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OpenAI confirms ChatGPT search query volume has reached 20% of Google's
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Adam Fry, OpenAI's head of consumer products, recently confirmed that search-type queries on ChatGPT are roughly equivalent to 20% of Google's search query volume. This statement was reported by Business Insider in the early hours of November 4, and IT Home published the news the same day. OpenAI's effort to challenge Google Search is thus seen by outsiders as "showing initial results."
Google has long dominated the search market, while AI chatbots are changing the way users obtain information. This summer, Pew Research Center released a survey report showing that searching for information is the most common AI use case among U.S. adults, with 42% of respondents having used AI to search for information. The survey was not specifically about ChatGPT, but it reflects that demand for AI search has already reached scale.
The Pew survey also showed that work-related use ranked second, with 38% of employed adult respondents having used AI to handle work tasks. Uses such as entertainment, getting news, and seeking medical advice were relatively less common. In terms of chatbot usage, 44% of surveyed U.S. adults had used ChatGPT, while Gemini, ranked second, was at 24%.
The 20% figure disclosed by Fry directly compares ChatGPT's search query volume with that of Google, the search giant. The report noted that ChatGPT is the most popular among AI chatbots. With search-type queries reaching about one-fifth of Google's, this has become key data for observing the scale of OpenAI's search entry point.
Last year, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google's parent company Alphabet, also discussed the competition between AI chatbots and Google Search in an interview with Bloomberg reporter Emily Chang. Pichai said at the time that chatbots had reached hundreds of millions of users, but Google's search query volume was also growing. He believed this was far from a zero-sum game.
Pichai also used video platforms as an example, saying that after TikTok emerged, everyone began using TikTok, but YouTube also continued to grow during that period and performed very well. He used this analogy to illustrate that the emergence of a new platform does not necessarily cause existing platforms to stop growing. OpenAI, for its part, confirmed the scale of ChatGPT's search query volume through Fry's statement.
Currently, ChatGPT's search-type query volume is about 20% of Google's, and the competition between the two is drawing attention. The Pew survey shows that searching for information is the most common AI use case, with work-related use ranking second. ChatGPT is the most popular among AI chatbots, and the comparison data between its search query volume and Google's has become an important indicator for observing the progress of this competition.
