AI Overviews statistics (2026)

This page collects 90 statistics on Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, each linked to the study, survey or Google statement it comes from. It opens with Rank.ai's own scan of 292 Google results pages for local service searches, then covers reach, how often AI Overviews appear, clicks, citations and AI Mode. Prevalence figures vary a lot between studies because each one samples different keywords, devices and dates, so every figure carries its method and year. For the click side of the story, see zero-click search statistics. For what Google says to do about its AI features, see our generative engine optimization guide.

Rank.ai data: AI Overviews on local service searches

On October 16, 2026 we pulled 292 Google results pages through DataForSEO: 50 searches across 10 local service industries (plumbing, HVAC, roofing, dental, legal, auto repair, electrical, pest control, home care and med spas), each in Austin, Chicago and Phoenix, on desktop and mobile. Each industry had five search types: "near me", "best", a service search, a cost question and a problem question.

• 51.4%of 292 local service results pages showed an AI Overview (150 pages).Rank.ai scan of 292 Google results pages2026
• 95.0%of cost questions, such as "how much does a new roof cost", showed an AI Overview, and 100% of problem questions such as "why does my breaker keep tripping".Rank.ai scan of 292 Google results pages2026
• 10.0%of "near me" searches showed an AI Overview, while 100% showed a local map pack.Rank.ai scan of 292 Google results pages2026
• 24.6%of "best" searches, such as "best roofing company", showed an AI Overview, and 30.0% of service searches such as "emergency plumber".Rank.ai scan of 292 Google results pages2026
• 66.7%of electrical searches showed an AI Overview, the highest of the 10 industries, followed by roofing at 63.3% and pest control at 60.0%.Rank.ai scan of 292 Google results pages2026
• 33.3%of HVAC searches showed an AI Overview, the lowest, followed by plumbing at 40.0% and auto repair at 43.3%.Rank.ai scan of 292 Google results pages2026
• 91.3%of the AI Overviews we found sat at the very top of the page (137 of 150).Rank.ai scan of 292 Google results pages2026
• 53.2%of AI Overviews with sources cited the page ranking #1 organically, and 87.8% cited at least one top 10 page.Rank.ai scan of 292 Google results pages2026
• 59.7%of AI Overviews with sources cited YouTube, 28.1% cited Reddit and 14.4% cited Angi. Yelp appeared in 2.2% and Wikipedia in none.Rank.ai scan of 292 Google results pages2026

How many people use AI Overviews and AI Mode

User counts come from Google itself, in keynotes and earnings remarks. Pew Research Center measured real exposure with a panel of US adults.

• 2.5 billion+people use AI Overviews each month.Google, Sundar Pichai's I/O 2026 keynote2026
• 1 billion+people use AI Mode each month, within a year of launch, with queries more than doubling every quarter.Google, Search at I/O 20262026
• Billionsof clicks a week go to websites through AI features in Search, Google says, without giving an exact figure.Google, Q2 2026 earnings remarks2026
• 2 billion+people used AI Overviews each month in 200+ countries and 40 languages by July 2025.Google, Q2 2025 earnings remarks2025
• 1.5 billion+people used AI Overviews each month in April 2025.Google, Q1 2025 earnings remarks2025
• 1 billion+people had used AI Overviews by March 2025, when Google introduced AI Mode.Google, Expanding AI Overviews and introducing AI Mode2025
• 10%+more Google usage came from the types of queries that show AI Overviews, in the US and India.Google, I/O 2025 Search update2025
• 58%of 900 US adults ran at least one Google search in March 2025 that produced an AI summary.Pew Research Center2025
• 200+countries and territories and 40+ languages had AI Overviews after the May 2025 expansion.Google, AI Overviews expansion2025

How often AI Overviews appear

Crawl studies disagree because they sample different keywords. Keyword samples weight every term equally, while panels like Pew's count real searches, and recent US desktop crawls by Ahrefs find far higher rates than 2025 keyword studies. More context on Google itself is on our Google search statistics page.

