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Machine readout · Software & AI

AI Search Statistics 2026

This page collects figures on AI-powered search: how many people see Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, how often those summaries appear, how many searches end without a click, how much AI answers cut click-through rates, how much traffic ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and other assistants send to websites, and how much AI platforms crawl compared with what they refer. Sources include Pew Research Center, the Reuters Institute, Alphabet earnings calls, Similarweb, SparkToro, Ahrefs, Semrush, Seer Interactive, Adobe Digital Insights, Bain, Cloudflare and Gartner. Most figures describe the United States or worldwide traffic in 2025 and 2026, and each is labeled with its year.

Figures
54
Publishers
20
Updated
Nov 13, 2026

Quotable findings

By the DBotMaker research desk

  1. Finding 012026
    One billion

    Google's AI Mode passed one billion monthly active users by July 2026, about nine months after it expanded globally, according to Alphabet.

    Source: Alphabet

  2. Finding 022026
    Six in ten

    Six in ten U.S. adults said in February 2026 that they read AI summaries at the top of search engine results, while three in ten said they do not.

    Source: Pew Research Center

  3. Finding 032026
    68.01%

    68.01% of U.S. Google searches ended without a click in January to April 2026, based on Similarweb's desktop and mobile clickstream panel.

    Source: SparkToro

  4. Finding 042025
    58%

    The presence of an AI Overview correlated with a 58% lower average click-through rate for the top-ranking page in Ahrefs' December 2025 data on 300,000 keywords.

    Source: Ahrefs

  5. Finding 052025
    8%

    Users who saw an AI summary clicked a traditional search result in 8% of visits, against 15% for users who did not see one, in Pew's March 2025 panel.

    Source: Pew Research Center

  6. Finding 062026
    770.7 million

    AI platforms drove an average of 770.7 million referral visits a month worldwide between June 2025 and May 2026, up 117.4% from the year before.

    Source: Similarweb

  7. Finding 072026
    60%

    AI-referred visitors to U.S. retail sites converted at a rate 60% higher than non-AI traffic in July 2026, up from 54% in May 2026.

    Source: Adobe Digital Insights

  8. Finding 082026
    4%

    Just 4% of respondents across 27 markets said they always or often click through to news sources from AI, compared with 19% from search and 17% from social media, in 2026.

    Source: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

  9. On file54figures in 7 channels, each with the exact source sentence.Browse allCSV

THE BOT'S SHORT ANSWER

Google's AI Mode passed one billion monthly users in 2026, and 60% of U.S. adults read AI summaries in search results, according to Alphabet and Pew Research Center. SparkToro's analysis of Similarweb data found 68% of U.S. Google searches ended without a click in early 2026, Ahrefs links AI Overviews to a 58% lower click-through rate for the top result, and Similarweb counts 770.7 million AI referral visits a month worldwide.

54 FIGURES · 20 PUBLISHERS · NOVEMBER 13, 2026

Reading the numbers

AI answers inside search now reach most internet users without any choice on their part. Alphabet says AI Mode passed one billion monthly users within about nine months of its global launch, Pew Research Center found 60% of U.S. adults read AI summaries at the top of search results in 2026, and the Reuters Institute found 57% of people across nine countries saw AI answers in search in the past week. That reach is larger than standalone chatbot use, which the Reuters Institute put at 51% weekly across six countries.

The cost shows up in clicks. SparkToro's analysis of Similarweb's U.S. panel puts zero-click Google searches at 68% in early 2026, up from 60% in 2024. Pew found that people who see an AI summary click a result in 8% of visits against 15% without one, and Ahrefs links AI Overviews to a 58% lower click-through rate for the top-ranked page. Seer Interactive found organic click-through on AI Overview queries partly recovered in early 2026, so the size of the effect is still moving.

AI referral traffic is growing quickly from a small base. Similarweb counts 770.7 million AI referral visits a month worldwide, more than double a year earlier, and Adobe Digital Insights reports AI-driven visits to U.S. retail sites up 62% year over year in July 2026, with those visitors converting 60% better than other traffic. Those visits remain small next to Google, and the Reuters Institute found only 4% of people often click from AI tools to news sources.

