OpenAI says ChatGPT now fields about a fifth as many search-like questions as Google. The claim, from the executive who runs ChatGPT's consumer product, is the first time OpenAI has put a number on the gap between conversational answers and classic search — and the first time anyone outside Google has tried to size the two side by side. It is also, by OpenAI's own silence on method, a number nobody outside the company can check.

Adam Fry, ChatGPT's consumer product lead, gave the figure at an OpenAI-hosted dinner in New York on Monday, November 2, in conversation with Alex Kantrowitz of the Big Technology newsletter. The interview was published the next day and picked up across the tech press. Fry's definition of a search was broad: any question that sends ChatGPT to look something up on the web.

Fry paired the ratio with a growth number: ChatGPT has reached 1.2 billion weekly users, up from 1 billion about two months earlier. He added that users create 1.5 billion images a week and that 250 million people a week use voice input or voice conversations. One detail is worth holding lightly: The Verge had already reported the 1.2 billion weekly figure in late September, so the “two months” timeline Fry described does not line up cleanly with earlier reporting.

The definition does most of the work in the 20% figure. OpenAI counts a search every time a prompt sends ChatGPT to the web — a question asked, not a visit made. That is a different thing from what Google has always measured: people clicking through to pages. Search Engine Journal's read is blunt: the figure tracks questions asked, not visits sent to websites.

The gap between the two measures shows up in the traffic data. An Ahrefs analysis from February put Google at nearly 40% of traffic to websites, against about 0.21% for ChatGPT. GeoAura's panel tells a similar story from the other side: ChatGPT carries roughly three-quarters of AI referral traffic, but its answers attach an average of only 3.29 citations each — against more than nine for Perplexity. The chatbot is where the questions go; the open web is still where most of the clicks land.

A woman at a kitchen table in the evening asking a question into her glowing phone while a faded search results page dissolves behind her
AI-generated illustration: asking a chatbot instead of searching. Credit: AI Frontier Post

The independent numbers are lower#

OpenAI has not said which Google total it compared against, over what period, or for which countries — and no independent firm has checked the comparison. The outside estimates that exist are both lower than 20%.

  • Ahrefs, February 2026: a model of search-like use put ChatGPT at about 12% of Google's volume.
  • seoClarity, October 28, 2026: a newer model put it at about 7.5%.

Neither is a direct count, and both measure slightly different things from OpenAI's own yardstick. But the direction is consistent: however you slice it, OpenAI's figure sits at the optimistic end of the range. Treat it as a company claim about its own growth, not as a measured market share.

Hands holding a magnifying glass over glowing bar charts, with a question mark formed by lights in the dark background
AI-generated illustration: an unverified statistic under scrutiny. Credit: AI Frontier Post

What it means for Google#

Even a discounted version of the claim is a problem Google can no longer wave away. Its search market share has already slipped below 90% for the first time, according to StatCounter figures cited by GeoAura — and on its October 28 earnings call, chief business officer Philipp Schindler said Google is now scaling ads inside AI Overviews and AI Mode to more users and queries, after AI Mode queries earned less than classic search.

The shift is also visible in language. Yahoo Finance's social coverage of the claim asked whether “ask Chat” is replacing “Google it” as the default way to find something out — the kind of question that would have sounded absurd two years ago and now reads as a genuine open question.

What to watch#

Three things would turn this from a dinner anecdote into a durable fact. First, a method: OpenAI publishing how it counts a search, which Google figure it used, and over what window. Second, a response: whether Google answers with its own numbers, or keeps treating ChatGPT as a rounding error. Third, the economics: whether AI answers can ever earn like classic search, or whether the whole industry is trading a high-margin click for a low-margin answer. Until the method appears, the honest summary is the short one: ChatGPT is big, it is growing fast, and exactly how big relative to Google is still OpenAI's word alone.

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