This page collects the AI search statistics that matter for brands in 2026, in one place, each linked to its original source. It combines the latest third-party research with figures from the GEO Compass benchmark, our anonymised dataset of more than 900,000 AI answers.
Different studies measure different things (users, visits, traffic share, survey answers), so each figure says what it counts and when. We update this page as new data is published. You are welcome to cite any GEO Compass figure with a link to this page or the methodology.
How many people use AI search
- ChatGPT has more than 900 million weekly active users and more than 50 million paying subscribers (OpenAI, February 2026).
- Google's AI Mode has passed 1 billion monthly users, and the Gemini app has 950 million (Google, July 2026).
- AI Overviews reach more than 2 billion monthly users in over 200 countries and territories and 40 languages (Google, July 2025).
- Two in three adults (66%) across 21 countries used an AI tool or app in the past year (Google/Ipsos, survey fielded September–October 2025).
- 18.8% of the world's working-age population used a generative AI product in Q2 2026, by Microsoft's telemetry-based measure: 28.8% in the Global North and 16.2% in the Global South.
- ChatGPT accounts for about 80% of AI chatbot traffic worldwide, Gemini 11%, Perplexity 6%, Copilot 2% and Claude 1% (Statcounter, September 2026; a share of tracked traffic, not users).
- Weekly use of AI chatbots for news rose from 7% to 10% across 48 markets, and 16% among under-35s (Reuters Institute Digital News Report, June 2026).
What AI does to clicks
- When an AI summary appears, users click a traditional result on 8% of visits, against 15% without one, and click a link inside the summary on just 1% of visits (Pew Research Center, US, March 2025 data).
- The top-ranking page gets a 58% lower average click-through rate when an AI Overview is present (Ahrefs, 300,000 keywords, December 2025 data).
- Brands not cited in an AI Overview saw organic CTR fall 67% over 2025; brands that were cited got 120% more organic clicks per impression than those that weren't (Seer Interactive, 5.47 million queries, April 2026).
- Gartner predicted in 2024 that traditional search engine volume would drop 25% by 2026 as people turn to AI chatbots. Google reports that AI Mode is instead driving an incremental increase in overall search queries, so the shift is towards AI answers inside search, not only away from it.
What AI engines cite: GEO Compass data
From 916,000 AI answers and 6.6 million classified citations collected between August 2025 and September 2026 across 11 AI engines, 11 industries and 24 markets:
GEO Compass benchmark, all engines, industries and markets.
- 89% of AI answers cite at least one web source, and those answers cite 8.1 distinct websites on average.
- ChatGPT ran a live web search for 35% of answers in September 2025 and more than 95% a year later. Gemini went from 15% to over 80% (Trends).
- A brand's own website is cited in 73% of answers when the question names the brand, but only 12% when it doesn't. The brand is named in 27% of those unbranded answers (Branded vs unbranded).
- YouTube appears in 38% of Google AI Overviews answers with sources and 37% of AI Mode answers, against 4% for ChatGPT and under 1% for Claude.
- Reddit's share of AI answers fell from 27.6% to 11.3% on a fixed panel of studies between September 2025 and August 2026; YouTube's fell from 28.7% to 20.6% (Platforms).
- ChatGPT attached shopping or product modules to 71% of answers in August 2026, up from 32% a year earlier. Google AI Mode went from none to 38% (Trends).
- Google AI Mode cites 10.4 sources per answer; Gemini 4.4. Fewer sources means each citation carries more weight (Engines compared).
- 5% of AI answers that discuss brands frame them negatively, rising to 10% for trust and reputation questions and 15% for health questions.
Explore every figure by industry, engine and market in the explorer.
Asia-Pacific
- Australia: 48.6% of adults have used generative AI at least once (ANU, July 2026). In GEO Compass data, earned media supplies 39% of citations in Australian answers, about twice the benchmark average (Australia).
- Singapore: ranks second in the world for AI diffusion, with 64.3% of working-age people using generative AI (Microsoft, Q2 2026); 73.8% of workers use AI tools at work (IMDA). 11% get news via AI chatbots (Reuters Institute) (Singapore).
