OpenAI says queries on ChatGPT that resemble web searches now reach about one-fifth of Google’s search volume, a figure that signals how quickly AI chatbots are becoming a doorway to information online, aktualita.co reported. Adam Fry, consumer product lead ChatGPT, gave the number during a discussion in New York on Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, according to the report.
The comparison is striking, but it measures query volume, not market share. OpenAI defines a “search” as any user question that makes ChatGPT run a web search, so the 20% figure does not mean Google has lost a fifth of its users or ad revenue.
OpenAI Counts Only Web-Search Queries as “Searches”
Not every message sent to ChatGPT counts toward the 20%.
Fry said the growth is significant because ChatGPT’s real-time web search capability has only expanded rapidly over the past year and a half, Jawa Pos reported. Before that, the chatbot relied mostly on its training data, which limited answers about recent events.
ChatGPT’s User Base Hit 1.2 Billion a Week
The search growth rides on a rapidly expanding user base. OpenAI says ChatGPT now reaches about 1.2 billion weekly active users on 2026, aktualita.co reported — an increase of 200 million in two months from the 1 billion figure the company cited earlier, according to Jawa Pos. For scale, OpenAI said in July 2025 that users were sending more than 2.5 billion messages per day worldwide, though most of those messages are not searches.
Usage habits back the trend. A Pew Research Center survey of 5,119 U.S. adults published in June 2026 found that 42% of respondents use AI chatbots to find information, Jawa Pos reported. ChatGPT was the most-used service, with 44% of respondents saying they had accessed it.
Most ChatGPT Chats Still Skip the Web Search
Even so, the majority of ChatGPT interactions do not trigger a web search. Research by Semrush published in April 2026 found that the web search feature was active in about 34.5% of queries observed in February 2026, aktualita.co reported.
ChatGPT is already 20% of Google's search volume. What will it be in one year? I bet MUCH higher.@Kantrowitz has the full OpenAI interview fire side chat here: https://t.co/SaqYQHWmoe https://t.co/FPcj8kCHlJ
Google Still Sends Far More Traffic to Websites
Google remains the dominant source of visitors to publishers by a wide margin. An Ahrefs analysis of 118,671 websites found that in October 2026, Google accounted for around 24,74 percent of keseluruhan trafik yang terpantau, while ChatGPT contributed far less, aktualita.co reported. The comparison measures referral traffic, not query volume, and it shows that Google still delivers vastly more readers to news sites and other publishers.
Google’s own scale dwarfs the comparison. Alphabet said in April 2025 that its search engine handles more than 5 trillion searches per year — over 13.7 billion a day, aktualita.co reported. In its third-quarter 2026 earnings report on Oct. 28, CEO Sundar Pichai said AI investment was helping drive search activity, with annual query growth at its highest level in five years.
Publishers and SEO Face a Shift in How Readers Find News
The behavioral change matters for media companies. In classic search, users type keywords, scan a list of links and click through to websites. Chatbots can answer directly in the conversation, which could reduce clicks for simple questions, aktualita.co reported. That puts pressure on publishers to produce verifiable, well-sourced, in-depth content that AI systems can cite — and to watch how their pages are summarized and referenced in AI answers.
Telset.id noted that the rivalry is no longer just about traditional search engines but about who controls the AI-based search interface, with Google pushing AI Overviews and OpenAI expanding advertising in ChatGPT ahead of a potential IPO early next year. Bing, by comparison, holds only about 3% of the search market after more than a decade of effort, a figure Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella cited in 2023 antitrust testimony, Telset.id reported.
OpenAI Compares Query Volumes Instead of Market Share
Does the 20% figure mean ChatGPT has 20% of Google’s market share?
No. OpenAI compared query volumes — questions that trigger a web search in ChatGPT versus Google’s total searches — not users, revenue or market share, aktualita.co reported. OpenAI has not published full methodology allowing independent verification of the comparison.
How many people use ChatGPT?
OpenAI says about 1.2 billion people use ChatGPT each week as of 2026, up 200 million in two months, Jawa Pos reported. In July 2025 the company said users sent more than 2.5 billion messages per day, aktualita.co reported.
Is ChatGPT replacing Google?
Not yet. Google still handles more than 5 trillion searches a year and sends far more traffic to the websites Ahrefs monitors than ChatGPT does, aktualita.co reported. But with 42% of U.S. adults using AI chatbots for information, per Pew Research Center, the two are growing side by side rather than one displacing the other.
The 20% figure is best read as a sign that ChatGPT has moved from a writing and coding tool into a genuine search gateway — one that, unlike Bing’s decade-long 3% share, reached that scale in roughly a year and a half of web-search capability.
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