Is ChatGPT stealing traffic from Google? Here’s what the data says

A week ago, I stumbled on a stat that completely debunks a popular theory in the Google Ads space:

“AI chatbots are stealing traffic from Google Search.”

At first glance, it “feels” true.

Everyone is using chatbots–for literally everything.

So it makes sense to assume they’re taking attention away from Google.

But the data’s telling a different story.

In 2024, Google Search grew by over 22%.

Yes, you read that right—they actually grew.

That’s a huge leap for a product that’s been around for over 20 years and already dominated its space.

Here’s where it gets interesting…

Google gets around 14 billion searches per day.

In comparison, ChatGPT peaks at about 37.5 million daily messages with search-like intent.

That’s a 373X difference.

To put that in perspective, it’s like comparing the Pacific Ocean to a swimming pool.

Even if you stacked all the major AI tools together, they still make up less than 2% of total search activity.

This backs up something I’ve been saying for a while…

AI chatbots are changing how people use the internet—but Google’s not falling behind.

They’ve rolled out AI Overviews, Gemini-powered shopping tools, and smarter user experience.

Google is baking AI into every corner of their ecosystem, especially the ad platform.

The data doesn’t lie:

Google still holds 93.57% of the global search market share.

The data may not directly measure commercial clicks, but it shows something important:

Google’s still running the show.

Now to be clear, I’m not saying you should ignore AI.

It’s evolving fast. It’s powerful. And it’ll keep changing the way people use the internet.

But don’t buy the hype that AI is killing search.

It’s not.

Smart brands are expanding their presence across Google’s ecosystem.

And at the same time, they look for ways to weave AI chatbots into your marketing when the opportunity comes.

When you show up in both spaces—like we did for this brand—you leave your competitors with no room to breathe.

Jackson

Founder and CEO of Echelonn.

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