Google vs AI search: the real numbers
Google is still the biggest search engine in the world. But in under four years, AI assistants went from zero to more than a billion people a week. Here is what the companies themselves have published, with a source for every number.
People using AI assistants
ChatGPT = weekly active users. Gemini and Grok = monthly active users. Each dot is a published figure; lines only join real data points.
Google searches vs ChatGPT messages, per day
Google is still far bigger, but ChatGPT went from about 0.45 billion to 2.5 billion messages a day in about a year.
The takeaway for local businesses
- Google is still huge: more than 5 trillion searches a year.
- AI search is growing fast: ChatGPT grew from 100 million weekly users (Nov 2023) to 1.2 billion (Sep 2026). Gemini passed 1 billion monthly users in Aug 2026.
- AI gives one short answer, not ten blue links. If the assistant doesn't name your business, the customer may never see you.
Ranking on Google is no longer enough. You also need to be the business AI names. Our Free AEO Check shows you whether ChatGPT and Gemini recommend you, and who they name instead.
Run my Free AEO Check →Sources and data
| Engine | As of | Figure | Source (published) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 2022-12-05 | 1 million total users (not weekly) Total sign-ups, not weekly active users; plotted as a marker only. | Sam Altman on X (2022-12-05) |
| ChatGPT | 2023-11-06 | 100 million weekly active users | TechCrunch (OpenAI DevDay) (2023-11-06) |
| ChatGPT | 2024-08-29 | 200 million weekly active users | Axios (confirmed by OpenAI) (2024-08-29) |
| ChatGPT | 2024-12-04 | 300 million weekly active users | The Verge (Sam Altman, NYT DealBook) (2024-12-04) |
| ChatGPT | 2025-02-20 | 400 million weekly active users | CNBC (OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap) (2025-02-20) |
| ChatGPT | 2025-08-04 | 700 million weekly active users | CNBC (OpenAI's Nick Turley) (2025-08-04) |
| ChatGPT | 2025-10-06 | 800 million weekly active users | TechCrunch (Sam Altman, OpenAI DevDay) (2025-10-06) |
| ChatGPT | 2026-02-27 | 900 million weekly active users | TechCrunch (OpenAI announcement) (2026-02-27) |
| ChatGPT | 2026-09-29 | 1.2 billion weekly active users | The Verge (OpenAI DevDay 2026) (2026-09-29) |
| Gemini | 2024-10-31 | 90 million monthly active users | 9to5Google (Google data shown in DOJ court hearing) (2025-04-23) |
| Gemini | 2025-03-31 | 350 million monthly active users | The Verge (Google data shown in DOJ court hearing) (2025-04-23) |
| Gemini | 2025-07-23 | 450 million monthly active users | Alphabet Q2 2025 earnings (Sundar Pichai) (2025-07-23) |
| Gemini | 2025-10-29 | 650 million monthly active users | Alphabet Q3 2025 earnings (Sundar Pichai) (2025-10-29) |
| Gemini | 2026-02-04 | 750 million monthly active users | Alphabet Q4 2025 earnings (Sundar Pichai) (2026-02-04) |
| Gemini | 2026-07-22 | 950 million monthly active users | Alphabet Q2 2026 earnings call (2026-07-22) |
| Gemini | 2026-08-11 | 1 billion monthly active users | Google blog (2026-08-11) |
| Grok | 2025-09-30 | 64 million monthly users (reported) Press report of an internal xAI figure, not an official public statement. | The Information, via Panto AI summary (xAI internal figure shared with staff) (2025-09) |
| Grok | 2025-12-31 | 89 million monthly active users of Grok AI features | SpaceX Form S-1 filed with the SEC (via PitchBook) (2026-06-01) |
| Grok | 2026-03-31 | 117 million monthly active users of Grok AI features | SpaceX Form S-1/A filed with the SEC (via PitchBook) (2026-06-01) |
| 2025 (Jan 2025 data) | 13.7 billion searches per day 5 trillion / 365 = about 13.7 billion per day (our arithmetic on Google's figure; Google says 'more than', so this is a floor) | Google Ads & Commerce blog (2025-03-03) | |
| ChatGPT | June 2024 | 451 million consumer messages per day | OpenAI / NBER 'How People Use ChatGPT' (via Rank.ai summary) (2025-09-15) |
| ChatGPT | Dec 2024 | 1 billion messages per day | The Verge (Sam Altman) (2024-12-04) |
| ChatGPT | July 2025 | 2.5 billion prompts per day | The Verge (Axios data, confirmed by OpenAI) (2025-07-21) |
Projection to 2029 (Get Local AEO projection, not published data)
For each series: take the annualized growth between the latest published figure and the earliest published figure within the prior ~15 months. Cap that starting growth at 50% a year, then halve the growth rate every year (50%, 25%, 12.5%). Step one year at a time from the latest published date through 2029. No series may exceed 4,000 million users (our assumed ceiling, about 73% of the 5.5 billion people online in 2024 per ITU). These are illustrations of a slowing-growth scenario, not forecasts by OpenAI, Google or xAI. Ceiling reference: ITU Facts and Figures 2024: an estimated 5.5 billion people online in 2024 (2024-11-27).
| ChatGPT | Growth basis 2025-08-04 (700M) to 2026-09-29 (1200M): 60%/yr observed, 50% used | 2027: ~1.80B · 2028: ~2.25B · 2029: ~2.53B |
| Gemini | Growth basis 2025-07-23 (450M) to 2026-08-11 (1000M): 114%/yr observed, 50% used | 2027: ~1.50B · 2028: ~1.88B · 2029: ~2.11B |
| Grok | Growth basis 2025-12-31 (89M) to 2026-03-31 (117M): 204%/yr observed, 50% used | 2027: ~176M · 2028: ~219M · 2029: ~247M |
Published forecast: Gartner press release: 'By 2026, traditional search engine volume will drop 25%' due to AI chatbots and virtual agents (2024-02-19). A third-party prediction about traditional search volume, not plotted. Google has not published a 2026 search total, so it cannot yet be checked; Google says queries hit an all-time high in Q1 2026.
Gaps we could not fill with published data
- Google: no official total user count for Search, so Google is not on the users chart. No official annual or daily search total for 2022, 2023, 2024 or 2026 (Google said Q1 2026 queries were at an 'all-time high' but gave no number). Similarweb visit counts for google.com are paywalled, so not used.
- ChatGPT: no official weekly-user figure for 2022 or most of 2023 (only '1M users in 5 days'); no official daily-message figure after Aug 2025.
- Gemini: no official user figure for 2022-2023 (Bard era) or most of 2024.
- Grok: no user figure for 2022-2024; no official figure after Mar 31, 2026 found. The Sep 2025 figure is a press report, not an xAI statement.
- No engine publishes daily searches in a way that is directly comparable to ChatGPT messages; Gemini and Grok publish no daily query counts.
Compiled 2026-10-21. No numbers were estimated or filled in between data points. Raw data: google-vs-ai-search-data.json.