OpenAI says ChatGPT now handles 20 percent of Google's search volume, by its own definition

OpenAI says the volume of search queries run through ChatGPT is now 20 percent of the volume run through Google. Adam Fry, OpenAI's consumer product lead for ChatGPT, announced it at a press event on Monday, The Verge reports.

What counts as a search

OpenAI set its own definition. Fry said a search is any query that results in a web search. Defining a term or a simple how-to explanation does not count.

The announcement leaves two questions open:

• The Google side of the ratio. Fry did not say where the Google search volume number came from.

• Which index answers. The Verge reports that OpenAI likely uses Microsoft Bing for a significant part of its searches, alongside its own index, and some speculate that certain queries go through Google.

So the company that gains from the ratio also defined it. Treat it as OpenAI's claim until someone measures both sides the same way.

Why the narrow definition matters more

The definition makes the headline number smaller. It also points to the part that matters most for brands. OpenAI only counts queries where ChatGPT goes to the web and pulls in sources. In those answers, a brand is named or cited from a live page, and retrieval decides who shows up. Answers that never touch the web, like a definition, are left out.

If the number holds, ChatGPT handles one-fifth of Google's volume, and each answer cites only a handful of sources. There is no page two.

The scale against Bing

For comparison, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during Google's 2023 antitrust trial that Bing had about 3 percent of the search engine market after trying for more than a decade. The two figures measure different things: one is a share of a market, the other a volume ratio. They cannot be plotted on one scale. Even so, both point the same way, and the gap is large.

What to do with it

Check whether your brand is named when ChatGPT runs a web search on the questions your buyers ask. Track those prompts the way you track keyword rankings. In the work we do, the pages ChatGPT cites are mostly third-party: reviews, directories, comparison articles and press coverage. That is where visibility work pays off.

Ads keep expanding

Fry also told reporters that ads had not caused a lasting backlash. "Most people do not seem to mind ads in the product," he said. Last month OpenAI said it would start showing images of sponsored products and services in ChatGPT, where before it showed only a company's name, logo and a link.