AI Search Market Share 2026 - Monthly Tracker
ChatGPT holds 78.16% of AI search market share, Gemini 8.65%, Perplexity 7.07%, Copilot 3.19%, Claude 2.91%. Updated monthly.
ChatGPT leads AI search with 78.16% market share. Gemini holds 8.65%. Perplexity has 7.07%. Copilot sits at 3.19%. Claude has 2.91%. ChatGPT drives 87.4% of all AI referral traffic to websites. Claude doubled its share in one month, rising from 1.37% to 2.91%. We update this page every month.
Current AI search market share
| Platform | Market share | Change (1 month) | AI referral traffic share |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 78.16% | - | 87.4% |
| Gemini | 8.65% | - | 4.8% |
| Perplexity | 7.07% | - | 5.2% |
| Copilot | 3.19% | - | 1.9% |
| Claude | 2.91% | +112% (from 1.37%) | 0.6% |
| DeepSeek | 0.02% | - | <0.1% |
Last updated: April 2026. This page is updated monthly with the latest available data.
Key insights from the data
ChatGPT's dominance is even larger in referral traffic
ChatGPT holds 78% of AI search by usage. But it drives 87.4% of all AI referral traffic to websites. ChatGPT users click through to sources more than users on other platforms. For businesses, ChatGPT visibility should be the top priority. That means Bing optimisation matters because ChatGPT searches Bing.
Claude is the fastest-growing platform
Claude doubled its market share in one month, from 1.37% to 2.91%. It is still small but growing fast. Claude uses its own crawler (ClaudeBot) and tends to cite sources with strong facts and clear attribution. Our audit found 16.7% of UK business websites block ClaudeBot. Those businesses miss a fast-growing channel.
Perplexity has the best crawl-to-referral ratio
Perplexity holds 7.07% of market share but drives 5.2% of referral traffic. That is the best ratio of any platform for its size. Perplexity always cites sources with clickable links. Businesses that appear in Perplexity answers see high click-through rates. PerplexityBot is also the least blocked crawler in our audit (3.3%). Most businesses already allow it.
Copilot matters more than its numbers suggest
Copilot holds 3.19% market share. That looks small. But it is built into Microsoft Edge, Windows, and Office. It reaches users who may not choose AI search but meet it in their daily work. Copilot pulls from Bing's index. So optimising for Bing serves both ChatGPT and Copilot at once.
DeepSeek is negligible for now
At 0.02% market share, DeepSeek does not matter for Western businesses yet. This could change. For now, focus on ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.
What this means for your AI search strategy
| Priority | Action | Platforms served |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Submit to Bing, allow GPTBot + OAI-SearchBot | ChatGPT (78%) + Copilot (3%) |
| 2 | Standard Google SEO (top 10 ranking) | Gemini (9%) + AI Overviews |
| 3 | Allow PerplexityBot, create citable content | Perplexity (7%) |
| 4 | Allow ClaudeBot | Claude (3%, fastest growing) |
The first two priorities alone cover over 90% of AI search. Start there.
Methodology
Market share data comes from public platform usage statistics, referral traffic analysis across many website analytics datasets, and third-party AI search tracking tools. Referral traffic share uses aggregate data from websites that track AI-sourced visits. We cross-check multiple sources for accuracy.
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Oliver Mackman
AI Search Analyst, SEOCompare
Oliver leads SEOCompare's editorial and comparison research. With over a decade in digital marketing, he oversees agency evaluation, tool testing, and AI search data analysis.
Last reviewed: 7 April 2026
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