• 78.3%of US desktop results for non-branded keywords showed an AI Overview in September 2026, up from 73.5% in July (140.2 million crawls).Ahrefs, AI Overviews on branded searches2026
• 20.5%of 146 million Google results pages showed an AI Overview in September 2025.Ahrefs, What triggers AI Overviews2025
• 24.61%of keywords triggered an AI Overview at the July 2025 peak, up from 6.49% in January, across 10 million+ keywords.Semrush, AI Overviews study2025
• 15.69%of keywords triggered an AI Overview by November 2025, down from the July peak.Semrush, AI Overviews study2025
• 18%of real Google searches by 900 US adults produced an AI summary in March 2025 (68,879 searches).Pew Research Center2025
• 16.48%of US keywords triggered an AI Overview on May 6, 2025, up from 7.6% on March 13, a 116% rise after the March core update.Ahrefs, AI Overview growth2025
• 12.8%of Google search volume, about 23 billion of 180 billion monthly searches, came with an AI Overview in June 2025 (590 million keywords).Ahrefs, Insights from 56 million AI Overviews2025
• About 30%of 100,013 keywords across 20 niches triggered an AI Overview in five US cities.SE Ranking, AI Overviews by US state2025
• 11%+of Google queries showed an AI Overview one year after launch, up 22% since launch.BrightEdge, AI Overviews one year on2025

AI Overviews by query type and length

Long, question-shaped searches trigger AI Overviews most. Pew and SE Ranking both find the rate climbs steadily with each extra word, and Semrush shows commercial and transactional queries catching up during 2025.

• 57.9%of question queries triggered an AI Overview, against 15.5% of other queries.Ahrefs, What triggers AI Overviews2025
• 46.4%of queries of 7+ words triggered an AI Overview, against 9.5% of one-word queries.Ahrefs, What triggers AI Overviews2025
• 21.4%of informational queries triggered an AI Overview, against 2.1% of transactional and 0.9% of navigational queries.Ahrefs, What triggers AI Overviews2025
• 60%of searches starting with who, what, when or why produced an AI summary, and 36% of full-sentence searches did.Pew Research Center2025
• 53%of searches of 10 or more words produced an AI summary, against 8% of one or two word searches.Pew Research Center2025
• 69.21%of 10-word queries triggered an AI Overview, against 12.78% of one-word queries (100,013 keywords).SE Ranking, AI Overviews by US state2025
• 57.1%of AI Overview queries were informational in October 2025, down from 91.3% in January.Semrush, AI Overviews study2025
• 18.57%of AI Overview queries were commercial by late 2025, up from 8.15%, and 13.94% were transactional, up from 1.98%.Semrush, AI Overviews study2025
• 6.85%of US keywords with an AI Overview were local queries (24.8 million keywords).Ahrefs, Insights from 56 million AI Overviews2025

AI Overviews by industry

Health, education and B2B tech searches show AI Overviews most. Shopping, real estate and fashion searches show them least. Our healthcare SEO statistics page covers health search in more depth.

• Nearly 90%of healthcare and education queries showed an AI Overview by May 2025.BrightEdge, AI Overviews one year review (PDF)2025
• 70%+of B2B tech queries showed an AI Overview, up from 40% a year earlier.BrightEdge, AI Overviews one year review (PDF)2025
• 3xmore insurance queries showed AI Overviews than in May 2024.BrightEdge, AI Overviews one year review (PDF)2025
• 25.96%of science keywords triggered an AI Overview in November 2025, the highest category, ahead of computers and electronics at 17.92%.Semrush, AI Overviews study2025
• Under 3%of real estate, shopping, and arts and entertainment keywords triggered an AI Overview in November 2025.Semrush, AI Overviews study2025
• 60.5% to 62.4%of relationships keywords triggered AI Overviews, the highest of 20 niches, against about 1.4% for fashion and beauty and 2.1% to 2.5% for ecommerce.SE Ranking, AI Overviews by US state2025

Branded and non-branded searches

AI Overviews used to skip most brand searches. Ahrefs' 2026 crawls show that gap closing fast, with AI Overviews now appearing even on exact brand names.

• 82.91%of US desktop results for branded keywords showed an AI Overview on September 29, 2026 (232.8 million crawls in total).Ahrefs, AI Overviews on branded searches2026
• 73.3%of branded results showed an AI Overview in September 2026, up from 61.3% in July (92.5 million branded crawls).Ahrefs, AI Overviews on branded searches2026
• 63 of 100Interbrand top 100 brand names showed an AI Overview on September 30, 2026, up from 5 of 98 on July 1.Ahrefs, AI Overviews on branded searches2026
• 71.9%of branded AI Overviews with a source list cited Wikipedia, 38.6% cited YouTube and 22.8% LinkedIn (57 AI Overviews).Ahrefs, AI Overviews on branded searches2026
• 24.9%of non-branded queries triggered an AI Overview in Ahrefs' 2025 study, against 13.1% of branded queries.Ahrefs, What triggers AI Overviews2025
• 19.97%of US keywords with an AI Overview were branded keywords in 2025.Ahrefs, Insights from 56 million AI Overviews2025

AI Overviews on mobile and desktop

Most searches that trigger AI Overviews happen on phones, where the Overview is shorter but fills more of the screen. Our mobile search statistics cover the wider shift to phones.

