How much ground has ChatGPT made up against Google in the battle for AI search supremacy?
It would have been an absurd question to ask a few years ago, but as AI has disrupted search as users know it, it’s a question worthy of posing today, even as Google ups its own efforts and increases the occurrence of AI Overviews in its search results.
Earlier this year, one report had Google seeing 30 times more visitors than its nearest competitor, with 16.5 billion to ChatGPT’s 517 million. Now, a separate report by HigherVisibility comparing recent numbers highlights how much the game has changed in the last few months.
“Google’s dominance is eroding,” says the report, which compared its own survey of 1,500 respondents in February to its identical August survey, finding that Google’s share of searches dropped from 73% to 67% while ChatGPT usage tripled from 4.1% to 12.5%. “Back in February 2025 … AI tools like ChatGPT were just beginning to emerge as potential alternatives to traditional search engines. Six months later, our August follow-up study shows the pace of change has dramatically accelerated.”
Search behavior as a whole seems to have changed, with the report finding that daily AI use more than doubled to 29.2% while those who “never” use AI tools dropped from 28.47% in February to just 16% in August.
(Source: HigherVisibility)
“Users are no longer defaulting to a single search engine; they’re developing sophisticated strategies that match specific platforms to specific needs,” says the report. “SEO isn’t dead, but it’s no longer just about ranking in Google. It’s about being discoverable wherever your audience searches, and that landscape is expanding and evolving faster than most predicted.”
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