Search itself has not shrunk. Gartner forecast in 2024 that traditional search volume would fall 25% by 2026, yet Alphabet reported its fastest query growth in five years and a 12% rise in search advertising revenue in the third quarter of 2026. Cloudflare's data point to the underlying tension for publishers: AI platforms such as Anthropic and OpenAI crawl thousands of pages for each visitor they send back, while Google's ratio stays far lower.

Facts the bot knows

CH 01How many people see AI Overviews and AI Mode

9 figures
  1. #001One billion

    Google's AI Mode passed one billion monthly active users by July 2026, about nine months after it expanded globally, according to Alphabet.

    Alphabet, Alphabet Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript (Jul 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    Since expanding AI Mode globally last October, we've surpassed one billion monthly active users.
  2. #002Six in ten

    Six in ten U.S. adults said in February 2026 that they read AI summaries at the top of search engine results, while three in ten said they do not.

    Pew Research Center, Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on Impact (Jun 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    Our survey shows that six-in-ten U.S. adults say they read AI search engine summaries.
  3. #00357%

    57% of people across nine countries said they saw or engaged with AI-generated answers or summaries in search engines such as Google and Bing in the past week in 2026.

    Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Generative AI and News Report 2026 (Oct 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    In our survey, 57% across nine countries say they saw or engaged with AI-generated answers, summaries or assistants in search engines such as Google and Bing in the last week
  4. #00458%

    58% of U.S. adults in a browsing panel ran at least one Google search that produced an AI summary in March 2025.

    Pew Research Center, Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results (Jul 2025)

    Exact wording at the source
    About six-in-ten respondents (58%) conducted at least one Google search in March 2025 that produced an AI-generated summary.
  5. #0050.34%

    Only 0.34% of U.S. Google searches moved on to AI Mode between January and April 2026, based on Similarweb clickstream data analyzed by SparkToro.

    SparkToro, In 2026, Less than One Third of Google Searches Still Send a Click (Jun 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    Only 0.34% of searches made their way to AI Mode from January–April 2026.
  6. #006Three times longer

    Queries in Google's AI Mode were on average three times longer than traditional searches in the third quarter of 2026, according to Alphabet.

    Alphabet, Alphabet Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript (Oct 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    Queries in AI Mode are on average three times longer than traditional searches, and one in five AI Mode searches globally use voice, images or documents.
  7. #007One in five

    One in five AI Mode searches worldwide used voice, images or documents rather than typed text alone in the third quarter of 2026.

    Alphabet, Alphabet Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript (Oct 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    Queries in AI Mode are on average three times longer than traditional searches, and one in five AI Mode searches globally use voice, images or documents.
  8. #008Highest in five years

    Alphabet said in October 2026 that its year-over-year search query growth rate was the highest in five years, as AI features drove more usage.

    Alphabet, Alphabet Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript (Oct 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    In fact, our year-over-year query growth rate is the highest it's been in the last five years.
  9. #009$63.3 billion

    Google Search and other advertising revenue rose 12% year over year to $63.3 billion in the third quarter of 2026.

    Alphabet, Alphabet Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript (Oct 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    Google Search and other advertising revenues increased by 12% to $63.3 billion

CH 02How often AI summaries appear in search results

7 figures
  1. #01018%

    18% of Google searches by a U.S. adult browsing panel produced an AI summary in March 2025.

    Pew Research Center, Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results (Jul 2025)

    Exact wording at the source
    Some 18% of all the Google searches in our study generated an AI summary as part of the search results.
  2. #01124.61%

    AI Overviews appeared for 24.61% of keywords in Semrush's U.S. dataset in July 2025, up from 6.49% in January, before falling to 15.69% in November.

    Semrush, Semrush AI Overviews Study (Dec 2025)

    Exact wording at the source
    AI Overviews were triggered for 24.61% of queries in July
  3. #01257.1%

    The share of queries triggering an AI Overview that were informational fell from 91.3% in January 2025 to 57.1% in October 2025, as commercial and transactional summaries grew.

    Semrush, Semrush AI Overviews Study (Dec 2025)

    Exact wording at the source
    In January, 91.3% of queries that trigger an AI Overview were informational. By October, that share was down to 57.1%, and the share of commercial and transactional AIOs rose.
  4. #01310.33%

    Navigational searches that trigger an AI Overview rose from 0.74% in January 2025 to 10.33% in October 2025 in Semrush's dataset.

