AI Overview statistics for 2026, made simple.
An AI Overview is the AI-written answer Google shows above normal results. This page covers how often they appear, how many clicks they take, which pages they quote, and what they mean for local businesses. Every figure has a date, and all sources are listed at the end.
The 6 numbers that matter most.
If you only read one part, read this. Each card explains what the number means for you.
How often AI Overviews appear, depending on which study you read. Each one tests different keywords.
Fall in clicks to websites caused by AI Overviews, from a controlled experiment with 1,065 people.
Extra clicks for a brand named inside the AI Overview, compared with a brand that is not named.
How much the click rate on AI Overview searches recovered between December 2025 and February 2026.
Rise in click rate for brand-name searches when an AI Overview appeared.
Share of pure “near me” searches that showed an AI Overview. The map results showed 93% of the time.
How often AI Overviews appear.
Every tracker checks a different set of keywords, in a different country, on a different device. That is why the answers are so far apart.
| Source | Share of searches | What was checked | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Semrush | 15.69% | 10 million tracked keywords, US | November 2025 |
| Pew Research Center | 18% | 68,879 real searches by 900 US adults | March 2025 |
| SparkToro | 20%+ | Browsing data from all US searches | January to April 2026 |
| seoClarity | 30% | 432,000 US desktop keywords | September 2025 |
| Agarwal and Sen, via PPC Land | 41% | 1,065 US desktop users in an experiment | January to February 2026 |
| BrightEdge | about 48% | 9 industries, checked daily | February 2026 |
| Xponent21 | 65% / 75.2% | 8,000 keywords, logged out / logged in | August 2026 |
All studies agree on one thing: AI Overviews are growing. Semrush saw them go from 6.49% of its keywords in January 2025 to a peak of 24.61% in July 2025. BrightEdge recorded a 58% rise between February 2025 and February 2026.
Which kinds of searches get an AI Overview.
The type of search matters much more than the average. Seer Interactive checked 5.47 million searches.
How often each type of search shows an AI Overview
Share of searches, January 2025 to February 2026.
AI Overviews appear most when people are comparing or asking questions. They appear least when people are ready to buy.
This is changing. Semrush found that research searches fell from 91.3% of AI Overview keywords to 57.1% in a year. Buying searches rose from 1.98% to 13.94%. Semrush also found commercial searches with AI Overviews grew 71% between November 2025 and April 2026.
By industry, BrightEdge found AI Overviews on 88% of healthcare searches, 83% of education, 82% of B2B technology and 78% of restaurant searches in February 2026.
What AI Overviews do to clicks.
Most studies compare searches with and without an AI Overview. They all find fewer clicks when one appears.
| Study | What it found | How big |
|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs (February 2026) | The number 1 result gets 58% fewer clicks | 300,000 keywords |
| Amsive | Average drop of 15.49%. Pages outside the top 3 dropped 27.04% | 700,000 keywords, 10 websites |
| Pew Research Center (2025) | People clicked a result on 8% of searches with a summary, and 15% without | 68,879 searches by 900 adults |
One study is different. In early 2026, researchers from the Indian School of Business and Carnegie Mellon ran a real experiment. They split 1,065 people into groups at random. One group saw Google as normal. Another saw Google with AI Overviews hidden. Because the groups were random, this shows cause and effect.
Clicks to websites, caused by AI Overviews in the experiment.
More clicks when the AI Overview was hidden.
In how satisfied people felt with their search, with or without AI Overviews.
Brand-name searches that showed an AI Overview. Clicks on those searches rose 18.68%.
Clicks came back in early 2026.
Seer Interactive tracked 53 brands, 5.47 million searches and 2.43 billion views of results.
Organic click rate with an AI Overview
Share of views that became a click.
Paid ad click rate with an AI Overview
Same study. Starts January 2025.
The organic click rate on AI Overview searches rose about 85% in 2 months. Searches without an AI Overview also got more clicks, from 3.16% to 3.82%. So if you only looked at data from late 2025, the picture today is better than you think.
Late 2025 explains what many site owners saw in Google Search Console. Between September and November 2025, views of results in Seer’s data more than doubled, from 15.8 million to 39.5 million. Clicks fell from 398,800 to 301,800. More people saw the results, but fewer clicked.
Which pages AI Overviews quote.
A citation is a link to a website inside the AI Overview.
Clicks per 1 million views on question searches
Full year 2025.
Being named brings about 120% more clicks than not being named. On buying searches, named brands more than doubled their click rate in 2025, from 0.7% to 1.65%. Brands not named lost 48%.
Do AI Overviews quote the top Google results? Two studies seem to disagree, but they measure different things. seoClarity checked both on the same data, 362,000 searches and 5.1 million citations. 90% of AI Overviews included at least one page from the top 10. But only 32% of all the links inside AI Overviews came from the top 10. So most answers include a page 1 result, and most individual links come from further down.
How often the number 1 result was quoted in the AI Overview. At position 20 it was 7%.
AI summaries that quoted 3 or more sources. The typical summary was 67 words long.
Typical height of an AI Overview in February 2026, up from about 1,050px a year earlier.
AI Overviews and local businesses.
