AI search vs. Google

The rate of adoption for new technologies is an important consideration for marketers and SEOs, which is why everyone is talking about the growth of AI search and generative engine optimization.

But exactly how much search traffic is going to LLMs?

That’s the goal of this report. We’ll track changes in the use of AI search compared to Google search.

We’ll monitor:

• Traffic to AI search vs. Google search

• Active users on AI search vs. Google search

• Market share and growth for different AI search tools

• Growth of ChatGPT

  
  

For the purpose of this research, I’ve defined “AI search” as a specific platform that someone visits in order to satisfy a query or complete a task. The technologies that fall into this category include:

• ChatGPT

• Gemini

• Claude

• Perplexity

• Copilot 

• Grok 

While Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode use Google Gemini to surface content, at time of publishing, we have limited ability to track direct use of these platforms as differentiated from Google’s classic search pages.

Data for this traffic has been assessed from SimilarWeb and looks at a worldwide audience.

Overview

Search as a whole is growing. Traffic to Google and AI search channels in Q1 2026 increased by a combined 6.4% year-on-year.

There were over 27.4 billion visits to AI search platforms in Q1 2026, with over 16.8 billion attributed to ChatGPT. But Gemini and Claude have gained more of the total market share for more diversity in the AI search space.

Google was stable compared to AI search in Q1, with a 2.4% growth in visits YoY. Visits to AI tools, including Google’s own Gemini, grew by 42.8% during this period.

Traffic to AI search vs. Google search

Year-on-year traffic to Google 

When we compare the first quarter of 2026 to that of the previous year, we see extraordinary growth for AI search. Google is trending slightly up at a 2.4% traffic increase, while AI search increased by 42.8%.

When we drill down into the raw numbers, there were 5.7 billion more visits to AI than to Google search in the first quarter of this year.

Zooming out past Q1, the 12 month average for monthly visits to Google.com was 83.3 billion, a 0.61% decrease from the previous 12-month average. 

Traffic to AI search grows monthly

In Q1 2026, AI audience growth was driven by increased visits to Claude and Gemini. During the first quarter of 2026, Claude saw 50% growth, Gemini grew by 37%, and Grok was up 24%, as compared to the previous period.

As we’ve seen in previous spikes, traffic increases to AI chatbots often follow product releases. Claude had about 35 updates shipped between January and March, including partnerships with Microsoft and updates to their core model, along with a surge of media attention. Claude saw more than double the traffic in March when compared to February, to reach over 600 million visits.

Gemini’s Nano Banana improvements are yielding results, too. Gemini has had over 2 billion visits every month since the start of the year.

While total traffic to AI chatbots has increased during Q1 2026, not everyone has seen gains. Perplexity saw a 19.7% decrease in traffic, Deepseek’s traffic declined by 11.7%, and ChatGPT lost 4.3% of its traffic.

AI search visits in Q1 2026 grew by 9.5% compared to the quarter before and are up by 42.8% YoY, up from 15.6 billion visits in Q1 2025 to 27 billion visits in Q1 2026.

In Q1 2026, AI search traffic accounted for 9.2% of search traffic vs Google.  This is up from 7.8% search share in Q1 2025.

Monthly active users on AI search vs. Google search

For Q1 2026, AI search unique users grew at a much higher rate than Google users month over month. Average monthly users for AI search increased by 6%, from 851 million in Q4 2025 to 904 million in Q1 2026. Meanwhile, average monthly Google users saw a slight decrease of -0.26%, well within a margin of error.

This means that the ratio of Google users to AI search users is 3.5 to 1. For context, the ratio was 4.9 to 1 in Q1 2025.

Speaking of last year, data suggests that year-on-year global monthly average unique visitors to Google increased by 3.6%. Meaning that the Q1 average for 2026 was over 100 million more unique monthly visitors than the same time last year.

As for AI search, average year-on-year unique visitors doubled from 634 million in Q1 2025 to 904 million in Q1 2026.

AI search tools by market share

As of Q1 2026, ChatGPT’s market share has been reduced to just 61%, with Gemini rapidly closing in with 24.8% of the AI search market.  

A deeper look at ChatGPT

As the market leader, understanding ChatGPT can help marketers perform better across all AI search platforms. 

Three notable stats on ChatGPT for Q1 2026:

1. Average monthly users for ChatGPT are down by 2.7% in Q1 compared to the previous period.
   

2. ChatGPT receives 61% of AI search visits but has 54% of AI unique monthly users.
   

3. ChatGPT saw an increase in unique users when compared to Google, from 15.9 million in Q1 2024 to 24.5 million in Q1 2026.

Comparing Q1 2026 to Q4 2025, average monthly visits to ChatGPT decreased by 4.3% and average unique users dropped by 2.7% to 460 million unique visitors, compared to 473 million uniques in the previous period. The OpenAI platform saw traffic dip in November and December 2025, and despite some recovery, has yet to reach the 2025 traffic peak of 6.2 billion visits this year.

The platform’s performance doesn't seem to suggest a slowing of AI use, but a diversification of platforms with competitors like Claude and Gemini seeing significant growth in both users and visits during Q1.