    Semrush, Semrush AI Overviews Study (Dec 2025)

    Exact wording at the source
    The number of navigational searches that trigger AI Overviews has skyrocketed—from 0.74% in January to 10.33% in October.
  5. #01471%

    The share of commercial-intent results pages showing an AI Overview grew 71% over a six-month 2026 analysis of more than 600,000 keywords in 10 industries.

    Semrush, AI Overviews commercial search study (Jul 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    In our six-month analysis of over 600,000 keywords across 10 industries, AI Overviews grew an average of 71% across search engine results pages (SERPs) with commercial intent.
  6. #01553%

    Searches of 10 words or more produced an AI summary 53% of the time in Pew's March 2025 panel, against 8% for one- or two-word searches.

    Pew Research Center, Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results (Jul 2025)

    Exact wording at the source
    Just 8% of one- or two-word searches resulted in an AI summary. But that share rose to 53% for searches with 10 words or more.
  7. #01695.4%

    Comparison queries triggered an AI Overview 95.4% of the time across 30,842 tracked informational queries in Seer Interactive's 2026 study.

    Seer Interactive, AIO Impact on Google CTR: 2026 Update (Apr 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    comparison queries triggered AIO 95.4% of the time (267 of 280 queries)

Chart

Share of keywords triggering an AI Overview, 2025

Semrush keyword dataset, U.S. Google results, January to November 2025.

0%6.3%13%19%25%Jan 2025: 6.49%Jan 2025Jul 2025: 24.6%Jul 2025Nov 2025: 15.7%Nov 2025

Source: Semrush, Semrush AI Overviews Study

CH 03Zero-click searches

7 figures
  1. #01768.01%

    68.01% of U.S. Google searches ended without a click in January to April 2026, based on Similarweb's desktop and mobile clickstream panel.

    SparkToro, In 2026, Less than One Third of Google Searches Still Send a Click (Jun 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    In the first four months of 2026, a whopping 68.01% of Google searches ended without a click .
  2. #01860.45%

    U.S. zero-click searches on Google stood at 60.45% in 2024, so the rate rose about 7.5 percentage points in two years.

    SparkToro, In 2026, Less than One Third of Google Searches Still Send a Click (Jun 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    In 2024, US zero click searches on Google stood at 60.45%.
  3. #01949%

    SparkToro's first study, in 2019, found that 49% of Google searches ended without a click.

    SparkToro, In 2026, Less than One Third of Google Searches Still Send a Click (Jun 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    In 2019, SparkToro first published research showing that 49% of Google searches ended without a click .
  4. #02026%

    Google users ended their browsing session on 26% of search pages with an AI summary, against 16% of pages with only traditional results, in March 2025.

    Pew Research Center, Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results (Jul 2025)

    Exact wording at the source
    This happened on 26% of pages with an AI summary, compared with 16% of pages with only traditional search results.
  5. #02180%

    About 80% of U.S. consumers relied on zero-click results in at least 40% of their searches in a December 2024 Bain and Dynata survey of 1,117 people.

    Bain & Company, Goodbye Clicks, Hello AI: Zero-Click Search Redefines Marketing (Feb 2025)

    Exact wording at the source
    Bain’s recent survey finds that about 80% of consumers now rely on “zero-click” results in at least 40% of their searches, reducing organic web traffic by an estimated 15% to 25% (see Figure 1).
  6. #02215% to 25%

    Bain estimated that zero-click behavior reduces organic web traffic by 15% to 25%.

    Bain & Company, Goodbye Clicks, Hello AI: Zero-Click Search Redefines Marketing (Feb 2025)

    Exact wording at the source
    Bain’s recent survey finds that about 80% of consumers now rely on “zero-click” results in at least 40% of their searches, reducing organic web traffic by an estimated 15% to 25% (see Figure 1).
  7. #02360%

    About 60% of searches on traditional search engines ended without the user going on to another site, according to Bain's research.

    Bain & Company, Goodbye Clicks, Hello AI: Zero-Click Search Redefines Marketing (Feb 2025)

    Exact wording at the source
    about 60% of searches now end without the user progressing to another destination site.

CH 04How AI Overviews change click-through rates

8 figures
  1. #02458%

    The presence of an AI Overview correlated with a 58% lower average click-through rate for the top-ranking page in Ahrefs' December 2025 data on 300,000 keywords.

