ChatGPT messages are “Asking” (seeking advice or information) and about 70% of consumer use is non-work, per OpenAI’s analysis of 1.5 million conversations.
- ChatGPT users send 50% more messages per day six months after signing up, per OpenAI.
- AI Mode queries are three times longer than traditional searches, and nearly one in six are voice or image queries, per Google’s Q4 2025 remarks. In the US, daily AI Mode queries per user doubled since launch.
- AI Overviews drive over 10% more queries for the types of queries that show them, per Google’s Q2 2025 remarks.
Do AI Overviews reduce clicks?
Yes, on the evidence available. Pew tracked the real browsing of 900 US adults and found users clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits to pages with an AI summary, against 15% without one, in its July 2025 analysis. Ahrefs measures a 58% lower click-through rate for the top-ranking page when an AI Overview shows, in its 2026 update. Google’s side of the story is different: it says AI features send “billions of clicks to websites every week” but does not publish a click-through rate.
- 8% vs 15%: share of visits with a click on a traditional result, with and without an AI summary, per Pew (68,879 Google searches by 900 adults in March 2025).
- 1% of visits to pages with an AI summary included a click on a link inside the summary, per the same study.
- 26% vs 16%: share of pages where users ended their browsing session, with and without an AI summary, per the same study.
- 58% lower click-through rate for position one when an AI Overview is present (December 2025 data, 300,000 keywords), per Ahrefs. Average position-one CTR on those keywords fell from 0.073 to 0.016.
- 34.5% lower in Ahrefs’ first run of the same study a year earlier (March 2025 data), per Ahrefs. The effect grew as AI Overviews spread.
- The click loss reaches down the page: -50.8% for position 2, -46.4% for position 3 and -19.4% for position 10, per Ahrefs.
- A counterpoint on zero-click searches: Semrush found the zero-click rate on the same keywords went from 33.75% to 31.53% after they started showing AI Overviews, per its 10M+ keyword study with Datos clickstream data. Pew and Ahrefs measure clicks to results; Semrush measures whether any click happens.
- Google: “billions of clicks to websites every week” through AI features in Search, per Google’s Q2 2026 remarks. Google does not publish a click-through rate for AI Overviews.
- Gartner predicted in February 2024 that traditional search engine volume would drop 25% by 2026, per its press release. Google instead reports Search queries at an all-time high in Q1 2026, so query volume has not fallen; clicks per query are the pressure point.
| Position | CTR change when an AI Overview shows |
|---|---|
| 1 | -58.0% |
| 2 | -50.8% |
| 3 | -46.4% |
| 4 | -38.8% |
| 10 | -19.4% |
Source: Ahrefs, Update: AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 58%. December 2023 vs December 2025, average desktop CTR from aggregated Search Console data.
To see how often your own keywords trigger AI Overviews and whether you are cited, compare the trackers in our best AI Overviews tracking tools guide.
How often do AI Overviews appear?
It depends on whose keyword set you use. Pew found 18% of real Google searches produced an AI summary in March 2025. Semrush’s 10M+ keyword study saw the rate swing from 6.49% in January 2025 to 24.61% in July and 15.69% in November 2025, and its Sensor now shows AI Overviews on over 50% of queries.
- 18% of Google searches by Pew’s panel produced an AI summary (12,593 of 68,879), and 58% of panelists saw at least one in March 2025, per Pew.
- Longer searches trigger more AI summaries: 8% of one- or two-word searches vs 53% of searches with 10 or more words, and 60% of searches that start with a question word, per the same study.
- 6.49% (January 2025) to 24.61% (July) to 15.69% (November): share of keywords showing AI Overviews in Semrush’s study.
- Over 50% of queries show AI Overviews in Semrush Sensor as of August 2026, per Semrush. Similarweb puts the US appearance rate at 43% or more.
- AI Overviews moved beyond informational queries: the informational share of triggering queries fell from 91.3% to 57.1% between January and October 2025, and navigational queries triggering them rose from 0.74% to 10.33%, per Semrush.
- Google Ads appear at the bottom of 25% of AI Overview results pages, up from less than 1% in March 2025, per Semrush.
- 99.2% of keywords that trigger AI Overviews are informational, in Ahrefs’ March 2025 sample, per Ahrefs. Semrush’s later data shows that share falling.
How much traffic do AI platforms send to websites?
