OpenAI says ChatGPT vs Google search activity is closing a once-huge gap: the volume of search queries run through ChatGPT now equals 20 percent of the volume run through Google, according to Adam Fry, the company’s consumer product lead for ChatGPT.
Fry made the claim at a press event on Monday. He described a search as any user query that results in a web search, not tasks such as defining a term or giving a simple how-to answer. He did not say where the Google volume figure came from.
How OpenAI is measuring the race
On that definition, ChatGPT is still far from matching Google overall. One-fifth of Google’s search volume is a large base, but it is not overtaking the market leader. For context from an earlier industry dispute, Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said during Google’s 2023 antitrust trial that Bing held about 3 percent of search-engine market share after more than a decade of effort.
During that trial, Google cast artificial intelligence as a possible disruptor and argued that ChatGPT was positioned to compete seriously. OpenAI’s new volume claim lines up with that competitive picture, at least on the company’s own terms. Reports say OpenAI likely relies on Microsoft Bing for a large share of its searches alongside an in-house index, with some speculation that certain queries may still be routed through Google.
Ads, IPO timing and a more visual chatbot
The announcement sits inside a wider shake-up of how people find information online. Google has been cutting conventional referrals to third-party sites and putting money into AI features, including AI Overview and other generative tools such as personalised results with visualisations and charts. Other firms are building similar AI-led search experiences under different names.
For OpenAI, the push includes what it calls “Intelligent UI”: a visual, interactive layer inside chatbot replies. Fry told the event that is where the technology is headed, saying users would be “talking to a canvas.”
Like Google, OpenAI sees advertising as a route to profit, especially as it approaches a possible IPO that could come early next year. Fry told reporters that ads had not produced a lasting backlash. “Ads have not negatively impacted the product or the usage of the product,” he said, adding that most people do not seem to mind ads in the product.
Last month, OpenAI said it would start showing images of sponsored products and services in ChatGPT, rather than only a company name, logo and link. Fry suggested the response to ads had encouraged the company to do more of that work.
What the 20% figure does — and does not — settle
The ChatGPT vs Google search comparison OpenAI is using is about query volume under its own definition of a web search, not a full market-share scoreboard. Even so, putting ChatGPT search volume at roughly one-fifth of Google’s marks a sharp rise in how often people treat the chatbot as a place to look things up.
For readers comparing ChatGPT vs Google search habits day to day, the practical takeaway is narrower: OpenAI is claiming a meaningful share of web-search-style queries inside ChatGPT, while Google remains the much larger destination and continues to add its own AI layers.
Aasan alfaaz mein
OpenAI ne kaha hai ke ChatGPT par web search jaisi queries ab Google ke search volume ka lagbhag 20 percent hain. Yeh abhi Google se barabar nahi, lekin pehle se bohot zyada hain. Company ads bhi bitha rahi hai aur jawabon ko zyada visual banane ki koshish kar rahi hai. Aam user ke liye matlab yeh hai ke log ab sawal ChatGPT se bhi pooch rahe hain, jabke Google ab bhi sab se bara search platform hai.