    Ahrefs, Update: AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 58% (Feb 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    We found that the presence of an AI Overview now correlates with a 58% lower average clickthrough rate for the top-ranking page.
  2. #02534.5%

    Ahrefs' earlier study, published in April 2025, found that AI Overviews reduced clicks to top-ranking content by 34.5%.

    Ahrefs, Update: AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 58% (Feb 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    Back in April 2025, we found that AI Overviews reduced clicks to top-ranking content by 34.5%, despite Google’s statements to the contrary.
  3. #0268%

    Users who saw an AI summary clicked a traditional search result in 8% of visits, against 15% for users who did not see one, in Pew's March 2025 panel.

    Pew Research Center, Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results (Jul 2025)

    Exact wording at the source
    Users who encountered an AI summary clicked on a traditional search result link in 8% of all visits.
  4. #0271%

    Users clicked a link inside the AI summary itself in just 1% of visits to pages with a summary in March 2025.

    Pew Research Center, Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results (Jul 2025)

    Exact wording at the source
    This occurred in just 1% of all visits to pages with such a summary.
  5. #0282.4%

    Organic click-through rate on queries with an AI Overview rose from a low of 1.3% in December 2025 to 2.4% in February 2026 across 53 brands tracked by Seer Interactive.

    Seer Interactive, AIO Impact on Google CTR: 2026 Update (Apr 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    Organic CTR on AIO-present queries climbed from a floor of 1.3% in December 2025 to 2.4% in February 2026.
  6. #0293.8%

    Organic click-through rate on queries without an AI Overview was 3.8% in February 2026, up from 2.8% in January 2025, in Seer Interactive's data.

    Seer Interactive, AIO Impact on Google CTR: 2026 Update (Apr 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    Organic CTR when an AIO is not shown increased by a full percentage point from January 2025 at 2.8% CTR to February 2026 at 3.8% CTR
  7. #03023.1%

    Click-through rate fell 23.1% within nine days for the French domains most exposed to AI Overviews after the feature launched in France in 2026, against 3.4% for all domains studied.

    Ahrefs, AI Overviews Cut CTR by 23.1% in France (Sep 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    Across the domains we studied, click-through rate fell 3.4% in nine days. For the domains most exposed to AI Overviews, it fell 23.1% .
  8. #03182.2%

    82.2% of highly exposed domains in Ahrefs' French panel lost click-through rate after AI Overviews launched.

    Ahrefs, AI Overviews Cut CTR by 23.1% in France (Sep 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    82.2% of highly exposed domains lost CTR .

Chart

Estimated click-through rate drop by ranking position when an AI Overview appears

Desktop click-through rate change versus forecast, December 2025 Google Search Console data, 300,000 keywords.

  • Position 158%
  • Position 250.8%
  • Position 346.4%
  • Position 438.8%
  • Position 532.6%

Source: Ahrefs, Update: AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 58%

CH 05AI referral traffic to websites

8 figures
  1. #032770.7 million

    AI platforms drove an average of 770.7 million referral visits a month worldwide between June 2025 and May 2026, up 117.4% from the year before.

    Similarweb, AI Referral Traffic by Industry: What 770 Million Monthly Visits Reveal (Sep 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    AI platforms drove an average of 770.7 million referral visits per month worldwide between June 2025 and May 2026, more than double the year before (+117.4%, desktop and mobile web).
  2. #03346.8 million

    Marketplaces received the most AI referral traffic of any industry, at 46.8 million average monthly visits between June 2025 and May 2026.

    Similarweb, AI Referral Traffic by Industry: What 770 Million Monthly Visits Reveal (Sep 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    Marketplaces lead every industry in AI referral traffic, at 46.8 million average monthly visits between June 2025 and May 2026
  3. #034312.5%

    Beauty was the fastest-growing industry for AI referral traffic, up 312.5% year over year in the period to May 2026, with Fashion at 278.2%.

    Similarweb, AI Referral Traffic by Industry: What 770 Million Monthly Visits Reveal (Sep 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    Beauty is the fastest-growing industry for AI referral traffic, up 312.5% year over year, with Fashion close behind at 278.2%
  4. #03562%

    AI-driven visits to U.S. retail sites grew 62% year over year in July 2026, while travel grew 119% and financial services 31%.