AI platforms drove an average of 770.7 million referral visits a month worldwide between June 2025 and May 2026, up 117.4% year over year, per Similarweb’s 2026 Generative AI Landscape data. That is still small next to Google, but every industry Similarweb tracks at least doubled.
- 770.7 million average monthly AI referral visits, +117.4%, per Similarweb.
- Marketplaces lead with 46.8 million monthly AI referral visits; News and Travel follow at 44.5 million each, per the same report.
- Beauty is the fastest-growing category, up 312.5%, with Fashion at 278.2%, per the same report.
- ChatGPT accounted for more than 80% of AI referrals to the top 1,000 global domains in Similarweb’s mid-2025 analysis, per the same report.
- ChatGPT’s share of generative AI web visits fell from about 76% to roughly 53% between June 2025 and May 2026, while Gemini rose from under 9% to about 27-28% and Claude from barely 2% to close to 9%, per Similarweb.
- 9.5 billion average monthly visits to generative AI platforms (+70%) from 655 million unique visitors (+57%), and 4.4 billion app downloads (+58%), per the same report.
- ChatGPT homepage referrals rose from about 26-29% to 62-63% of its referral traffic after its May 2026 clickable brand-link update, per the same report.
What it means: tracking one assistant is no longer enough. Our best AI visibility tools guide compares trackers that cover ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s AI features together.
Which pages do AI engines cite?
AI engines increasingly cite pages that do not rank. Only 12% of links cited by ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot appear in Google’s top 10 for the same prompt, across 15,000 prompts, per Ahrefs. For Google’s own AI Overviews, the top-10 share fell from 76% in July 2025 to 38% in March 2026 in Ahrefs’ data.
- 37.9% of URLs cited in AI Overviews also rank in the top 10; 31.2% rank 11-100 and 31.0% rank beyond 100, per Ahrefs’ March 2026 update. Its July 2025 study had found 76%; Ahrefs says it has since improved its citation parsing, so part of the drop may be measurement.
- 80% of citations in AI assistants don’t rank anywhere in Google for the original query, per Ahrefs.
- Wikipedia, YouTube and Reddit made up 15% of sources in Google AI summaries, and .gov sites 6% (vs 2% in standard results), per Pew. 88% of summaries cited three or more sources.
- Citations appeared in about 6.8% of US ChatGPT prompts by May 2026, up from 1.6% in June 2025, per Similarweb. Travel prompts carried a citation about 23% of the time.
For tools that track citations and brand mentions across engines, see our best GEO tools and best AI SEO tools guides.
Is AI search becoming an ad channel?
Yes. Roughly 26% of ChatGPT responses now contain an ad, per Similarweb’s 2026 report, and Google shows ads at the bottom of a quarter of AI Overview pages, per Semrush.
- About 26% of ChatGPT responses contain an ad, per Similarweb.
- WeightWatchers’ cost per acquisition on ChatGPT Ads was 15.3% lower than its blended paid-search benchmark, as measured by DV Rockerbox and published by OpenAI. This is one advertiser’s result, published by the platform selling the ads.
- Google Search & Other revenue grew 17% in Q2 2026 and 19% in Q1 2026, per Google’s Q2 and Q1 2026 remarks. AI answers have not shrunk Google’s search business so far.
What to do with this data
- Track AI visibility next to rankings. With AI Overviews on 18% to 50%+ of queries depending on the dataset, a ranking report alone misses where users now get answers.
- Expect fewer clicks per ranking on informational pages. Plan for top-position CTR to drop by a third to more than half where AI Overviews show, and judge content by citations and assisted conversions, not just sessions.
- Do not optimize for one assistant. ChatGPT’s share of AI web traffic fell to about 53%, and Gemini is above a quarter.
- Earn citations beyond page one. Most AI citations come from pages outside Google’s top 10, so clear, specific, factual pages can be cited even before they rank.
- Watch referrals by landing page. ChatGPT referrals now land on homepages more than 60% of the time, so brand and homepage messaging matter more.
- Write for longer questions. AI Mode queries are three times longer than traditional searches; answer full questions, not just keywords.
Compare the tools that measure this in our best AI visibility tools, best GEO tools and best AI Overviews tracking tools guides, or browse the SEO tools category. Related data: SEO statistics, ChatGPT statistics, AI chatbot statistics and Claude statistics.
Frequently asked questions
How many people use Google AI Overviews?
Google says AI Overviews have over 2.5 billion users each month, per its June 2026 investor presentation. In July 2025 the figure was over 2 billion monthly users across more than 200 countries and territories and 40 languages.
