ChatGPT at 20% of Google's searches: how to read the figure and what to do
OpenAI says ChatGPT handles one-fifth of Google's searches. What counts as a search, what independent estimates and Google say, and what changes for your brand.
In short
On 2 November 2026 OpenAI's Adam Fry said that search volume on ChatGPT is roughly one-fifth of Google's. Handle the number with care: OpenAI counts any question that triggers a web search as a "search", gave no source for the Google figure, and independent estimates from a year ago put ChatGPT at 4% to 12%. In the same quarter Google reported its highest query growth in five years. For a brand the point is not who wins: in both engines the answer arrives before the click, so what you need to measure is presence in answers, not only traffic.
- OpenAI puts ChatGPT's searches at about one-fifth of Google's, but gave no method and no source for the Google figure.
- For OpenAI a search is any question that triggers a web search: a wider unit than the one used to count Google queries.
- In the same period Google reports its highest query growth in five years: the two engines are growing together, not one at the other's expense.
- Only 6.8% of US ChatGPT prompts show citations: most searches on ChatGPT end in the answer, not on a website.
- The metric to follow is how many answers name your brand for your sector's questions, on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode.
Written by the Geosnap AI agent, reviewed and approved by Rinald Sefa.
Translated from the Italian original. Read the original
On 2 November 2026 OpenAI said that search volume on ChatGPT is now roughly one-fifth of Google's. The line is travelling fast, and it deserves a careful read: who said it, what counts as a "search", what independent estimates say and what Google reported for the same period. At the end you will find what changes for a brand and which numbers to track, because the point is not which engine wins. In both, the answer now arrives before the click.
What did OpenAI actually say?
That ChatGPT's volume of "search-like queries" is about one-fifth of Google's query volume. The speaker was Adam Fry, ChatGPT's consumer product lead, during a short fireside chat at an OpenAI dinner in New York on Monday 2 November, reported by Big Technology and 9to5Google. His exact words: "ChatGPT's volume of search-like queries is now roughly one-fifth the volume of queries of Google." He added that the figure is remarkable because search in ChatGPT has existed for about a year and a half.
The same evening Fry gave two more numbers that set the scale: ChatGPT went from 1 billion to 1.2 billion weekly active users in the last two months, and ads passed 1 billion dollars in annualised revenue within 200 days. What he did not say matters just as much. He gave no method for the ratio, no time period, and no source for Google's volume, which Google does not publish. For comparison, 9to5Google notes that Bing remains at a single-digit share.
What counts as a "search" for OpenAI?
Any question that triggers a web search. Asked directly by Alex Kantrowitz whether each of 20 prompts in one conversation counts as a query, Fry answered: "Every time you ask a question and go search the web, that's a search." He described it as "anything that a user would have traditionally gone to a traditional search engine for, but is now deciding to go to ChatGPT for." Help with writing or coding does not count; finance or health questions do, because they trigger a web search.
That is a legitimate definition, but it is not the unit used to count Google queries. In a long conversation on one topic, ChatGPT may run several web searches in a row, sometimes for a single question; on Google a query is one line typed into the box. When you weigh "one-fifth", remember you are comparing two different ways of counting.
Do independent estimates say the same?
No: they land lower, but they are a year old. The Peec AI analysis from October 2025 reaches different estimates depending on the method. Starting from OpenAI's own research on ChatGPT usage (2.5 billion prompts a day, 24% of them classified as information seeking) gives about 600 million searches a day, or 4.3% of the roughly 14 billion estimated for Google. Starting from clicks to websites instead, and correcting for the fact that ChatGPT answers without a click, the estimate rises to 4.6% and "up to 12%". Peec's bottom line: Google is 8 to 22 times bigger by search volume.
| Who says it | What it measures | Result |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI (Adam Fry, 2 November 2026) | Questions that trigger a web search on ChatGPT, against Google's queries | About one-fifth (20%) |
| Peec AI (October 2025), "information-seeking prompts" method | Prompts classified as information seeking, against 14 billion Google queries a day | 4.3% |
| Peec AI (October 2025), "adjusted clicks" method | Clicks to websites, adjusted for the lower click rate of AI answers | 4.6% to 12% |
A year passed between the two measurements, and ChatGPT grew a lot in that year, so today's real figure probably sits between them. There is one more number to put on the table: Google is not shrinking. In his remarks on third-quarter 2026 results on 28 October, Sundar Pichai said that year-over-year query growth is the highest in the last five years, that AI Mode queries are on average three times longer than traditional searches, and that one in five AI Mode searches uses voice, images or documents. The market for questions is getting bigger: ChatGPT takes a new slice while Google keeps growing.
Why a search on ChatGPT is not a visit to your site
Because in most cases the answer settles the question inside the chat. According to Similarweb, in May 2026 only 6.8% of US ChatGPT prompts included a citation, up from 1.6% in June 2025. The share varies widely by sector: about 23% in travel and hospitality, about 20% in automotive, under 4% in professional services. If you run a travel agency, a search on ChatGPT has a fair chance of showing a link; if you sell consulting, almost none.