    Adobe Digital Insights, AI Traffic Trends Report, August 2026 (Aug 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    Travel flew ahead in AI-driven visit share growth in July (+119% YoY) followed by Retail (+62% YoY) and Financial Services (+31% YoY)
  5. #03660%

    AI-referred visitors to U.S. retail sites converted at a rate 60% higher than non-AI traffic in July 2026, up from 54% in May 2026.

    Adobe Digital Insights, AI Traffic Trends Report, August 2026 (Aug 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    In July 2026, AI-referred retail visitors converted at a rate 60% higher than non-AI traffic (up from 54% in May 2026).
  6. #03753%

    AI-referred shoppers generated 53% more revenue per visit than non-AI traffic in July 2026, according to Adobe Digital Insights.

    Adobe Digital Insights, AI Traffic Trends Report, August 2026 (Aug 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    AI-referred shoppers generate more revenue per visit (+53%) than non-AI traffic
  7. #038693%

    AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites grew 693% year over year during the November to December 2025 holiday season, according to Adobe Digital Insights figures cited by Similarweb.

    Similarweb, AI Referral Traffic by Industry: What 770 Million Monthly Visits Reveal (Sep 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    AI-driven traffic to US retail sites grew 693% year over year during the November to December 2025 holiday season, with travel up 539% and financial services up 266%.
  8. #03962 to 63%

    Homepage landings rose from about 26% to 29% of ChatGPT referral traffic before OpenAI's May 2026 link update to about 62% to 63% by late May 2026.

    Similarweb, AI Search Stats 2026: Market Share, Referral, and Citation Data (2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    Homepage referrals from ChatGPT rose from roughly 26–29% of all referral traffic before the update to about 62–63% by late May 2026

Chart

Year-over-year growth in AI-driven visits to U.S. sites by industry, July 2026

Growth in the share of visits referred by AI services, U.S. sites measured by Adobe Analytics, July 2026 versus July 2025.

  • Travel119%
  • Retail62%
  • Financial services31%

Source: Adobe Digital Insights, AI Traffic Trends Report, August 2026

CH 06Answer engine users and how they search

9 figures
  1. #04051%

    Weekly use of standalone generative AI tools rose from 34% in 2025 to 51% in 2026, averaged across six countries surveyed by the Reuters Institute.

    Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Generative AI and News Report 2026 (Oct 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    weekly use up from one-third (34%) last year to half (51%) in 2026 in the six countries where we have data from previous years.
  2. #04138%

    The share of people who used generative AI to get information in the last week rose from 11% in 2024 to 24% in 2025 and 38% in 2026.

    Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Generative AI and News Report 2026 (Oct 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    that say they have used generative AI for getting information in the last week has risen from 11% in 2024 to 24% in 2025 and now 38% in 2026.
  3. #04242%

    42% of U.S. adults said in February 2026 that they use AI chatbots to search for information, the most common use Pew asked about.

    Pew Research Center, Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on Impact (Jun 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    To search for information 42%
  4. #04310%

    Weekly use of AI chatbots for news rose from 7% to 10% globally in 2026, according to the Digital News Report.

    Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Digital News Report 2026: Emerging uses of AI chatbots for news and what it means for journalism (Jun 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    we find evidence of rising weekly use of AI chatbots for news, up from 7% to 10% globally since last year
  5. #0444%

    Just 4% of respondents across 27 markets said they always or often click through to news sources from AI, compared with 19% from search and 17% from social media, in 2026.

    Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Digital News Report 2026: Emerging uses of AI chatbots for news and what it means for journalism (Jun 2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    just 4% of respondents overall say they always or often click through to underlying news sources from AI, compared with 19% from search, and 17% from social media.
  6. #04553%

    ChatGPT's share of worldwide generative AI website visits fell from about 76% in June 2025 to roughly 53% by May 2026, as Gemini and Claude gained share.

    Similarweb, AI Search Stats 2026: Market Share, Referral, and Citation Data (2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    ChatGPT’s share of generative AI website visits fell from about 76% in June 2025 to roughly 53% by May 2026
  7. #0466.8%

    Citations appeared in about 6.8% of U.S. ChatGPT prompts by May 2026, up from about 1.6% in June 2025, according to Similarweb.

