While ChatGPT has nearly a fifth of Google’s query volume, people use the platforms in different ways.
I wanted to see how ChatGPT compared to Google, not just on the total number of searches, but also searches where they compete with Google, how much traffic they send to websites, and the CTR differences in the systems.
Let’s dig in.
I’ve seen some studies that used those numbers for comparison, but I don’t agree with them. Google does more than just search. There are tools for calculations, translation, and more which are included in other categories in the study. Even things like coding help are categorized differently, but devs have been searching issues on Google (and Stack Overflow) for many years.
For example, we see hundreds of millions of searches every month for people looking to translate things on Google.
Looking at their examples, I would classify 65% of the searches on ChatGPT as things that were traditionally searched on Google. This is higher than what the researchers classified, but I have more access to data on what people search than they did.
| Category | % of ChatGPT Usage | ChatGPT Daily Volume | % of Google’s Volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pure Search (facts, products, recipes) | 24.0% | 600 million | 4.38% |
| Asking Intent (search + advice) | 51.6% | 1.29 billion | 9.42% |
| My Search Classification (things people traditionally searched on Google) | 65.0% | 1.625 billion | 11.86% |
ChatGPT gets ~12% of the search volume of Google for things people have traditionally searched for on Google. For some comparison, it’s estimated that Bing gets 1.2 billion searches a day. ChatGPT has surpassed Bing in search!
If we look at the traffic coming to websites, Google sends 190x more traffic to websites than ChatGPT. Google makes up nearly 40% of traffic to websites and ChatGPT just 0.21%.
This is where the platforms diverge completely.
I ran the numbers for the different classifications, but again I believe that my search classification is more accurate than those from the paper. I came up with ChatGPT having a 96% lower CTR than Google.
Calculation method: Estimated CTR = (Traffic Share % / Daily Queries in billions) × 10
| Platform/Category | Daily Queries | Traffic Share | Estimated CTR | CTR vs Google |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13.7 billion | 39.98% | 29.2% | Baseline | |
| ChatGPT (Pure Search) | 600 million | 0.21% | 3.5% | 88% lower |
| ChatGPT (Asking Intent) | 1.29 billion | 0.21% | 1.6% | 94% lower |
| ChatGPT (My Search Classification) | 1.625 billion | 0.21% | 1.3% | 96% lower |
| ChatGPT (All Usage) | 2.5 billion | 0.21% | 0.84% | 97% lower |
Final thoughts
Google remains the dominant search engine with 5.5x more daily activity. ChatGPT made headway into search in a short amount of time. They’ve passed longtime search rivals like Bing.
However, I’m not sure if website owners will accept the drop in traffic or if they will eventually push back on AI search.
Similar Posts
Thousands of Public Google Cloud API Keys Exposed with Gemini Access After API Enablement
New research has found that Google Cloud API keys, typically designated as project identifiers for billing purposes, could be abused to authenticate to sensitive Gemini endpoints and access private data. The findings come from Truffle Security, which discovered nearly 3,000 Google API keys (identified by the prefix “AIza”) embedded in client-side code to provide Google-related…
FBI Warns of UNC6040 and UNC6395 Targeting Salesforce Platforms in Data Theft Attacks
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a flash alert to release indicators of compromise (IoCs) associated with two cybercriminal groups tracked as UNC6040 and UNC6395 for a string of data theft and extortion attacks. “Both groups have recently been observed targeting organizations’ Salesforce platforms via different initial access mechanisms,” the FBI said….
Generative Engines Are Breaking Web Analytics and Hurting Their Future
Search is moving from traditional search engines to generative engines, but traffic from many of these sites isn’t being tracked properly in analytics. It’s their fault, not yours. I was looking at our LLM filter in Ahrefs Web Analytics and noticed some common generative engines missing from the list. They’re in our filters, but we aren’t…
3+ Best Free Minecraft Server Hosting 24/7 With Mods (Live)
Minecraft is a game where you get a gaming experience of fantastic adventure with limitless possibilities like mining, building safe zones, fighting, looting your enemy’s safe zones, and much more. It has come a long way since its launch and has become one of the most popular games in the world today. Usually, people play…
How buy now, pay later options can help your business grow
Sales are often won or lost at checkout, so giving customers more flexibility at that critical moment can make a big impact. Buy now, pay later (BNPL) options make it easier for shoppers to commit to larger purchases without putting extra risk on your business. As a merchant, you still get paid in full up…
