AI search statistics (2026)
26 numbers on how people use AI search, what happens to clicks, and how AI crawlers treat websites. Every figure links to the company or researcher that measured it.
How many people use AI search and assistants?
Usage figures as reported by the companies that run the products.
1.2 billion+
People who use ChatGPT each week, according to OpenAI.
1 billion+
ChatGPT weekly active users, as OpenAI reported at the end of August 2026.
2.5 billion+
Monthly users of Google's AI Overviews in search.
1 billion+
Monthly active users of Google's AI Mode, which Google expanded globally in October 2025.
950 million
Monthly active users of the Gemini app.
What happens to clicks when AI answers appear?
Studies of real search behaviour. They show correlation, and each measured a different sample.
8% vs 15%
Share of Google visits where users clicked a traditional result, with an AI summary versus without one.
Browsing data from 900 U.S. adults, March 2025.
1%
Share of visits to results pages with an AI summary that included a click on a link inside the summary.
Same Pew study, 900 U.S. adults, March 2025.
26% vs 16%
Share of pages where browsing sessions ended: pages with an AI summary versus pages with only traditional results.
58% lower
Average click-through rate for the top-ranking page when an AI Overview is present.
300,000 keywords, December 2023 compared with December 2025. Correlation, not proven cause.
82.91%
Share of U.S. desktop Google results for branded searches that showed an AI Overview on 29 September 2026.
The September 2026 monthly average was 73.3%. Based on 232.8 million results crawls.
How are people changing the way they search?
Surveys of consumers. People report their own habits, which may differ from what they do.
60%
U.S. adults who say they have read the AI summaries at the top of search results.
30% say they have not and 10% are not sure. Survey of 17 to 23 February 2026.
82%
Consumers who have noticed AI Overviews in search results.
Gartner consumer survey, July and August 2025.
51%
Consumers who say their research habits have changed because of generative AI.
Of those, 71% changed how they phrase queries.
31% vs 7%
Consumers who consider more product options because of AI overviews, versus those who consider fewer.
About 1 in 3
Consumers who believe generative AI chatbots are as effective as search engines for learning new information.
Does AI send traffic and sales to websites?
AI referrals are still small next to search, but they are growing fast and tend to convert well.
+127%
Year-over-year growth in AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites in August 2026.
Adobe projects 130% growth over the 2026 holiday season.
40% better
How much better shoppers arriving from AI converted than non-AI channels during Prime Day 2026.
23 to 26 June 2026. A year earlier, AI traffic converted 23% worse.
+235%
Year-over-year growth in AI traffic to U.S. retail sites from January to May 2026.
Measured by shoppers clicking a link.
+693.4%
Year-over-year growth in traffic to U.S. retail sites from generative AI tools over the 2025 holiday season.
1 November to 31 December 2025.
4.4x
How valuable the average AI search visitor is compared with the average traditional organic visitor, based on conversion rate.
AI visitors here are those arriving from non-Google AI sources such as ChatGPT.
How much do AI crawlers take, and send back?
Cloudflare measures AI bot traffic across the sites on its network.
38,065.7 : 1
Pages Anthropic's crawlers requested for every visit Anthropic referred back, in July 2025.
Down from 286,930.1 in January 2025.
1,091.4 : 1
Pages OpenAI's crawlers requested for every visit OpenAI referred back, in July 2025.
Perplexity's ratio was 194.8 and Google's 5.4 in the same month.
1 July 2025
The date Cloudflare began asking every new domain whether to allow AI crawlers, starting with access restricted.
What did analysts predict?
Forecasts are not measurements. We list them with their date so you can judge them against the data above.
25%
Drop in traditional search engine volume by 2026 that Gartner predicted, as AI chatbots take queries.
A prediction made in February 2024, not a measured result.
How we pick these numbers
- Only figures published by the organisation that measured them: the company, survey or study itself. No stats aggregators.
- Each figure is quoted as the source states it, with its scope and date. Studies show correlation unless they say otherwise.
- Forecasts are labelled as forecasts. When a source publishes a newer number, we replace the old one.
Cite this page
Use any figure with a link to its original source. A link back here helps others find the full list.
<a href="https://webvalet.app/ai-search-statistics">AI search statistics, WebValet</a>
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