ChatGPT now processes 66 million “search-like” prompts per day, whereas Google nonetheless processes about 14 billion searches every day – roughly 210 occasions extra. That’s the newest AI search actuality verify, through Rand Fishkin, CEO and co-founder of SparkToro.
By the numbers. Google processes ~210x extra searches than ChatGPT. Even DuckDuckGo outpaces ChatGPT in referrals, per estimates.
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated ChatGPT dealt with 1 billion prompts per day in December. By July, that quantity was 2.5 billion prompts.
- A lot of that progress comes from API calls (companies plugging GPT into merchandise).
- A Harvard/OpenAI research discovered 21.3% of prompts are “search-like.”
- That’s roughly 66 million search-intent prompts per day.
- Google dealt with 5 trillion searches in 2024, or about 14 billion per day.


Zoom out. It is a good reminder that AI hasn’t changed search. In reality, AI search drives lower than 1% of referrals, in response to BrightEdge information.
Dig deeper. AI search is booming, however search engine optimization remains to be not useless
Why we care. Google nonetheless dominates discovery, at the same time as AI Overviews are eroding clicks to many web sites. In the meantime, ChatGPT is tiny in comparison with Google – but in sure niches, it could be extra influential than DuckDuckGo. So watch out for the AI search hype – deal with the place your viewers spends their time.
Fishkin’s video. You possibly can watch it on LinkedIn.
Dig deeper. AI hype vs. search engine optimization actuality: What really drives leads and income
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