• 52.1%of desktop and 50.7% of mobile local service results pages showed an AI Overview in Rank.ai's scan.Rank.ai scan of 292 Google results pages2026
• 86.8%of the time, desktop and mobile agreed on whether the same search in the same city showed an AI Overview (144 pairs).Rank.ai scan of 292 Google results pages2026
• 81%of searches on keywords that trigger AI Overviews came from mobile, against 77% for other keywords.Ahrefs, 300,000 keywords study2024
• 119 wordswas the average AI Overview length on desktop, against 91 words on mobile (200,000 keywords).Semrush, AI Overviews study2024
• 46%of desktop AI Overviews linked to the #1 organic result, against 34% on mobile.Semrush, AI Overviews study2024
• 1,000+ pixelstall is common for AI Overviews, which grew more than 40% larger on average from July 2024.BrightEdge, AI Overviews one year review (PDF)2025

AI Overviews and click-through rate

Every study finds fewer clicks on pages under an AI Overview. Being cited inside the Overview softens the loss. Wider click data sits on our SEO statistics page.

• 58%lower click-through rate for the top-ranking page when an AI Overview appears (300,000 keywords, December 2025).Ahrefs, AI Overviews reduce clicks by 58%2026
• 1.6%position 1 click-through rate on AI Overview keywords in December 2025, down from 7.3% in December 2023. Keywords without one fell from 7.6% to 3.9%.Ahrefs, AI Overviews reduce clicks by 58%2026
• 50.8%lower click-through rate at position 2 and 46.4% lower at position 3 when an AI Overview appears; at position 10 the drop is 19.4%.Ahrefs, AI Overviews reduce clicks by 58%2026
• 52%cut to US desktop position 1 click-through rate from AI Overviews in July 2026, from 20.02% to 9.69%.Advanced Web Ranking, organic CTR2026
• 8%of visits with an AI summary included a click on a traditional result, against 15% without one.Pew Research Center2025
• 1%of visits to a page with an AI summary included a click on a link inside the summary.Pew Research Center2025
• 26%of visits to a page with an AI summary ended the browsing session, against 16% without one.Pew Research Center2025
• 0.61%organic click-through rate on queries with an AI Overview in September 2025, down from 1.76% in June 2024 (3,119 queries, 42 organizations).Seer Interactive, AIO impact on CTR2025
• 6.34%paid click-through rate on queries with an AI Overview in September 2025, down from 19.70% in June 2024.Seer Interactive, AIO impact on CTR2025
• 35%more organic clicks and 91% more paid clicks went to brands cited in an AI Overview than to brands left out.Seer Interactive, AIO impact on CTR2025
• 49%+more Google impressions since AI Overviews launched, while click-through rate fell nearly 30%.BrightEdge, AI Overviews one year review (PDF)2025
• 34.5%lower position 1 click-through rate with an AI Overview in Ahrefs' first run of the study, March 2024 against March 2025.Ahrefs, AI Overviews reduce clicks2025

Which sources AI Overviews cite

Most AI Overview citations come from pages that already rank well, though studies disagree on how much. Reddit, YouTube, Quora and Wikipedia appear again and again. Our GEO and AEO statistics cover how sites earn these citations, and the AI SEO tools guide covers how to track them.

• 28.0%of 1,549 AI Overview citations in Rank.ai's local service scan pointed to a page in that search's organic top 10, and 21.6% of AI Overviews linked back to a Google page.Rank.ai scan of 292 Google results pages2026
• 11.1sources were cited per AI Overview on average in Rank.ai's local service scan (median 10).Rank.ai scan of 292 Google results pages2026
• 76.1%of pages cited in AI Overviews rank in Google's top 10, and 14.4% do not rank in the top 100 (1.9 million citations).Ahrefs, Search rankings and AI citations2025
• 89%of AI Overview citations came from URLs outside the top 10 organic results in BrightEdge's data, which conflicts with Ahrefs.BrightEdge, AI Overviews one year review (PDF)2025
• 86%of AI Overview links matched a top 10 domain, and 67% matched a top 10 URL (5,000 keywords, 150,000+ citations).Semrush, AI Mode comparison study2025
• 5.5%of AI Overview citations went to Reddit in May 2025, up from 1.3% in March, ahead of Quora and Wikipedia at 4.0% each.Ahrefs, AI Overview growth2025
• 28.9%of all AI Overview mentions went to just 50 domains, led by Reddit, Wikipedia and Quora.Ahrefs, Insights from 56 million AI Overviews2025
• 15%of sources in AI summaries were Wikipedia, YouTube and Reddit combined, and 6% were government sites against 2% of standard results.Pew Research Center2025
• 13.34links were cited per AI Overview on average, up from 6.82 in November 2024 (141,507 AI Overviews).SE Ranking, AI Overviews by US state2025
• 44%of AI Overviews linked to google.com, and YouTube, Reddit, Quora and Wikipedia each appeared in about 13%.SE Ranking, AI Overviews by US state2025
• 67 wordswas the median AI summary length, and 88% of summaries cited three or more sources (12,593 summaries).Pew Research Center2025
• 4.01%of 74,761 citations in ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini answers went to Reddit, the most-cited site in Rank.ai's analysis of 11,726 AI answers.Rank.ai analysis of 11,726 AI answers2026