- Malaysia: 89% of internet users use AI, up from 75% in 2024 (Telenor Asia, 2025). In GEO Compass data, Wikipedia is cited in 24.5% of Malaysian answers with sources, about four times the average (Malaysia).
- Indonesia: one of ChatGPT's five largest markets (OpenAI, September 2025), and ChatGPT accounts for 85% of AI chatbot traffic (Statcounter, September 2026). Focus brands are named in 56% of unbranded Indonesian answers, but their own sites are cited in only 10% (Indonesia).
- India: 100 million weekly ChatGPT users, its second-largest market (February 2026). Marketplaces and aggregators supply 9% of citations in Indian answers, three times the average (India).
- South-east Asia: consumer interest in AI topics runs at about three times the global average (e-Conomy SEA 2025).
Europe
- 32.7% of people aged 16–74 in the EU used generative AI tools in 2025, from 48.4% in Denmark to 17.8% in Romania (Eurostat).
- In the UK, about 30% of searches show an AI Overview and 53% of adults say they often see them; ChatGPT had 1.8 billion UK visits in January–August 2025, up from 368 million a year earlier (Ofcom).
- In GEO Compass data, brands' own sites are cited in under 7% of unbranded European answers, and institutions, consumer bodies and national press do more of the work (Europe).
The research behind GEO
- The term comes from GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (Aggarwal et al., KDD 2024), which found that optimising how content is written and sourced can boost its visibility in generative engine responses by up to 40%.
Frequently asked questions
- How many people use ChatGPT?
- OpenAI reported more than 900 million weekly active ChatGPT users in February 2026. India alone has 100 million weekly users, making it ChatGPT's second-largest market.
- How many people use Google AI Overviews and AI Mode?
- Google reported more than 2 billion monthly users of AI Overviews in July 2025, and said in July 2026 that AI Mode had passed 1 billion monthly users.
- Do AI Overviews reduce clicks?
- Yes. Pew Research Center found users clicked a traditional search result on 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, against 15% without one. Ahrefs measured a 58% lower click-through rate for the top-ranking page when an AI Overview is present. Seer Interactive found brands cited inside an AI Overview get more organic clicks than brands that are not.
- What sources do AI engines cite most?
- In the GEO Compass benchmark of 900,000+ AI answers, brand and company websites supply 31% of cited sources, earned media 20%, academic and research 9%, institutions 8%, social and user-generated content 8%, government 5% and reference sites 4%.
Sources
- Scaling AI for everyone, OpenAI, 27 Feb 2026
- Q2 2026 earnings call: remarks from our CEO, Google, 22 Jul 2026
- Alphabet Q2 2025 earnings: CEO remarks, Google, 23 Jul 2025
- Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results, Pew Research Center, 22 Jul 2025
- AI Overviews reduce clicks by 58%, Ahrefs, 4 Feb 2026
- AIO impact on Google CTR: 2026 update, Seer Interactive, 24 Apr 2026
- Gartner predicts search engine volume will drop 25% by 2026, Gartner, 19 Feb 2024
- Digital News Report 2026: executive summary, Reuters Institute, 16 Jun 2026
- Google / Ipsos Multi-Country AI Survey 2026, Ipsos, 15 Jan 2026
- The continued state of global AI diffusion in 2026, Microsoft, 21 Sep 2026
- AI chatbot market share, Statcounter, September 2026
- GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (Aggarwal et al.), arXiv / KDD 2024
- Almost half of Australian adults have used generative AI, Australian National University, 9 Jul 2026
- Singapore Digital Economy Report 2025, IMDA, 6 Oct 2025
- Digital Lives Decoded 2025: Malaysia, Telenor Asia, Aug 2025
- India has 100M weekly active ChatGPT users, Sam Altman says, TechCrunch, 15 Feb 2026
- e-Conomy SEA 2025, Google, Temasek and Bain & Company, 11 Nov 2025
- 32.7% of EU people used generative AI tools in 2025, Eurostat, 16 Dec 2025
- From apps to AI search: how the UK goes online in 2025, Ofcom, 10 Dec 2025
Figures marked as GEO Compass data come from the anonymised GEO Compass benchmark of AI answers collected by We AI & Data Advisors. Related: AI search in Australia · AI search in Singapore · AI search in Malaysia · AI search in Indonesia · AI search in India · AI search in Europe