AI vs Search Traffic Analysis

How much traffic ChatGPT and other AI platforms send to websites compared with Google and other search engines.

118,671 sites analyzed

Analyzed for Jun ’25 – Oct ’26

Based on data from our free Web Analytics

Updated: Nov 12, 2026

AI vs Search

Search Engines

Browsers

UGC Citations

AI Bot Activity

Absolute traffic trend

Total monthly traffic across the same 118,671 sites using Ahrefs Web Analytics. Tracking a fixed set of sites shows how overall traffic really changes over time.

Absolute traffic by channel

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All traffic sources comparison

Oct 2026

Latest month’s absolute traffic volumes and month-over-month percentage point (pp) changes for all tracked sources.

Traffic Channels

Direct

374.2M(31.08%)−8.21 pp

Search

331.6M(27.55%)+0.73 pp

Unknown

229.2M(19.03%)+5.41 pp

Paid

202.0M(16.77%)+1.29 pp

Social

93.7M(7.78%)+0.36 pp

Email

13.7M(1.14%)+0.10 pp

AI Assistants

5.4M(0.46%)+0.03 pp

Referral

3.3M(0.27%)−0.01 pp

Traditional Search Engines

Google

297.8M(24.74%)+0.78 pp

Bing

14.3M(1.19%)+0.06 pp

Yahoo!

9.0M(0.75%)−0.01 pp

Yandex

3.3M(0.27%)−0.12 pp

DuckDuckGo

2.8M(0.23%)

AI Assistants

ChatGPT

4.3M(0.36%)+0.02 pp

Meta AI

757.4K(0.06%)+0.01 pp

Gemini

183.3K(0.02%)

Claude

164.6K(0.01%)

Perplexity

61.3K(0.01%)

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Traffic share by category

Traffic distribution across major categories over time.

Search

27.55%+0.73 pp

AI Search

0.46%+0.03 pp

Unknown

19.03%+5.41 pp

Paid

16.77%+1.29 pp

Direct

31.08%−8.21 pp

Social

7.78%+0.36 pp

Email

1.14%+0.10 pp

Referral

0.27%−0.01 pp

These eight categories overlap and do not add up to 100%: Search and AI Search are based on the referring source, while Unknown, Paid, Direct, Social, Email and Referral are channel types. For Oct 2026 they total 104.1%. Search covers Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo!, Yandex, Naver, Baidu, Brave, Ecosia, AOL, Cốc Cốc.

Traffic mix by site volume

Oct 2026

How the channel mix shifts as sites grow from a few hundred to millions of monthly visitors. Sites are bucketed by total monthly visitors; for each band we average the per-site channel mix (Organic / Direct / Paid / AI / Other) so each bar still sums to 100%.

Site count per band

Traffic share by source

All traffic sources displayed on the same percentage scale for direct comparison

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Month-over-month growth comparison

% change in visitors sent by each source: (This month − Last month) / Last month. Indicates how fast traffic is growing or declining.

