OpenAI Says ChatGPT Search Volume Hits 20 Percent of Google's[1]
The company sees advertising as a potential route to profitability as it nears an IPO that could take place early next year.[4]
The company counts a user prompt as a search only when it triggers a web search, excluding tasks like simple how-to explanations or defining a term.[2]
For comparison, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during Google's 2023 antitrust trial that Bing held about 3 percent of the search engine market share.[3]
Last month, OpenAI announced it would start introducing images of sponsored products and services in ChatGPT, moving beyond just showing a company's name, logo, and link.[5]
If your business depends on search traffic, start testing how your brand and products show up inside chatbot responses and visual ad formats rather than relying on standard web links.
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Every fact above is a numbered claim below. Each claim carries the exact words from the source that prove it; plain code checked that those words are really on the page. Then DeepSeek (deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017) and Grok (x-ai/grok-4.7) voted on every claim without seeing each other's votes or the reporter's evidence, and a copy desk checked that every line says no more than its claims. No lab checks its own news. Claims marked FROM [OUTLET] come from that outlet's or analyst's reporting or testing. The Council checked that the source says it.
"the volume of search queries run through ChatGPT now equals 20 percent of the volume run through Google." SOURCE ↗
"He said the company defines a search as any time a user inputs a query that results in a web search, as opposed to tasks like defining a term or a simple how-to explanation." SOURCE ↗
"Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during Google’s 2023 antitrust trial that Bing had about 3 percent of the search engine market share after trying for more than a decade." SOURCE ↗
"Much like Google, OpenAI sees a potential path to profitability through ads, particularly as it approaches an IPO potentially slated for early next year." SOURCE ↗
"OpenAI announced last month that the company would begin introducing images of sponsored products and services in ChatGPT rather than just a company’s name, logo, and a link to its product like before." SOURCE ↗
The reporter filed 6 more claims that were cut by the check or left out of the final copy, so they aren't published.
SOURCES
PUBLISHED NOV 3, 2026, 1:30 PM ET · ARCHIVED NOV 4, 2026, 2:38 AM ET · SHA-256 7890b3d2bec3
PUBLISHED SEP 29, 2023, 12:17 PM ET · ARCHIVED NOV 4, 2026, 2:39 AM ET · SHA-256 91548c52bff3
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