ChatGPT is seeing increased use for search-style queries, but Google continues to dominate global search activity.
According to new data shared by SparkToro CEO Rand Fishkin, ChatGPT processes about 66 million search-intent prompts per day, while Google handles approximately 14 billion daily searches. That makes Google’s search volume more than 210 times greater.
Key figures:
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman previously reported that ChatGPT handled 1 billion prompts per day in December 2023, rising to 2.5 billion by July 2024.
- A joint Harvard and OpenAI study estimated that 21.3% of prompts are “search-like”, leading to the current 66 million daily search-intent queries.
- Google processed 5 trillion searches in 2024, or about 14 billion per day.
- Estimates also suggest DuckDuckGo drives more referral traffic than ChatGPT.
Industry data indicates that AI-driven search accounts for less than 1% of web referrals, according to BrightEdge. Earlier this year, Fishkin noted that Google Search was approximately 373 times larger than ChatGPT.
Research from SparkToro and Datos suggests AI adoption does not reduce Google usage; in fact, users often increase their Google searches when adopting AI tools.
Outlook:
While AI-based discovery is expanding rapidly, the latest figures show that traditional search remains the dominant channel for online information and referral traffic.