Period	Google	ChatGPT	Bing	DuckDuckGo	Claude	Perplexity	Gemini	Yahoo!	Yandex	Naver	Baidu	Brave	Ecosia	AOL	Cốc Cốc	Meta AI
Sep 2026 → Oct 2026	↓ 2.3%	↑ 0.4%	↑ 0.3%	↑ 2.4%	↑ 75.9%	↓ 10.6%	↓ 30.8%	↓ 3.7%	↓ 19.4%	↓ 1.4%	↓ 10.5%	0.0%	↓ 1.5%	↓ 7.9%	↑ 9.5%	↑ 3.3%
Aug 2026 → Sep 2026	↓ 2.7%	↑ 14.1%	↑ 2.1%	↓ 4.4%	↓ 17.2%	↑ 3.5%	↑ 40.4%	↓ 2.2%	↓ 3.0%	↑ 8.2%	↓ 5.3%	↑ 26.3%	↓ 1.5%	↑ 90.3%	↓ 13.8%	↓ 10.5%
Jul 2026 → Aug 2026	↓ 7.2%	↑ 33.2%	↑ 0.8%	↑ 1.7%	↓ 11.1%	↓ 23.3%	↑ 7.4%	↑ 5.9%	↑ 10.6%	↑ 103.2%	↑ 57.9%	↑ 5.1%	↓ 0.9%	↓ 86.4%	↓ 9.5%	↓ 23.9%
Jun 2026 → Jul 2026	↑ 1.1%	↓ 9.0%	↑ 1.0%	↑ 7.8%	↓ 25.0%	↓ 21.5%	↑ 14.5%	↓ 0.1%	↓ 0.5%	↓ 16.8%	↑ 12.4%	↑ 0.9%	↑ 1.4%	↓ 64.1%	↑ 7.8%	↑ 1.6%
May 2026 → Jun 2026	↓ 4.0%	↓ 12.7%	↓ 1.8%	↑ 2.1%	0.0%	↓ 31.4%	↓ 9.9%	↓ 5.9%	↓ 6.4%	↓ 4.4%	↓ 5.6%	↓ 0.1%	↑ 1.3%	↓ 32.9%	↑ 12.9%	↑ 32.7%
Apr 2026 → May 2026	↓ 5.7%	↑ 59.4%	↓ 5.0%	↑ 4.2%	↓ 0.9%	↓ 18.0%	↓ 20.7%	↑ 2.3%	↓ 7.4%	↓ 13.9%	↑ 6.1%	↑ 11.6%	↑ 2.2%	↓ 28.4%	↑ 1.2%	↓ 0.5%
Mar 2026 → Apr 2026	↓ 9.3%	↓ 12.0%	↓ 7.8%	↓ 8.4%	↓ 4.2%	↓ 11.0%	↑ 0.1%	↓ 8.9%	↓ 2.4%	↓ 7.6%	↓ 2.8%	↑ 3.6%	↓ 10.8%	↓ 22.8%	↓ 9.9%	↓ 28.5%
Feb 2026 → Mar 2026	↑ 7.7%	↑ 0.4%	↑ 6.4%	↑ 4.5%	↑ 154.8%	↓ 1.2%	↑ 21.9%	↑ 4.9%	↑ 7.4%	↑ 28.9%	↑ 17.7%	↑ 10.7%	↑ 5.7%	↑ 90.2%	↑ 31.6%	↓ 14.5%
Jan 2026 → Feb 2026	↓ 10.3%	↓ 14.3%	↓ 9.1%	↓ 25.1%	↑ 43.0%	↓ 16.4%	↓ 1.7%	↓ 11.6%	↓ 9.3%	↓ 12.6%	↓ 24.7%	↓ 13.0%	↓ 5.0%	↓ 14.4%	↓ 15.0%	↓ 27.4%
Dec 2025 → Jan 2026	↑ 0.8%	↑ 9.8%	↑ 6.1%	↑ 7.0%	↑ 21.0%	↓ 13.4%	↑ 53.9%	↑ 2.3%	↓ 2.1%	↑ 0.5%	↑ 7.7%	↑ 1.2%	↑ 13.3%	↓ 15.7%	↑ 4.8%	↑ 24.7%
Nov 2025 → Dec 2025	↑ 3.1%	↓ 11.1%	↓ 3.0%	↑ 14.7%	↓ 17.3%	↓ 18.1%	↑ 32.3%	↓ 1.9%	↓ 12.1%	↑ 11.3%	↑ 5.7%	↑ 1.1%	↓ 2.2%	↑ 33.5%	↑ 2.7%	↑ 0.3%
Oct 2025 → Nov 2025	↓ 5.8%	↑ 0.1%	↓ 7.3%	↓ 3.5%	↓ 2.8%	↓ 4.8%	↓ 0.2%	↓ 5.7%	↓ 15.2%	↑ 0.9%	↑ 3.8%	↓ 1.2%	↓ 2.4%	↓ 14.6%	↓ 8.9%	↓ 2.2%
Sep 2025 → Oct 2025	↓ 2.3%	↑ 5.5%	↑ 2.0%	↑ 4.6%	↓ 2.3%	↓ 4.1%	↓ 0.7%	↓ 0.2%	↑ 8.0%	↓ 4.0%	↓ 6.2%	↑ 8.7%	↑ 4.9%	↑ 35.1%	↑ 5.5%	↑ 11.8%
Aug 2025 → Sep 2025	↓ 3.8%	↑ 12.1%	↑ 2.6%	↑ 0.9%	↑ 8.5%	↑ 25.2%	↑ 35.5%	0.0%	↑ 2.4%	↓ 12.0%	↓ 3.9%	↑ 0.9%	↑ 2.8%	↓ 14.2%	↓ 14.9%	↑ 1.3%
Jul 2025 → Aug 2025	↓ 4.6%	↑ 5.7%	↓ 2.6%	↓ 2.6%	↓ 10.1%	↑ 8.1%	↓ 13.1%	↑ 1.1%	↑ 0.4%	↓ 3.2%	↓ 5.8%	↓ 2.4%	↑ 2.8%	↑ 16.0%	↓ 9.5%	↑ 14.9%
Jun 2025 → Jul 2025	↑ 1.5%	↑ 5.4%	↑ 3.2%	↑ 6.3%	↑ 5.6%	↑ 5.1%	↓ 1.3%	↑ 4.4%	↓ 2.3%	↑ 8.9%	↑ 3.4%	↑ 7.8%	↑ 4.3%	↑ 14.3%	↓ 15.6%	↑ 21.9%
May 2025 → Jun 2025	↓ 6.8%	↑ 1.6%	↓ 4.2%	↓ 4.6%	↑ 108.7%	↓ 8.9%	↑ 2.6%	↓ 5.3%	↓ 23.2%	↓ 8.1%	↓ 19.3%	↓ 8.8%	↓ 4.9%	↓ 4.8%	↓ 16.3%	↓ 21.8%
Average	↓ 3.0%	↑ 5.2%	↓ 1.0%	↑ 0.4%	↑ 19.2%	↓ 8.3%	↑ 7.7%	↓ 1.4%	↓ 4.4%	↑ 4.6%	↑ 1.8%	↑ 3.1%	↑ 0.6%	↓ 1.6%	↓ 2.2%	↓ 1.0%

