Updated 4 November 2026
AI search statistics 2026
The numbers behind the biggest change to search in 20 years: how many people use AI answers, what it’s doing to clicks, and what gets cited. Every figure links to where it came from.
How many people use AI search in 2026?
Google says more than 1 billion people a month use AI Mode, and the Gemini app has 950 million monthly users. ChatGPT has 900 million weekly users. People also click fewer links: Pew found a click on a normal Google result in 8% of visits with an AI summary, against 15% without one.
At a glance
The key figures
Grouped by theme. Each one links to the original study or announcement.
| Figure | What it measures | Source | Published |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1bn+ | Monthly active users of Google AI Mode, reached within a year of its global launch. | Alphabet, Q2 2026 | Jul 2026 |
| 950m | Monthly active users of the Gemini app. | Alphabet, Q2 2026 | Jul 2026 |
| 900m | Weekly active users of ChatGPT, more than double a year earlier. | OpenAI via Search Engine Land, Feb 2026 | Feb 2026 |
| 8% vs 15% | How often Google visits included a click on a normal result, with and without an AI summary. | Pew Research Center, 2025 | Jul 2025 |
| 1% | Visits to pages with an AI summary that included a click on a link inside the summary. | Pew Research Center, 2025 | Jul 2025 |
| 18% | Google searches in March 2025 that produced an AI summary. | Pew Research Center, 2025 | Jul 2025 |
| 60% | Searches starting with who, what, when or why that produced an AI summary. | Pew Research Center, 2025 | Jul 2025 |
| 58% | Drop in click-through rate for the top result when an AI Overview appears (300,000 keywords). | Ahrefs, Feb 2026 | Feb 2026 |
| 7.3% → 1.6% | Average click-through rate for the top result on AI Overview keywords, December 2023 to December 2025. | Ahrefs, Feb 2026 | Feb 2026 |
| 59.7% | EU Google searches that ended without a click to any result (US: 58.5%). | SparkToro and Datos via Search Engine Land, 2024 | Jul 2024 |
| 25% | Gartner’s forecast drop in traditional search engine volume by 2026. | Gartner, Feb 2024 | Feb 2024 |
| Up to 40% | Visibility lift in AI-generated answers from adding sources, quotes and statistics. | Aggarwal et al., KDD 2024 | 2024 |
| 12.1% | Ahrefs’ sign-ups that came from AI search, which sent 0.5% of its visitors. | Ahrefs, 2025 | 2025 |
| 4.4x | Value of the average AI search visitor compared with an organic search visitor. | Semrush, 2025 | 2025 |
| 5.7m | Private sector businesses in the UK at the start of 2025, up 3.5% in a year. | Department for Business and Trade, 2025 | Oct 2025 |
| $5.34bn | Global coaching revenue, up 17% since 2023, from 122,974 coaches. | International Coaching Federation, 2025 | Sep 2025 |
By theme
What the numbers tell us
1. Lots of people now use AI answers
Alphabet reported more than 1 billion monthly users of AI Mode and 950 million of the Gemini app in July 2026. OpenAI reported 900 million weekly ChatGPT users in February 2026.
2. They click fewer links
Pew’s look at 68,879 real searches found clicks on normal results fell from 15% to 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared. Ahrefs estimates AI Overviews cut clicks to the top result by 58%. Even before AI Overviews, SparkToro found about six in ten searches ended without a click.
3. Evidence gets cited
The GEO research paper (KDD 2024) found that adding sources, quotes and statistics raised a page’s visibility in AI answers by up to 40%, and by up to 37% on Perplexity. Stuffing in keywords did very little.
4. AI visitors are worth a lot
They’re a small share of traffic but they convert well. Ahrefs found 0.5% of its visitors came from AI search but produced 12.1% of sign-ups. Semrush estimates the average AI search visitor is worth 4.4 times one from Google.
5. The UK picture
The UK had 5.7 million private sector businesses at the start of 2025. In June 2026 the Competition and Markets Authority told Google to let publishers opt out of AI Overviews and AI Mode without losing their normal search rankings, and gave it nine months to make the change.
6. Coaching keeps growing
The ICF’s 2025 Global Coaching Study counts 122,974 coaches worldwide and US$5.34 billion in yearly revenue, up 17% since 2023.
Use this data
How to cite these statistics
Using these figures? Brilliant.
Please link to this page and to the original source. Here’s a suggested citation:
Happy Otter (2026). AI search statistics 2026. https://www.happyotter.co.uk/ai-search-statistics/Or copy this link:
<a href="https://www.happyotter.co.uk/ai-search-statistics/">AI search statistics 2026 (Happy Otter)</a>How we choose figures: we only include numbers from the organisation that produced them, or from well-known trade publications reporting them directly, and we show when each was published. Forecasts are labelled as forecasts. We review this page every month.
Questions
Your questions, answered
Do AI Overviews reduce website traffic?
On average, yes, for information-style searches. Ahrefs found the top result gets about 58% fewer clicks when an AI Overview appears, and Pew found clicks on normal results fall from 15% to 8% of visits. Searches where people want to buy or find someone local are hit less.
How many people use ChatGPT?
OpenAI reported 900 million weekly users in February 2026.
What is a zero-click search?
A search that ends without a click to any website, because the person got their answer on the results page, searched again or left. SparkToro found about 59.7% of EU Google searches were zero-click in 2024.
Can I use these statistics?
Yes, please do. Just link to this page and to the original source shown in the table.
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