Whitespark typed 540 local searches by hand in Houston, Phoenix and Denver, across 6 industries.
| Type of search | Example | AI Overview | Map results |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pure local | “plumber near me” | 15% | 93% |
| Question | “how long does an eye exam take” | 92% | 6% |
| Mixed | “average cost of dental implants in Phoenix” | 97% | 17% |
| All 540 together | A mix of the above | 68% | 39% |
There is also a new AI local pack on mobile. Sterling Sky found it on about 7% of tracked keywords. It shows 1 or 2 businesses instead of the usual 3, and has no call buttons. Across 322 markets, it showed 5,943 different businesses, against 18,330 in the normal map pack. In 88% of markets, fewer businesses appeared. If you run many locations, our multi-location local SEO software tracks each one separately.
Want to see what Google shows in your own area? A free geo-grid rank check shows where your business appears, street by street. Read more in our news story on AI Overviews in the local pack.
Ads next to AI Overviews.
Search pages showing Google Ads next to an AI Overview
Share of results pages.
Ads now often sit next to AI answers. SE Ranking also studied 50,032 keywords picked because they show ads. Only 11.53% of the advertisers were quoted inside the AI answer for the keyword they paid for. Paying for an ad does not get you quoted.
What to do with these numbers.
6 steps that turn this data into action.
1. Split your reports by AI Overview
Searches with and without an AI Overview behave very differently. Look at them separately in your reports. A good reporting tool makes this easier.
2. Find out which of your searches have them
Comparison and question searches show AI Overviews 86% to 95% of the time. Buying searches about 5%. Check your own list before you worry.
3. Grow searches for your brand name
Brand searches rarely show an AI Overview, and their clicks went up. Reviews, word of mouth and a strong Google Business Profile all help.
4. Answer the questions people ask before they buy
Costs, timings and comparisons get AI Overviews over 90% of the time. Clear answers on your site give AI something to quote.
5. Track if you are quoted
Being named brings about 120% more clicks. Our AI visibility checker shows where AI tools mention you.
6. Watch the AI local pack if you have many locations
It shows fewer businesses and no call buttons. Track each location on its own so you notice when one drops out.
Where every figure came from.
The research behind every number on this page. Each source shows who ran it, when, and how big it was.
Seer Interactive
Seer Interactive, April 2026. 53 brands, 5.47 million searches, 2.43 billion views.
Agarwal and Sen
Agarwal and Sen, via PPC Land. Controlled experiment with 1,065 US desktop users, January to February 2026.
Pew Research Center
Pew Research Center, July 2025. 900 US adults, 68,879 real searches.
Semrush
AI Overviews study, 10 million keywords. Commercial search study, 2026.
seoClarity
AI Overviews impact, 432,000 keywords. Rankings overlap study, 362,000 searches, 5.1 million citations.
BrightEdge and Xponent21
BrightEdge, February 2026, 9 industries. Xponent21, August 2026, 8,000 keywords.
SparkToro
SparkToro, June 2026. US browsing data.
Whitespark and Sterling Sky
Whitespark, 540 local searches, May 2025. Sterling Sky, State of Local SEO 2026, 322 markets.
Last checked September 2026. When a source publishes newer data, we update the figure and the date.
AI Overview statistics, answered.
How often do AI Overviews appear in 2026?
Studies range from 15.69% (Semrush, 10 million keywords) to 75.24% (Xponent21, 8,000 keywords, logged in). The answer depends on the keywords, country, device and whether the person is logged in to Google.
Do AI Overviews really reduce clicks?
Yes. A controlled experiment with 1,065 people found AI Overviews caused a 39.8% fall in clicks to websites. When the AI Overview was hidden, clicks rose 88%.
How much do AI Overviews reduce click rates?
Ahrefs found the number 1 result gets 58% fewer clicks when an AI Overview appears. The drop gets smaller further down: 50.8% at position 2, 46.4% at position 3 and 19.4% at position 10.
Are clicks recovering?
Yes. Seer Interactive found the click rate on AI Overview searches went from 1.31% in December 2025 to 2.36% in February 2026. That is a recovery of about 85%.
Is it worth being quoted in an AI Overview?
Yes. Brands named in the AI Overview get about 120% more clicks than brands that are not named. They still get about 38% fewer clicks than the same search without an AI Overview.
Do AI Overviews quote the top Google results?
Partly. seoClarity found 90% of AI Overviews include at least one top 10 page, but only 32% of all the links inside them come from the top 10. The number 1 result is quoted 43% of the time.
Do AI Overviews appear on local searches?
Rarely on true “near me” searches. Whitespark found them on 15% of searches like “plumber near me”, where map results showed 93% of the time. Question searches showed them 92% of the time.
What is the AI local pack?
It is a new mobile feature that shows 1 or 2 businesses instead of the usual 3, with no call buttons. Sterling Sky found it on about 7% of tracked keywords across 322 markets.
Do brand-name searches show AI Overviews?
Rarely. Amsive found AI Overviews on only 4.79% of brand-name searches, and clicks on those searches went up 18.68%.
Do ads appear with AI Overviews?
Yes, more often now. Semrush found ads next to AI Overviews on 25% of results pages in December 2025, up from under 1% in March 2025.
Other statistics pages in this series.
Same rules on every page: a date, a source and a plain explanation for each number.
AI Overviews change the page. Check what yours looks like.
See if AI mentions your business, and where you rank on the map in your own area.
Both free to use