Traffic share within different regions

Oct 2026

Shows how web traffic is distributed across different continents and regions.

Europe

Google

40.17%

Bing

1.57%

Yandex

0.84%

ChatGPT

0.49%

DuckDuckGo

0.24%

Yahoo!

0.20%

Ecosia

0.14%

Meta AI

0.09%

Brave

0.03%

Claude

0.01%

Perplexity

0.01%

Gemini

0.01%

Others56.20%

Oceania

Google

38.36%

Bing

2.05%

ChatGPT

0.53%

Yahoo!

0.31%

DuckDuckGo

0.29%

Meta AI

0.19%

Ecosia

0.06%

Yandex

0.02%

Naver

0.02%

Claude

0.02%

Brave

0.01%

Perplexity

0.01%

Gemini

0.01%

Others58.12%

Asia

Google

32.60%

Yahoo!

1.90%

Bing

1.21%

Naver

0.66%

ChatGPT

0.37%

Yandex

0.22%

Cốc Cốc

0.19%

DuckDuckGo

0.13%

Baidu

0.11%

Meta AI

0.08%

Brave

0.02%

Gemini

0.02%

Ecosia

0.01%

Claude

0.01%

Perplexity

0.01%

Others62.46%

North America

Google

25.29%

Bing

1.82%

Yahoo!

0.54%

DuckDuckGo

0.43%

ChatGPT

0.28%

Meta AI

0.12%

Ecosia

0.04%

Yandex

0.03%

Naver

0.01%

Brave

0.01%

Claude

0.01%

Gemini

0.01%

Others71.41%

Africa

Google

24.49%

Bing

1.20%

ChatGPT

0.62%

Meta AI

0.08%

Yahoo!

0.07%

DuckDuckGo

0.05%

Yandex

0.04%

Brave

0.02%

Claude

0.02%

Gemini

0.02%

Ecosia

0.01%

Perplexity

0.01%

Others73.37%

South America

Google

23.67%

Bing

0.76%

Meta AI

0.48%

ChatGPT

0.27%

Yahoo!