How many people use ChatGPT for search?
OpenAI reported 1.2 billion weekly ChatGPT users at DevDay on September 29, 2026. OpenAI’s usage research found “Seeking Information” grew from 14% to 24% of ChatGPT messages between July 2024 and July 2025, and Pew found 42% of US adults use chatbots to search for information.
How many people use Google AI Mode?
Google said AI Mode surpassed 1 billion monthly active users in its Q2 2026 earnings remarks, after expanding globally in October 2025. It had over 75 million daily active users in Q3 2025.
Do AI Overviews reduce website traffic?
The evidence says they reduce clicks per search. Pew found users clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits with an AI summary versus 15% without, and Ahrefs measured a 58% lower click-through rate for the top-ranking page when an AI Overview shows. Google says its AI features still send billions of clicks to websites every week.
How much traffic does ChatGPT send to websites?
Similarweb measured 770.7 million AI platform referral visits per month worldwide between June 2025 and May 2026, up 117.4% year over year, with ChatGPT the largest source. It found ChatGPT accounted for more than 80% of AI referrals to the top 1,000 global domains in mid-2025.
What share of Google searches show an AI Overview?
It depends on the sample. Pew found 18% of real Google searches by its panel produced an AI summary in March 2025. Semrush’s keyword study measured 15.69% in November 2025, and Semrush Sensor showed AI Overviews on over 50% of queries in August 2026.
Which AI search engine is growing fastest?
By share of AI web traffic, Gemini and Claude. Similarweb found Gemini rose from under 9% to about 27-28% of generative AI web visits between June 2025 and May 2026, and Claude from about 2% to close to 9%, while ChatGPT fell from about 76% to 53%.
How we compiled these statistics
We retrieved every figure in this article from its publisher’s page on October 6, 2026: Google’s earnings remarks and investor presentation on blog.google, OpenAI’s announcements and usage research, Perplexity’s research blog, Microsoft’s earnings release and call, Pew Research Center, Ahrefs, Semrush, Similarweb and Gartner. Third-party figures (Ahrefs, Semrush, Similarweb) are those companies’ studies of their own datasets, attributed by name. Company user counts are self-reported, and Google’s monthly figures and OpenAI’s weekly figures use different windows, so they are not directly comparable. Figures we could only find secondhand, including press estimates of Perplexity’s 2026 query volume, a Bain & Company survey we could not retrieve, and studies cited inside other reports (Adobe, Seer Interactive, Authoritas), were left out. The provenance ledger lists 95 data points with verbatim quotes.
Sources
- Google: Alphabet investor presentation, June 2026
- Google: Alphabet Q2 2026 earnings, Sundar Pichai’s remarks
- Google: Alphabet Q1 2026 earnings, Sundar Pichai’s remarks
- Google: Alphabet Q4 2025 earnings, CEO’s remarks
- Google: Alphabet Q3 2025 earnings, CEO’s remarks
- Google: Alphabet Q2 2025 earnings, CEO’s remarks
- OpenAI: DevDay 2026 recap
- OpenAI: The work now within reach (2026)
- OpenAI: Scaling AI for everyone (2026)
- OpenAI: How people are using ChatGPT (2025)
- OpenAI Economic Research: How People Use ChatGPT (NBER working paper, 2025)
- OpenAI: How ChatGPT adoption has expanded (2026)
- OpenAI: Building advertising for the way people use AI (2026)
- Perplexity: How AI agents reshape knowledge work (2026)
- Microsoft: FY26 Q4 earnings conference call
- Microsoft: Fourth quarter FY26 results
- Pew Research Center: Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears (2025)
- Pew Research Center: Americans and AI 2026
- Pew Research Center: Americans report using ChatGPT far more than other chatbots (2026)
- Ahrefs: Update: AI Overviews reduce clicks by 58% (2026)
- Ahrefs: AI Overviews reduce clicks by 34.5% (2025)
- Ahrefs: 76% of AI Overview citations pull from the top 10 (2025)
- Ahrefs: Update: 38% of AI Overview citations pull from the top 10 (2026)
- Ahrefs: Only 12% of AI cited URLs rank in Google’s top 10 (2025)
- Semrush: AI Overviews’ impact on search in 2025
- Semrush: How to track AI Overviews (2026)
- Similarweb: AI search stats in 2026
- Similarweb: AI referral traffic by industry, 2026 data
- Gartner: Search engine volume will drop 25% by 2026 (2024 prediction)