    Similarweb, AI Search Stats 2026: Market Share, Referral, and Citation Data (2026)

    Exact wording at the source
    Similarweb data shows the presence of citations in US ChatGPT prompts rising from about 1.6% in June 2025 to roughly 6.8% by May 2026
  8. #047780 million

    Perplexity handled 780 million queries in May 2025, CEO Aravind Srinivas said, with growth above 20% a month.

    TechCrunch, Perplexity received 780 million queries last month, CEO says (Jun 2025)

    Exact wording at the source
    Perplexity received 780 million queries in May, CEO Aravind Srinivas shared onstage at Bloomberg’s Tech Summit on Thursday.
  9. #04825%

    Gartner predicted in 2024 that traditional search engine volume would drop 25% by 2026 as people moved to AI chatbots and virtual agents.

    Gartner, Gartner Predicts Search Engine Volume Will Drop 25% by 2026, Due to AI Chatbots and Other Virtual Agents (Feb 2024)

    Exact wording at the source
    By 2026, traditional search engine volume will drop 25%, with search marketing losing market share to AI chatbots and other virtual agents, according to Gartner, Inc.

Chart

Weekly use of AI assistants across six countries, 2026

Share of online adults using each tool in the last week, average of six countries with trend data, 2026 survey.

  • ChatGPT34%
  • Gemini24%
  • Copilot11%
  • Claude7%

Source: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Generative AI and News Report 2026

CH 07AI crawling versus referrals

6 figures
  1. #04925,000:1 to 100,000:1

    Anthropic had the highest crawl-to-refer ratio among leading AI and search platforms in 2025, ranging from about 25,000:1 to 100,000:1 after May.

    Cloudflare, The 2025 Cloudflare Radar Year in Review (Dec 2025)

    Exact wording at the source
    After that, the ratios became more consistent, but remained higher than others, ranging from ~25,000:1 to ~100,000:1.
  2. #0503,700:1

    OpenAI's crawl-to-refer ratio reached as much as 3,700:1 in March 2025, according to Cloudflare Radar.

    Cloudflare, The 2025 Cloudflare Radar Year in Review (Dec 2025)

    Exact wording at the source
    OpenAI’s ratios over time were quite spiky, and reached as much as 3,700:1 in March.
  3. #05130:1

    Google's crawl-to-refer ratio started 2025 just over 3:1 and peaked at about 30:1 in April.

    Cloudflare, The 2025 Cloudflare Radar Year in Review (Dec 2025)

    Exact wording at the source
    Starting the year just over 3:1, Google’s crawl-to-refer ratio increased steadily through April, reaching as high as 30:1.
  4. #0524.2%

    Excluding Googlebot, AI bots accounted for 4.2% of HTML requests across Cloudflare's network in 2025, while Googlebot alone accounted for 4.5%.

    Cloudflare, The 2025 Cloudflare Radar Year in Review (Dec 2025)

    Exact wording at the source
    While other AI bots accounted for 4.2% of HTML request traffic, Googlebot alone accounted for 4.5%.
  5. #053More than 15x

    AI user action crawling, which fetches pages to answer a live user question, increased by more than 15 times in 2025.

    Cloudflare, The 2025 Cloudflare Radar Year in Review (Dec 2025)

    Exact wording at the source
    AI “user action” crawling increased by over 15x in 2025.
  6. #05415%

    Google referral traffic to news sites in April 2025 was 15% lower than in January 2025, according to Cloudflare.

    Cloudflare, The crawl-to-click gap: Cloudflare data on AI bots, training, and referrals (Aug 2025)

    Exact wording at the source
    April was worse, down 15% compared with January.

