Byte-Sized Brief

• Chatbot traffic is up nearly 81 percent.
• Search engines are still far ahead.
• Google and Bing regain ground with AI tools.

For a lot of people, Googleisthe internet. It's been the first stop for almost everything online for over two decades. But that's starting to shift as AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude grow more popular. A study from OneLittleWeb looked at 24 months of traffic data and found that chatbot usage is way up, with year-over-year growth of 80.92 percent, but search engines still pull in a massive 34 times more visits (just -0.51 percent YoY change).

ChatGPT remains the frontrunner in the chatbot space, but it still gets 26 times fewer visits than Google each day. Similar tools like Grok are gaining fast as well, so it makes sense that search engines aren't standing still-Google and Bing are layering in their own AI tools to stay competitive. While chatbot traffic only made up about 3 percent of search engine visits last year, the shift in how people are finding information is clearly underway. Students and professionals are already leaning into chatbots for answers, which could steadily chip away at traditional search.

The Bottom Line

AI chatbot traffic has grown nearly 81 percent year over year, but it still makes up less than 3 percent of the traffic that search engines get. With more people relying on chatbots at home, school, and work, this gap will likely shrink over time.