Google AI Overviews Statistics: CTR and Zero-Click (2026)
November 4, 2026Google AI Overviews now reach more than 2.5 billion people a month, and they sit on top of a growing share of searches. This page collects the click-through rate (CTR) and zero-click figures from studies published between July 2025 and October 2026, each linked to its original source.
Key Findings
- Google showed an AI Overview on 39.4% of US desktop searches in June 2026, up from 25.8% in July 2025 (Comscore).
- In a 2025 study of real browsing, people clicked a regular search result on 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared and on 15% when none did (Pew Research Center).
- An AI Overview correlated with a 58% lower CTR for the top-ranking page in December 2025 (Ahrefs).
- 68.01% of US Google searches ended without a click from January to April 2026, up from 60.45% in 2024 (SparkToro).
- Organic CTR on queries with an AI Overview fell to 1.31% in December 2025, then rose to 2.36% by February 2026 (Seer Interactive).
For broader usage data on ChatGPT, Gemini and other assistants, our AI search statistics report covers user counts and market share, while this page covers clicks.
How Often Do AI Overviews Appear in Google Search?
Coverage depends on who measures it and which queries they sample. Panel data from real users gives the highest rates, while a sample of trending news topics gives a much lower one.
| Measure | Latest figure | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Google desktop searches with an AI Overview | 39.4% (from 25.8%) | Jul 2025 to Jun 2026 | Comscore |
| US AI Overview appearance rate | 43%+ | Mid-2026 | Similarweb |
| Trending-topic searches with an AI Overview | 13.7% | Mar 13 to Apr 21, 2026 | Washington University in St. Louis |
| Searches with an AI summary in a browsing panel | 18% | Mar 2025 | Pew Research Center |
| Bing searches with Copilot Search | 17.3% (from 11.8%) | Jul 2025 to Jun 2026 | Comscore |
Source: publishers listed in each row.
Key Findings
- Comscore’s panel puts AI Overviews on about two in five US desktop searches.
- WashU found that 65% of question-form queries produced an overview, compared with 9.5% of other searches.
- The WashU team counted about eight cited sources in an average overview.
Query intent shapes coverage even more than wording. Across 53 brands, Seer Interactive found AI Overviews on 36% of informational queries, 8% of commercial queries, and 5% of transactional queries.
| Query type | Share with an AI Overview |
|---|---|
| Comparison (X vs Y) | 95.4% |
| Question (what, why, how, is, are) | 85.9% |
| Price, cost, or buy | 83.4% |
| Best of | 81.3% |
| Near me | 76.9% |
| Single word | 27.3% |
Source: Seer Interactive, Jan 2025 to Feb 2026.
Key Findings
- Comparison and question queries show an AI Overview most of the time in Seer’s data.
- One-word searches show one about a quarter of the time.
How Do AI Overviews Change Click-Through Rates?
Each study in the table below finds fewer clicks when an AI Overview appears. The size of the drop depends on method and timing.
| Study | Sample | What it measured | With AI Overview | Without AI Overview |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pew Research Center, Mar 2025 | 900 US adults, 68,879 searches | Visits with a click on a regular result | 8% | 15% |
| Ahrefs, Dec 2025 | 300,000 keywords, Search Console data | Position 1 CTR vs forecast | 58% lower | Baseline |
| Seer Interactive, Feb 2026 | 53 brands, 5.47M queries | Organic CTR | 2.36% | 3.82% |
| Seer Interactive, Feb 2026 | Same | Paid CTR | 16.21% | 21.85% |
Source: publishers listed in each row.
Key Findings
- Pew’s panel clicked a regular result on 8% of visits with an AI summary, close to half the 15% rate without one.
- Ahrefs measured top-ranking CTR on AI Overview keywords at 0.073 in December 2023 and 0.016 in December 2025.
- Paid CTR also runs lower on AI Overview pages in Seer’s data.
Pew also tracked what people did inside the summary. They clicked a link in the AI summary on 1% of visits, and they ended their browsing session on 26% of pages with a summary, compared with 16% of pages without one.
Did AI Overview CTR Recover in 2026?
Seer’s monthly data shows a partial rebound. Organic CTR on AI Overview queries fell from 3.19% in January 2025 to 1.31% in December 2025, then rose to 2.36% in February 2026.
Organic CTR with and without an AI Overview, Jan 2025 to Feb 2026. Source: Seer Interactive.
Key Findings
- Queries without an AI Overview gained clicks, from 2.75% CTR in January 2025 to 3.82% in February 2026.
- Two months of recovery is a short window, so treat the 2026 rebound as early data.
Does Being Cited in an AI Overview Bring Clicks?
Seer Interactive found that brands cited in an AI Overview earned 120% more organic clicks per impression than brands left out of it.
Those cited pages still trailed the no-overview baseline by 38% on informational queries.
