ChatGPT now handles search queries equal to 20 percent of Google's total volume, according to an announcement from OpenAI at a press event Monday. Adam Fry, the company's consumer product lead for ChatGPT, revealed the milestone as evidence that the phrase "Ask Chat" is replacing "Google it" in everyday conversation. The figures mark a significant shift in how people find information online, though Google still commands four-fifths of the search market.
OpenAI counts a search as any user query that triggers a web search, excluding tasks like term definitions or basic how-to explanations, Fry explained. He didn't identify where the Google volume number came from. For context, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified during Google's 2023 antitrust trial that Bing captured roughly 3 percent of search engine market share after more than ten years of effort. During that same trial, Google identified AI as a possible disruptor and warned that ChatGPT could emerge as a serious rival—a prediction OpenAI now appears to validate. OpenAI probably relies on Microsoft Bing for much of its search infrastructure alongside its own index, though some observers suspect it routes certain queries through Google itself.
The announcement arrives during a broader upheaval in search, as Google cuts back on traditional referrals to outside websites while pouring resources into AI tools including AI Overview and personalized results with charts and visualizations. Fry said ads haven't hurt the product or its usage, and that "most people do not seem to mind ads in the product." Last month, OpenAI announced it would start showing images of sponsored products and services in ChatGPT instead of just company names, logos, and links. According to Fry, "Ads have maybe shown us that we could be doing this more, actually." OpenAI views advertising as a potential path to profitability as it moves toward an IPO possibly scheduled for early next year.
The shift toward AI-driven search is pushing companies to invest in what OpenAI calls "Intelligent UI"—visual and interactive interfaces built into chatbot responses rather than traditional search result pages. Fry described the vision as "talking to a canvas," where users interact with a dynamic interface instead of clicking through blue links. As queries increasingly flow through OpenAI and other AI labs, competitors are building similar experiences under different names, all racing to capture users who want answers delivered conversationally rather than as a list of websites. The technology represents a fundamental rethinking of how search engines present information, moving from static pages to interactive, generated responses.
OpenAI's search momentum suggests the company could carve out meaningful market share even without overtaking Google outright, potentially reshaping how advertisers allocate budgets and how publishers think about traffic. The battle between conversational AI interfaces and traditional search engines will likely hinge less on raw query volume than on which experience users find genuinely more useful for specific tasks—a question neither OpenAI's announcement nor Google's AI investments have yet settled. If ChatGPT can sustain growth while monetizing through ads, it may prove that search doesn't require dominance to be profitable, only differentiation.