OpenAI tells a reporter ChatGPT search volume is about a fifth of Google's; SEO tool maker Ahrefs put it at about 12% of Google's in February

(event date Nov 2)

Concept illustration: a large white board is lettered OPENAI at the top, with an interlaced knot-shaped emblem to its left, and below it two screen-shaped placards stand on a ledge, the left lettered CHATGPT and the right lettered GOOGLE beside a multicoloured letter G. Under the ledge runs a row of six rectangular panels, each with a horizontal slot, the leftmost red on a pale pink patch and the other five pale grey, while a large rounded beige block, partly cut off by the frame, sits at the upper right next to the board's right edge. Printed on the image: 1/5 ChatGPT search volume vs Google's, OpenAI says.

Tech reporter Alex Kantrowitz relayed OpenAI's internal figures on X on November 2. Google advertisers and Alphabet investors can't yet use OpenAI's figure of a fifth of Google's search volume to size the shift to ChatGPT. OpenAI hasn't said how it counts, and Ahrefs estimated a lower 12% in February.

Kantrowitz writes the tech newsletter and show Big Technology. The post quotes OpenAI as saying "ChatGPT search volume is already about a fifth of Google’s," and OpenAI added that the share is growing fast (Kantrowitz, 2026-11-02). The post doesn't say how "search volume" is counted. Kantrowitz says in the post that more is coming.

The third-party estimate is lower. Patrick Stox of Ahrefs, which makes website-traffic and keyword-analysis tools, estimated on February 11 that, counting only queries people traditionally take to Google, ChatGPT's volume is about 12% of Google's. The same post estimates that Google sends 190 times as much traffic to outside websites as ChatGPT does (Ahrefs, 2026-02-11). The two figures are nine months apart and use different methods, so it isn't yet possible to tell whether the gap comes from definitions or from growth. Google also says queries in AI Mode, its conversational search interface, earn less ad revenue. According to a summary by Latent Space, an AI industry newsletter, Google chief business officer Philipp Schindler said on the October 29 earnings call that the conversational AI Mode in Google Search brings in less ad revenue per query, which weighed on search results (Latent Space, 2026-10-31).

The SecondSource website covered this item on November 3.

Not proven yet: the fifth is OpenAI's own figure, and the post doesn't say how it's counted How we checked →

Next to watch: whether Kantrowitz's follow-up in Big Technology says how OpenAI counts search volume, and how Google talks about AI Mode ad revenue on its next earnings call.

Source and checks

This item ran in the brief of Nov 4, 2026, alongside 10 other items. How we checked it, the quote checks and what was still missing that day are on that issue's How we checked page.

Cite this item

SecondSource (2026). "OpenAI tells a reporter ChatGPT search volume is about a fifth of Google's; SEO tool maker Ahrefs put it at about 12% of Google's in February." https://secondsource.io/en/news/2026-11-04-8/. Accessed access date.