Even where links exist, the traffic stays small next to Google. The seoClarity study shows that after inline links appeared in answers (7 May 2026), referral traffic from ChatGPT rose 130% in one month and total referrals from AI assistants rose 110%. Yet, as we saw reading the October studies, AI visits are still worth between 1% and 4% of Google organic sessions for most sites. One-fifth of searches does not become one-fifth of traffic: the gap is the value that stays inside the answer. Similarweb also estimates that a mention in an AI answer makes a later site visit 2.5 times more likely, by another route.
Google is becoming an answer engine too, with ads
Yes, and it is moving the same way as ChatGPT. Similarweb calculates that AI Overviews now appear in more than 43% of US searches. On the earnings call, as Search Engine Journal reports, Google's chief business officer Philipp Schindler said that strong query growth in AI Mode had weighed on search revenue growth because monetisation in AI Mode is lower. Google's response is more ads: AI Mode ads in ten countries, with the UK, Brazil and Mexico planned for the fourth quarter, and internal data showing that click-through rates on product ads in AI Mode are already similar to organic results.
On the other side, Similarweb finds that about 26% of ChatGPT responses now contain an ad, and OpenAI, as noted, reports more than 1 billion dollars in annualised ad revenue. If you want to see how the two ad systems reach your market, we have collected the countries and timelines for ads in AI Mode. The picture for a marketer is this: two engines, both growing, both answering before they send a click, both with paid space inside the answer.
What changes for your brand, and what to measure
The unit of measurement changes: from clicks to presence in answers. If one-fifth of the questions in your market already go through ChatGPT (or even one-tenth) and most of them are settled without a link, your Google Analytics traffic does not tell you how visible you are. There are three numbers to follow, in this order.
- How many answers you appear in. Take the questions people ask when they look for a supplier like you (here is how to choose them) and check how many answers name your brand, on ChatGPT, on Gemini and on Google AI Mode, because the audience is split across the three. That is the work Geosnap does: it repeats the same questions over time and tells you how many answers you appear in and which ones you are missing from.
- Which sources are cited instead of you. When you are absent, someone else is present: a trade publication, a comparison page, a forum. That list is your editorial and outreach plan for the coming months.
- AI traffic in GA4, as a control signal. It tells you whether mentions turn into visits and conversions, with the caveats we have already covered: small numbers, imperfect labelling, comparisons only over long periods.
On the content side nothing needs tearing up. The pages AI engines pick up are the ones that answer at once and verifiably, with data, prices, comparisons and a clear "About us" page. If your sector is one where ChatGPT shows few links, such as professional services, the mention of your name inside the answer is the only visibility you get: make sure the brand is written consistently everywhere, from your site to directory listings, so the answer recognises it and names it.
OpenAI's figure may be an overestimate, and we will only know when someone measures it independently. But even halved, one-tenth of Google's searches moving to a place where your site is not clicked is enough to change what you measure every month.
Sources
- OpenAI: ChatGPT Search Is About 20% of Google's, 250 Million People Speak With ChatGPT, and Chat Is Merging With Work (Big Technology, 2026-11-03)
- ChatGPT has hit roughly 20% of Google Search volume, OpenAI says (9to5Google, 2026-11-03)
- Q3 2026 earnings call: Remarks from our CEO (Google (The Keyword), 2026-10-28)
- Google Says Lower AI Mode Monetization Weighed On Search Growth (Search Engine Journal, 2026-10-28)
- ChatGPT vs Google: the real search market share (Peec AI, 2025-10-01)
- AI Search Stats 2026: Market Share, Referral, and Citation Data (Similarweb, 2026-09-17)
- ChatGPT's Linked Brand Mentions Surge AI Referral Traffic to Websites (seoClarity, 2026-07-30)
Frequently asked questions
Does ChatGPT really have 20% of Google's searches?
That is what OpenAI's Adam Fry stated on 2 November 2026, without explaining the method or the source of the Google figure. Independent estimates by Peec AI, from October 2025, put ChatGPT between 4% and 12% of Google's volume. Today's real value probably sits in between: treat it as an order of magnitude, not a precise measurement.
Is Google losing searches to ChatGPT?
Public data says no. On 28 October 2026 Sundar Pichai said Google's year-over-year query growth is the highest in five years, with longer queries and more use of AI Mode. The two facts coexist: people ask more questions overall, and a new share of those questions goes through ChatGPT.
If ChatGPT answers without links, how do I know whether it mentions my brand?
You have to ask the questions yourself. Pick the typical questions in your sector, repeat them at regular intervals on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode, and record how many answers name you, in which position and with which sources. In sectors with few citations, such as professional services, the brand mention is the only visibility you can measure.
Is it worth investing in ads on ChatGPT and in AI Mode already?
It depends on your market and on the countries where the ads are live. OpenAI reports more than 1 billion dollars in annualised ad revenue and about 26% of answers contain one; Google is extending AI Mode ads to new countries and says click-through rates are similar to organic. Before you spend, measure your organic visibility in answers: it tells you which questions you need to buy space on and which you do not.