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ChatGPT’s real search volume is roughly 4–12% of Google’s — far more than click data suggests. Peec’s analysis (full study, Oct 2025) corrects the widely quoted 0.6% figure from Ahrefs click data, which undercounts ChatGPT because ChatGPT answers directly and rarely needs a click, while Google’s blue links demand them. Two independent methods converge:
  • Usage data: OpenAI/Harvard research (Sep 2025) reports 2.5 billion ChatGPT prompts per day, 24% classified as information-seeking → ~600 million searches/day, vs Google’s ~14 billion → 4.3%.
  • Referral traffic adjusted for CTR: Google converts ~40% of searches to external clicks; AI-answer surfaces convert ~5% (iPullrank measured 3.8–5.4% for Google AI Mode; Semrush ~3–7%). Re-basing the Ahrefs click ratio on those CTRs yields 4.6%, or up to 12% if ChatGPT’s CTR is as low as 2%.
Bottom line (Oct 2025 estimates): ChatGPT processes roughly 500 million to 1.7 billion searches per day; Google is 8× to 22× bigger by search volume — but ChatGPT is more than an order of magnitude bigger than click-through data implies. Google’s own AI surface is larger still: AI Overviews reaches 2.5 billion monthly users — see How often AI Overviews appears. Source: The real search engine market share of ChatGPT, Peec (Malte Landwehr), Oct 2025.