0.11%

DuckDuckGo

0.03%

Yandex

0.01%

Ecosia

0.01%

Claude

0.01%

Gemini

0.01%

Others74.64%

Traffic Share by Region

Month-over-month regional growth trends

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Traffic share across different industries

Oct 2026

Breakdown of traffic sources across different industry sectors and verticals.

News91.1%

Google30.2%

Naver1.3%

Bing0.6%

Yahoo!0.2%

DuckDuckGo0.1%

ChatGPT0.1%

Ecosia0.0%

Others8.9%

Home and Garden65.9%

Google12.0%

Bing0.4%

Yahoo!0.2%

ChatGPT0.2%

DuckDuckGo0.1%

Ecosia0.0%

Yandex0.0%

Brave0.0%

Gemini0.0%

Others34.1%

People and Society65.8%

Google22.2%

Bing0.7%

Yahoo!0.4%

ChatGPT0.2%

DuckDuckGo0.2%

Ecosia0.0%

Brave0.0%

Others34.3%

Finance64.5%

Google6.5%

Bing0.6%

Yahoo!0.6%

ChatGPT0.1%

DuckDuckGo0.0%

Naver0.0%

Others35.5%

Computers and Electronics62.8%

Google23.9%

Bing1.0%

Yahoo!0.2%

ChatGPT0.2%

DuckDuckGo0.1%

Yandex0.1%

Baidu0.0%

Ecosia0.0%

Naver0.0%

Brave0.0%

Gemini0.0%

Meta AI0.0%

Others37.2%

Travel and Transportation55.5%

Google8.7%

Meta AI0.6%

Bing0.3%

ChatGPT0.3%

Yahoo!0.2%

DuckDuckGo0.1%

Ecosia0.0%

Yandex0.0%

Brave0.0%

Cốc Cốc0.0%

Gemini0.0%

Others44.5%

Food and Drink52.8%

Google35.5%

Bing0.3%

DuckDuckGo0.1%

Yahoo!0.1%

ChatGPT0.1%

Ecosia0.0%

Yandex0.0%

Brave0.0%

Others47.2%

Law and Government50.4%

Google12.7%

Bing1.7%

Yahoo!0.9%

DuckDuckGo0.1%

ChatGPT0.1%

Ecosia0.1%

Gemini0.0%

Yandex0.0%

Brave0.0%

Others49.6%

Beauty and Fitness43.4%

Google7.3%

ChatGPT0.4%

Meta AI0.3%

Bing0.2%

Yahoo!0.1%

DuckDuckGo0.0%

Ecosia0.0%

Yandex0.0%

Baidu0.0%

Others56.6%

Jobs and Education42.0%

Google10.9%

Bing0.8%

ChatGPT0.3%

Yahoo!0.2%

Yandex0.1%

DuckDuckGo0.1%

Ecosia0.0%

Meta AI0.0%

Naver0.0%

Baidu0.0%

Gemini0.0%

Brave0.0%

Perplexity0.0%

Others58.0%

Autos and Vehicles41.1%

Google8.3%

Bing0.2%

ChatGPT0.1%

DuckDuckGo0.0%

Yahoo!0.0%

Yandex0.0%

Others58.9%

Pets and Animals40.9%

Google6.9%

Bing0.2%

Yahoo!0.1%

ChatGPT0.1%

DuckDuckGo0.1%

Ecosia0.0%

Baidu0.0%

Others59.1%

Sports40.5%

Google10.2%

Cốc Cốc0.3%

Bing0.3%

Yahoo!0.1%

DuckDuckGo0.1%

ChatGPT0.0%

Yandex0.0%

Ecosia0.0%

Others59.5%

Arts and Entertainment37.0%

Google15.8%

Bing0.3%

Yahoo!0.2%

DuckDuckGo0.1%

ChatGPT0.0%

Meta AI0.0%

Ecosia0.0%

Yandex0.0%

Brave0.0%

AOL0.0%

Others63.0%

Business and Industrial35.3%

Google7.1%

Bing0.8%

Yahoo!0.3%

ChatGPT0.2%

DuckDuckGo0.0%

Gemini0.0%

Yandex0.0%

Ecosia0.0%

Brave0.0%

Cốc Cốc0.0%

Perplexity0.0%

Others64.7%

Real Estate34.9%

Google7.0%

Yahoo!0.5%

Bing0.4%

ChatGPT0.3%