Washington University in St. Louis also checked accuracy. The team reviewed 98,020 claims and found about 11% were unsupported by, or contradicted, the cited sources.
How Many Google Searches Are Zero-Click in 2026?
SparkToro found that 68.01% of US Google searches ended without a click from January to April 2026, using Similarweb clickstream data. Its 2024 figure was 60.45%, measured with a different panel.
Zero-click searches and AI Overview coverage. Sources: SparkToro (Similarweb panel); Comscore.
Key Findings
- The share of searches that produced any click fell 9.51 points over two years, a 22.9% decline, per SparkToro.
- SparkToro credits most of the shift to AI Overviews, since AI Mode took 0.34% of searches from January to April 2026.
- SparkToro’s data excludes the Google mobile app, where the authors expect zero-click rates to run higher.
What Does Google Say About Clicks?
Google’s statements on clicks differ from the third-party studies. In August 2025, Liz Reid, head of Google Search, wrote that “total organic click volume from Google Search to websites has been relatively stable year-over-year.”
The same post said Google was sending “slightly more quality clicks,” meaning visits where people do not quickly return to the results. In July 2026, Alphabet said it sends “billions of clicks to websites every week through AI features in Search.”
Google has not published a CTR figure for AI Overviews. Its statements cover total click volume across the web, while the studies above measure clicks per search or per page.
How Much Traffic Do AI Assistants Send?
Outside Google, AI assistants still send a small share of site visits. Across 115,254 sites, Ahrefs measured AI assistants at 0.43% of traffic in September 2026, compared with 26.82% from search engines.
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage of Google searches show an AI Overview?
Comscore measured AI Overviews on 39.4% of US desktop Google searches in June 2026. Similarweb reported a US appearance rate above 43%, and Washington University in St. Louis found 13.7% on a sample of trending searches.
What is the click-through rate when an AI Overview appears?
Seer Interactive measured organic CTR at 2.36% on queries with an AI Overview in February 2026, against 3.82% without one. Pew Research Center found people clicked a regular result on 8% of visits with an AI summary and 15% without.
How much do AI Overviews reduce clicks?
Ahrefs found that an AI Overview correlated with a 58% lower CTR for the top-ranking page in December 2025. Results differ by study because each one uses a different sample and method.
What share of Google searches are zero-click?
SparkToro found that 68.01% of US Google searches ended without a click from January to April 2026. Its 2024 reading was 60.45%.
Do people click links inside AI Overviews?
Rarely. In Pew Research Center‘s 2025 study, people clicked a link inside the AI summary on 1% of visits to pages that showed one.
Does Google say AI Overviews reduce traffic?
Google says total organic click volume has stayed relatively stable and that click quality has gone up. It has not published a click-through rate for AI Overviews.
What to Do With These Numbers
If a large share of your organic traffic comes from informational or comparison queries, check how many of those queries now show an AI Overview and whether your pages are cited in them. Seer Interactive‘s data suggests a citation is worth tracking as its own metric next to rankings.
If you are new to the field, our guide to what generative engine optimization is covers the basics. Genevate’s generative engine optimization services focus on earning those citations in Google and in AI assistants, and our research center holds our other studies. To talk through your own search data, contact our team.
Sources
- Google, “Sundar Pichai at I/O 2026,” May 19, 2026: https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/sundar-pichai-io-2026/
- Comscore, Q2 2026 AI Intelligence Report press release, Sep 22, 2026: https://ir.comscore.com/news-releases/news-release-details/comscores-latest-ai-intelligence-report-shows-competition
- Similarweb, “AI Search Stats 2026,” Jul 29, 2026: https://aisearch.similarweb.com/blog/gen-ai-stats/
- Washington University in St. Louis, AI Overview citation study, Sep 29, 2026: https://source.washu.edu/2026/09/washu-research-finds-gaps-in-google-ai-overview-citations-claims/
- Pew Research Center, “Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results,” Jul 22, 2025: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/
- Ahrefs, “Update: AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 58%,” Feb 4, 2026: https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overviews-reduce-clicks-update/
- Seer Interactive, “AIO Impact on Google CTR: 2026 Update”: https://www.seerinteractive.com/insights/aio-impact-on-google-ctr-2026-update
- SparkToro, “In 2026, Less than One Third of Google Searches Still Send a Click,” Jun 8, 2026: https://sparktoro.com/blog/in-2026-less-than-one-third-of-google-searches-still-send-a-click/
- Google, “AI in Search is driving more queries and higher quality clicks,” Aug 6, 2025: https://blog.google/products/search/ai-search-driving-more-queries-higher-quality-clicks/
- Alphabet, Q2 2026 earnings remarks, Jul 22, 2026: https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/message-ceo/alphabet-earnings-q2-2026/
- Ahrefs, AI vs Search traffic benchmark: https://ahrefs.com/benchmarks/ai-vs-search