ChatGPT's search feature now handles roughly one-fifth of Google's query volume, according to OpenAI. Adam Fry, who leads consumer product for ChatGPT, shared the figure at an OpenAI-hosted dinner in New York and in a fireside conversation with Big Technology's Alex Kantrowitz, as Forbes and Business Insider reported this week.
How big is ChatGPT's search operation now?
Fry put the platform's scale at 1.2 billion weekly active users, and said ChatGPT's search-related query volume has reached about 20 per cent of Google's. For context, he pointed to Microsoft's Bing: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified during Google's 2023 antitrust trial that Bing held about 3 per cent of the search market, and Fry noted that Bing took more than a decade to reach that share. ChatGPT, by this telling, got there in a fraction of the time.
Is the 20% claim the same as market share?
No, and the distinction matters. The claim describes OpenAI's comparison of query volumes, not that ChatGPT owns a fifth of the search market. Reporting by 9to5Google notes that OpenAI did not disclose the source of its Google comparison, and the figures cannot be independently audited. Google has not reported any decline in usage: on Alphabet's third-quarter earnings call in October, the company continued to report growth across its search business. Audience data also complicates the substitution story: Similarweb reported in August that 95 per cent of ChatGPT users also used Google, suggesting most people are adding the chatbot to their habits rather than replacing the search engine.
What does this mean for publishers and businesses?
Two things. First, conversational answers are becoming a genuine discovery channel, which is why answer engine optimisation has moved from experiment to necessity: sites that structure content for direct answers and citations inside chatbots are already seeing it pay off, as Anthropic's first publisher licensing deal with The Associated Press this week showed. Second, monetisation is coming. If ChatGPT's search keeps growing, ads inside conversational answers are the obvious next step, and marketers will have to measure visibility across two very different surfaces: the blue links of classic search and the composed answers of AI search.
Fry also shared other usage figures worth noting: users generate about 1.5 billion images a week on the platform and 250 million people use its voice features weekly. Whatever one makes of the 20 per cent claim, the underlying trend is real: the way people look for information is splitting, and businesses that treat AI chatbots as a distribution channel, not a novelty, will be positioned first when the audience shift shows up in their analytics.
Frequently asked questions
How much of Google's search volume does ChatGPT handle? About 20 per cent of Google's query volume, according to OpenAI's consumer product lead Adam Fry, shared at an OpenAI event in New York.
How many people use ChatGPT weekly? OpenAI says 1.2 billion people use ChatGPT weekly, and users generate about 1.5 billion images a week.
Does ChatGPT's growth mean Google is shrinking? Not according to Google's own reporting. Alphabet reported continued growth in search, and Similarweb data shows 95 per cent of ChatGPT users also use Google.
Should businesses optimise for ChatGPT? Yes. With chatbot search at this scale, structuring content for direct answers and citations in AI search is becoming as important as ranking in classic search results.
Sources: Forbes, PPC Land, Business Insider, 9to5Google. Related: Anthropic Strikes Its First Publisher Licensing Deal With The AP For Election Data
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