DuckDuckGo0.0%

Brave0.0%

Ecosia0.0%

Others65.1%

Internet and Telecom34.0%

Google7.2%

Bing0.8%

Yahoo!0.2%

ChatGPT0.2%

DuckDuckGo0.1%

Claude0.1%

Yandex0.1%

Brave0.0%

Ecosia0.0%

Cốc Cốc0.0%

Gemini0.0%

Others66.0%

Shopping29.2%

Google4.3%

Yahoo!0.2%

Bing0.1%

ChatGPT0.1%

DuckDuckGo0.0%

Yandex0.0%

Ecosia0.0%

Others70.8%

Health27.1%

Google8.3%

Yahoo!0.8%

Bing0.4%

DuckDuckGo0.1%

ChatGPT0.1%

Ecosia0.0%

Brave0.0%

Meta AI0.0%

Others72.9%

Hobbies and Leisure23.2%

Google6.5%

Bing0.7%

Yahoo!0.1%

ChatGPT0.1%

DuckDuckGo0.1%

Ecosia0.1%

Naver0.0%

Brave0.0%

Others76.8%

Online Communities19.2%

Google7.6%

Bing0.1%

DuckDuckGo0.0%

Yahoo!0.0%

ChatGPT0.0%

Brave0.0%

Ecosia0.0%

Others80.8%

Reference18.9%

Others81.1%

Games18.4%

Google4.3%

Bing0.3%

Yahoo!0.0%

DuckDuckGo0.0%

Yandex0.0%

Ecosia0.0%

ChatGPT0.0%

Others81.7%

Adult15.5%

Google11.7%

Bing0.1%

Yahoo!0.1%

DuckDuckGo0.0%

Yandex0.0%

Brave0.0%

Ecosia0.0%

Cốc Cốc0.0%

Others84.5%

Science14.5%

Google4.3%

Yahoo!1.8%

Bing0.1%

ChatGPT0.0%

DuckDuckGo0.0%

Ecosia0.0%

Others85.5%

Books and Literature9.2%

Google2.9%

Yandex0.1%

Bing0.0%

ChatGPT0.0%

Others90.8%

Key insights from the data

•

Bing grew visitors fastest among the larger sources (+0.3%)

Oct 2026: visitors from Bing grew 0.3%, the fastest among sources with at least 0.5% share. Its share rose from 1.13% to 1.19%. It stands out against a broadly softer market. 9 of 16 tracked sources declined.

•

Google visitors fell in October

Visitors from Google fell 2.3% in Oct 2026; Bing +0.3%, DuckDuckGo +2.4%.

•

Search engines hold 27.55% of tracked traffic, AI assistants 0.46%

Oct 2026: the search engines’ share went from 26.82% to 27.55% (+0.73 pp). The AI assistants’ share went from 0.43% to 0.46% (+0.03 pp).

•

Google holds 24.74% traffic share

Google’s share went from 23.96% to 24.74% (+0.78 pp).

•

ChatGPT has the largest share among AI assistants (0.36%)

Visitors from Claude grew 75.9%, the fastest among AI assistants. Visitors from Gemini fell 30.8%, the steepest drop.

Strategic Marketing Implications:

Key priorities for marketers in Oct 2026:

•

Optimize for ChatGPT Visitors from ChatGPT grew 0.4% this month. Keep content structured, citable, and accessible to its crawler.

•

Watch Google’s trajectory Keep investing in SEO, but expand beyond Google for resilience.

•

Don’t abandon multi-channel DuckDuckGo’s gain shows traffic still flows through many doors. Diversify rather than chase a single source.

Get real-time traffic insights for your website with free Ahrefs Web Analytics →