Google’s AI-generated summaries appeared in 43% of US searches measured by Similarweb, up from 15% a yr earlier, in accordance to the market intelligence agency’s 2026 Generative AI Panorama report.
AI Overviews show generated summaries inside typical Google outcomes, whereas AI Mode supplies a conversational interface for longer questions and follow-up prompts. Customers can transfer from an AI Overview into AI Mode whereas retaining the context of their authentic search.
Google mentioned AI Mode makes use of a method known as question fan-out, which divides a query into associated subtopics and runs a number of searches. The system makes use of information from these searches to produce a response with supporting hyperlinks.
Google expands conversational search
Similarweb estimated that visits to Google’s AI Mode internet expertise elevated from 126 million in June 2025 to 279 million in Might 2026. Google individually reported in Might that AI Mode had surpassed one billion month-to-month customers, though its determine covers customers somewhat than internet visits and is not immediately comparable with Similarweb’s estimate.
The figures additionally measure completely different components of Google Search. The 43% determine tracks the share of US searches displaying AI Overviews, whereas the AI Mode figures relate to exercise inside Google’s conversational search service.
Similarweb recorded a 5.4% enhance in the common size of Google searches following the introduction of AI Mode. The report mentioned customers have been coming into longer, extra natural-language searches related to prompts used with AI assistants.
“Folks are now adopting a brand new, extra pure manner to search and uncover,” Ethan Smith, chief govt of digital advertising and marketing agency Graphite, mentioned in the Similarweb report.
Customers can present extra element in a single search as a substitute of relying solely on quick key phrase combos. Google’s AI interfaces can reply to these longer searches and help extra questions with out requiring customers to open an external web site instantly.
Similarweb mentioned its estimates draw on first-party analytics, anonymised machine information, external information partnerships, and publicly accessible internet information. The corporate fashions these inputs to estimate site visitors and person behaviour, which means its figures are not direct counts equipped by Google or OpenAI.
In accordance to the report, generative AI web sites acquired a mean of 9.5 billion month-to-month visits between June 2025 and Might 2026, up 70% from the earlier yr. Month-to-month distinctive guests elevated 57% to 655 million, whereas cell utility downloads rose 58% to 4.4 billion.
These figures cowl the broader generative AI market, together with standalone companies corresponding to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. They supply context for Google’s enlargement of AI inside a search product that already reaches a wider web viewers.
Similarweb additionally discovered that almost all ChatGPT customers continued to use Google. Viewers overlap amongst ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude indicated that folks have been utilizing a number of search and AI companies somewhat than shifting solely to one platform.
Publishers have raised considerations about referral site visitors when their content material is integrated into an AI-generated reply with out producing a go to. Similarweb has beforehand recognized information publishers amongst the sectors affected by adjustments in site visitors from AI-based search instruments.
Google has responded by altering how external sources seem inside AI Overviews and AI Mode. In Might, the firm introduced direct hyperlinks inside responses, article ideas, web site previews, and extra outstanding references to authentic materials.
Google mentioned the adjustments have been supposed to present extra information about linked pages and make related web sites simpler to establish. It did not launch site visitors information exhibiting how the updates affected click-through charges to publishers or different external websites.
Citations do not all the time ship site visitors
Similarweb discovered that the share of ChatGPT responses containing internet citations elevated greater than fivefold over the previous yr. The proportion rose from about 1.3% in June 2025 to 6.8% in Might 2026, primarily based on US desktop exercise.
The measurement covers responses displaying supply references, somewhat than the proportion of person prompts that induced ChatGPT to search the internet. Citations additionally do not verify {that a} person opened the linked supply.
Quotation charges various by sector. Similarweb recorded greater charges for journey, retail, and sports activities responses, the place information corresponding to costs, availability, comparisons, and outcomes can change often.
The agency additionally discovered a distinction between the pages cited in AI responses and people receiving referral site visitors. About 65% of URLs cited by ChatGPT have been situated two or three folders under the fundamental area, together with articles, product pages, and different detailed content material.
Folder-depth two alone accounted for 41.7% of cited URLs. By comparability, 58.8% of AI referral site visitors landed on homepages.
The outcomes point out that the content material used to help an AI reply and the web page visited after a click on usually serve completely different capabilities. Detailed pages can provide information for a response, whereas displayed hyperlinks can direct customers to an organization or writer’s fundamental web site.
ChatGPT’s Might 7 search replace gave model hyperlinks better prominence inside generated responses. Similarweb recorded a 157.7% week-over-week enhance in referral site visitors following the replace, whereas homepage referrals elevated 354.7%.
The agency noticed the will increase after the interface change however did not set up that the replace was solely accountable. The information covers ChatGPT referral exercise and does not measure clicks from Google AI Overviews or AI Mode.
Earlier than the replace, about 26% to 32% of ChatGPT referral visits landed on homepages. The proportion elevated to round 60% after Might 7, primarily based on desktop exercise measured between April 30 and Might 20, 2026.
The distinction between cited sources and referral locations provides publishers and web site operators separate figures to monitor. Quotation information measures which pages seem as sources, whereas referral information information the place customers arrive after clicking a hyperlink.
Cloudflare is additionally testing a Pay per Crawl service that enables taking part web site operators to allow, cost, or block particular person AI crawlers. The private-beta programme permits publishers to set a payment that an authenticated crawler should pay before accessing content material.
The system can return an HTTP 402 “Cost Required” response when paid entry applies. Cloudflare information accomplished paid requests, prices the crawler operator, and distributes the proceeds to the web site proprietor.
Cloudflare has additionally made configurable HTTP 402 responses accessible to paying prospects by way of its AI Crawl Management service. Web site operators can use the response to present licensing phrases or contact details to crawlers, whereas automated funds by way of Pay per Crawl stay in beta.
The measures add another choice for publishers deciding how AI companies can entry their materials as generated solutions turn into extra widespread throughout search and standalone AI platforms.
(Picture by Christian Wiediger)
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