AI news · ChatGPT search · Google
OpenAI puts ChatGPT search at a fifth of Google’s volume
OpenAI’s consumer product lead also gave 1.2 billion weekly users, while outside traffic data shows ChatGPT sending websites far fewer visits than Google.
For every five searches on Google, ChatGPT now handles about one, according to OpenAI. Adam Fry, who leads the consumer product, gave the figure at a company dinner in New York on Monday 2 November 2026, and Big Technology published the conversation a day later. Weekly users stand at 1.2 billion, he said, a jump of 200 million in two months.
That fifth comes from OpenAI’s own count. A web lookup set off by a question counts as one search, so a single long chat can hold several, Search Engine Journal reports. Fry named no source for the Google total, The Verge notes, and Search Engine Journal found no period or region in the published interview. Ahrefs, a search data firm, reached about 12 per cent in February by sorting prompts by type.
A search also differs from a visit. ChatGPT brought 0.36 per cent of October traffic to the 118,671 sites in Ahrefs’ tracker, Search Engine Journal says, and Google brought 24.74 per cent.
On the paid side, ChatGPT’s Go plan card read “This plan may include ads” when we checked chatgpt.com on 31 October, and its US price did not show because prices render by region (our ChatGPT page).
Set side by side, those numbers give ChatGPT a fifth of Google’s searches by OpenAI’s count and under 2 per cent of Google’s visits in Ahrefs’ sample, so a plan that sizes ChatGPT by search volume overstates the traffic it sends to a site.
Sources
- Big Technology: OpenAI: ChatGPT Search Is About 20% Of Google. Checked
- Search Engine Journal: Google’s Search Volume Is About 5x ChatGPT’s, OpenAI Says. Checked
- The Verge: OpenAI says ChatGPT is catching up to Google in search. Checked
Alexandre S.
Alexandre S. is a creative ad strategist and copywriter with ten years' experience in digital marketing across multiple channels.
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