OpenAI Says ChatGPT Search Is About a Fifth of Google's

What happened

Fry gave the comparison in an interview with Big Technology at an OpenAI event in New York on November 2, published November 3. His definition of a search: every time a user asks a question and ChatGPT searches the web, that counts as one search. In the same interview, he put ChatGPT's weekly active users at 1.2 billion, up from 1 billion in about 60 days; users create 1.5 billion images a week; and 250 million people a week use voice input or voice conversations.

The scope and verification status need care: OpenAI has not disclosed the absolute search count, the time period, or how it estimated Google's volume. The 20% is a company-defined query-volume comparison, not market share and not a comparison of traffic sent to websites. On Google's side, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said last week that Google Search queries are growing at their fastest year-over-year rate in five years, without giving specific figures; Google's last disclosed annual search volume, from 2025, was more than 5 trillion searches.

Independent estimates run below OpenAI's figure: seoClarity estimated ChatGPT search volume at about 7.5% of Google's in October, and Ahrefs estimated about 12% in February. Ahrefs data from the same period shows Google sending about 190 times more visitors to websites than ChatGPT. There is also a timeline discrepancy: The Verge had already reported 1.2 billion weekly ChatGPT users on September 29, which does not line up neatly with the 60-day growth pace Fry described.

Key facts

1. Disclosure: November 2 at an OpenAI event in New York; Adam Fry interviewed by Big Technology, published November 3
2. Headline figures: Search-like queries about a fifth of Google's; 1.2 billion weekly active users
3. Search definition: A question that triggers a web search counts as one search
4. Other figures: 1.5 billion images created a week; 250 million weekly voice users
5. Independent estimates: seoClarity about 7.5% (October 2026); Ahrefs about 12% (February 2026)
6. Not disclosed: Absolute search count, time period, method for estimating Google's volume