Google AI Mode statistics

AI Mode is Google's chat-style search tab. It answers longer questions, cites more sites than AI Overviews, and sends very few clicks out. How it compares with standalone assistants is on our Gemini statistics and AI search statistics pages.

• 1 billion+monthly AI Mode users in May 2026, within a year of launch.Google, Search at I/O 20262026
• 3xlonger: AI Mode queries compared with traditional searches, and nearly 1 in 6 uses voice or images.Google, Q4 2025 earnings remarks2026
• 0.34%of US Google searches went on to AI Mode from January to April 2026.SparkToro, 2026 zero-click study2026
• 75 million+daily AI Mode users in Q3 2025.Google, Q3 2025 earnings remarks2025
• 7.22 wordswas the average AI Mode query, against 4.0 for traditional search (about 69 million US desktop sessions).Semrush, AI Mode SEO impact2025
• 92% to 94%of AI Mode sessions ended without a visit to another website.Semrush, AI Mode SEO impact2025
• 13.7%of the time, AI Mode and AI Overviews cited the same URLs for the same query, even though their answers were 86% similar in meaning.Ahrefs, AI Overviews vs AI Mode2025
• 14%of AI Mode citations matched an organic top 10 URL (10,000 keywords).SE Ranking, AI Mode research2025
• 7unique domains were linked per AI Mode answer on average, against 3 for AI Overviews (5,000 keywords).Semrush, AI Mode comparison study2025
• 200+countries and territories had AI Mode by October 2025, after it added 35+ languages.Google, AI Mode expands languages and locations2025
• 12countries run ads inside AI Overviews in English, and ads above or below them are eligible in all 200+ AI Overview markets.Google Ads Help, ads in AI Overviews2026
• About 25%of AI Overview results pages showed Google Ads at the bottom by late 2025, up from under 1% in March.Semrush, AI Overviews study2025

What this means for local businesses

• Expect AI Overviews on your question pages. Cost and problem questions trigger them almost every time, so pages answering "how much" and "why" need clear, quotable answers. Our location pages guide covers how to structure them.
• Keep winning the map pack. "Near me" searches still show a local pack 100% of the time and rarely an AI Overview; see our local SEO statistics.
• Publish on YouTube. It was cited in about 6 in 10 local AI Overviews in our scan, far more than any review site.
• Rank first, then get cited. The #1 organic page was cited in more than half of local AI Overviews, and cited brands get 35% more organic clicks.
• Check the AI answers too. See whether ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini name your business with a free AI grade.

Sources and method

Rank.ai's scan pulled 292 Google results pages through the DataForSEO SERP API on October 16, 2026: 50 searches across 10 local service industries, in Austin, Chicago and Phoenix, on desktop and mobile, with AI Overviews loaded (8 of 300 requested pages failed and are excluded). A page counts as having an AI Overview when Google returned one; citations are the Overview's listed sources, and image links are excluded. Citation figures from Rank.ai's analysis of 11,726 AI answers come from ChatGPT (openai/gpt-4o-mini), Claude (anthropic/claude-haiku-4-5) and Gemini (google/gemini-2.5-flash) with web search on, collected May 7 to October 16, 2026, for 102 buyer questions tracked by 15 Rank.ai customer accounts, excluding cached repeats. Public figures come from Google's blog, keynotes and Ads Help, Pew Research Center, and named studies with their samples: Ahrefs, Semrush, SE Ranking, Seer Interactive, BrightEdge, Advanced Web Ranking and SparkToro. Every figure and link was checked on 2026-10-16.