Asked and answered

Questions readers ask

QHow many people use Google AI Overviews and AI Mode?
AAlphabet said in July 2026 that AI Mode had passed one billion monthly active users. Pew Research Center found that 60% of U.S. adults read AI summaries at the top of search results in February 2026, and the Reuters Institute found 57% of people across nine countries saw AI answers in search in the past week.
QWhat share of Google searches end without a click?
ASparkToro's analysis of Similarweb clickstream data found that 68.01% of U.S. Google searches ended without a click in January to April 2026, up from 60.45% in 2024 and 49% in 2019. Bain estimated that about 60% of searches on traditional engines end without a visit to another site.
QHow much do AI Overviews reduce clicks to websites?
AAhrefs found that an AI Overview correlated with a 58% lower click-through rate for the top-ranking page in December 2025 data. Pew Research Center found users clicked a result in 8% of visits when a summary appeared, against 15% when it did not.
QHow much traffic do AI chatbots send to websites?
ASimilarweb counted an average of 770.7 million AI referral visits a month worldwide between June 2025 and May 2026, up 117.4% from the year before. Adobe Digital Insights found AI-driven visits to U.S. retail sites grew 62% year over year in July 2026.
QDoes AI search traffic convert better than other traffic?
AIn Adobe Digital Insights data, AI-referred visitors to U.S. retail sites converted at a 60% higher rate than other traffic in July 2026 and generated 53% more revenue per visit.
QIs Google search volume falling because of AI?
ANot so far by Google's own account. Gartner predicted in 2024 that traditional search volume would drop 25% by 2026, but Alphabet said in October 2026 that its query growth rate was the highest in five years and search advertising revenue rose 12% to $63.3 billion.

Where these numbers come from

We chose figures that measure AI-powered search from the organizations that collected the data: survey research from Pew Research Center, the Reuters Institute and Bain; clickstream and traffic panels from Similarweb, SparkToro, Adobe Digital Insights and Cloudflare; keyword and Search Console studies from Ahrefs, Semrush and Seer Interactive; and company disclosures from Alphabet earnings calls. The Perplexity query count is a statement by its CEO as reported by TechCrunch, because Perplexity does not publish usage figures. These measures are not directly comparable: AI Overview rates depend on the keyword set, zero-click rates depend on the panel and device mix, and company user counts are self-reported monthly figures. The Gartner figure is a 2024 forecast, not a measurement. We kept 2024 and 2025 figures where they are the most recent of their kind and labeled each figure with its year. We store the sentence each number appears in, and a script loads the publisher's page again to make sure that sentence is still there. Our methodology has the details.

Input log

Sources

  1. 01Adobe Digital Insights. AI Traffic Trends Report, August 2026 (Aug 2026).
  2. 02Ahrefs. Update: AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 58% (Feb 2026).
  3. 03Ahrefs. AI Overviews Cut CTR by 23.1% in France (Sep 2026).
  4. 04Alphabet. Alphabet Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript (Jul 2026).
  5. 05Alphabet. Alphabet Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript (Oct 2026).
  6. 06Bain & Company. Goodbye Clicks, Hello AI: Zero-Click Search Redefines Marketing (Feb 2025).
  7. 07Cloudflare. The 2025 Cloudflare Radar Year in Review (Dec 2025).
  8. 08Cloudflare. The crawl-to-click gap: Cloudflare data on AI bots, training, and referrals (Aug 2025).
  9. 09Gartner. Gartner Predicts Search Engine Volume Will Drop 25% by 2026, Due to AI Chatbots and Other Virtual Agents (Feb 2024).
  10. 10Pew Research Center. Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on Impact (Jun 2026).
  11. 11Pew Research Center. Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results (Jul 2025).
  12. 12Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Generative AI and News Report 2026 (Oct 2026).
  13. 13Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Digital News Report 2026: Emerging uses of AI chatbots for news and what it means for journalism (Jun 2026).
  14. 14Seer Interactive. AIO Impact on Google CTR: 2026 Update (Apr 2026).
  15. 15Semrush. Semrush AI Overviews Study (Dec 2025).
  16. 16Semrush. AI Overviews commercial search study (Jul 2026).
  17. 17Similarweb. AI Referral Traffic by Industry: What 770 Million Monthly Visits Reveal (Sep 2026).
  18. 18Similarweb. AI Search Stats 2026: Market Share, Referral, and Citation Data (2026).
  19. 19SparkToro. In 2026, Less than One Third of Google Searches Still Send a Click (Jun 2026).
  20. 20TechCrunch. Perplexity received 780 million queries last month, CEO says (Jun 2025).

Cite this page

Link to this page or to a single numbered figure. If you reuse a number, name the organization that released it in the first place.

DBotMaker. (2026, November 13). AI Search Statistics 2026. https://dbotmaker.io/ai-search-statistics

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Found a number that changed or a source that moved? Email editorial@dbotmaker.io. We plan to check this page again by January 12, 2027.

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