OpenAI says the volume of searches made through ChatGPT is now equal to about one fifth of Google?s search volume. Adam Fry, OpenAI?s consumer product lead for ChatGPT, shared the comparison at a press event, The Verge reports. The company did not reveal its source for Google?s volume, so the comparison cannot be independently verified from the information provided.
This is not a count of every message sent to the chatbot. OpenAI defines a search as a user query that triggers a web search. A request for current information about a company, place or event could lead to a search; an ordinary explanation that does not trigger one is outside this measure.
What the 20% figure means
If OpenAI?s estimate holds, ChatGPT handles about one search-triggering query for every five Google searches. That compares two services. It does not mean ChatGPT owns 20% of the entire search market. Calculating market share would require figures for all providers and a consistent way of counting their searches.
There are other gaps in the comparison. The Verge does not state the period covered, and OpenAI did not identify the source of its Google number. We also do not know how closely the companies? counting methods align across different interfaces. The figure is therefore best treated as OpenAI?s estimate, rather than an independently audited result.
For context, Google said in May 2025 that it handled more than five trillion searches a year. That is Google?s own earlier figure, not necessarily the baseline OpenAI used. Multiplying it by 20% would not give us a reliable current count for ChatGPT.
How conversational search changes the experience
A chatbot can offer a different starting point from a list of search results. You might ask a question, receive a summary, then follow up to compare information or clarify a detail. Source pages still matter: opening them lets you check dates, evidence and context that a short answer may leave out.
For publishers, more searches starting in a chat interface could change how readers discover their work. Someone may read an answer in the conversation before deciding whether to follow a link. The announcement does not tell us how many visits publishers have gained or lost, however, so it cannot establish the impact on traffic.
Google is also adding conversational AI to search. In May 2026, the company said its AI Mode had passed one billion monthly active users worldwide. That is a count of people, not searches, so it cannot be compared directly with OpenAI?s percentage. It shows that conversational search is developing inside Google as well.
For now, the careful takeaway is that OpenAI says ChatGPT search has reached a substantial scale relative to Google. More comparable data and a published methodology would make it easier to see how accurate the estimate is and how the relationship changes over time.
You can explore different AI models in one place with GPTunneL. Whatever tool you use, open the sources and check their dates when the facts matter: an AI answer can be a useful starting point, but it still needs verification.