Frustrated with Google Search, users are turning to ChatGPT, report reveals

Google may still be the king of search, but ChatGPT is catching up faster than expected. With its search-like queries reaching 20 per cent of Google's volume, the AI chatbot is giving users another place to look for answers.

In Short

• ChatGPT's search volume reaches 20% of Google's
• OpenAI adds 200 million weekly users in two months
• According to reports, 42% of US adults use AI chatbots to search for information

Google has been the undisputed king of internet search for decades. Anything you want to know, the first place to go is Google. But then came the AI era, providing more direct answer without showing much of SEO-related links or websites. As they say, comfort changes habit and now more and more people reportedly turing to ChatGPT for answer instead of going through pages of search results. OpenAI says the AI chatbot's search-like activity has already reached a fifth of Google's search volume. That is a rather big number for a service that only added web search relatively recently.

The figures were shared by Adam Fry, ChatGPT's consumer product lead, in a conversation with Alex Kantrowitz for the Big Technology newsletter. Fry said ChatGPT's volume of search-like queries is now roughly 20 per cent of Google's. He also revealed that the platform has grown from 1 billion to 1.2 billion weekly active users in just two months, adding around 200 million users during that period.

ChatGPT is becoming a go-to place for information

The growing interest in AI search is not entirely surprising. A Pew Research Center survey found that searching for information was the most common use of AI chatbots among American adults. Around 42 per cent of those surveyed said they had used AI for this purpose. Work-related tasks came next, with 38 per cent of employed adults saying they had used AI at work.

ChatGPT also has a sizeable lead over other AI chatbots in terms of reach. The same Pew survey found that 44 per cent of American adults had used ChatGPT, compared with 24 per cent who had tried Google Gemini.

Fry explained that people are now asking ChatGPT about people, places and things that require updated information. They are also using it for topics such as finance and health, where having current information matters. He described these as questions people would traditionally take to a search engine, but are now bringing to ChatGPT.

Google still dominates

Of course, these numbers do not mean Google is suddenly losing its position. The company says it handles around 5 trillion searches every year. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has also previously argued that the growth of AI chatbots does not necessarily come at Google's expense. He said the situation felt "far from a zero-sum game", pointing to how YouTube continued to grow even after TikTok became popular.

However, Google's search experience has faced criticism for years. Users have complained about pages filled with SEO-driven content, making it harder to find useful and trustworthy information. Some even started adding "Reddit" to their Google searches to find more genuine discussions and recommendations.

ChatGPT offers a different experience by bringing information together in a direct answer, rather than asking users to browse through multiple links. It is not always right, and its tendency to produce incorrect answers remains a concern. But for many people, the convenience appears to be worth exploring.

The latest figures do not establish how many ChatGPT searches have directly replaced Google searches. Still, they show that people are increasingly comfortable using AI for questions they once took to a traditional search engine. And that could be a bigger challenge for Google than the rise of another search competitor.

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