ChatGPT dominates the AI search with an 80% traffic share
This is far ahead of rivals like DeepSeek, Google, and Perplexity
Highlights:
- New data from Similarweb shows that ChatGPT remains the top choice for AI-powered search.
- OpenAI’s share was 86.7% six months ago and 77% in March 2025.
- DeepSeek is in second place with a 6–7% share of traffic.
- Google’s AI search share is at 5.6%, up slightly from 5.5% last month.
- The data also shows that traditional search engines like Google and Bing are seeing steady year-over-year declines.
ChatGPT holds 80% of all traffic in the AI search category according to new data from Similarweb. That’s a slight dip from six months ago when it had 86.7%.
Similarweb’s report shows that ChatGPT continues to dominate the AI search space. In March 2025, ChatGPT’s share briefly dropped to 77%, but it has managed to maintain a commanding position overall. This shows that it’s still where most users go for AI-powered answers.
DeepSeek, Google, and others stay far behind
DeepSeek remains ChatGPT’s closest competitor, sitting at around 6–7% of the traffic share. This is a long way from OpenAI’s 80%, but it shows that some users are exploring alternatives.
Google’s AI holds only 5.6%, a marginal increase from 5.5% the previous month. Other players like Perplexity and Grok also report smaller figures. Perplexity has a 1.5% share, while Grok, backed by xAI, is at 2.6%. That’s a surprising placement for Google, which has been actively investing in AI with products like Gemini.
Traditional search engines are losing ground
Similarweb’s report also shows that traditional search engine traffic is declining year-over-year.
Platforms like Google, Bing, and Yahoo are all seeing negative year-over-year growth.
Google, still the leader in traditional search, saw a 2% drop in traffic. Bing dropped 18%, a sharp fall considering it had gained 18% in January. Yahoo fell 11%, DuckDuckGo declined by 6%, and Baidu dropped 12%.
This decline could be attributed to changes in user behavior. The way AI search engines summarize or generate responses is changing how users interact with information. Users are now choosing conversational tools over static lists of links.
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