STATISTICS

ChatGPT statistics in 2026

ChatGPT reached 1.2 billion weekly users and about 5.9 billion monthly web visits in September 2026, and sent 95.1% of AI referral traffic in August 2026.

Updated October 30, 20265 min read

1.2BWeekly active ChatGPT users reported by OpenAI in September 2026
95.1%ChatGPT's share of AI referral traffic measured by BrightEdge in 2026
$1BAnnualized ChatGPT ads revenue run rate announced in August 2026

In short

OpenAI reported 1.2 billion weekly active ChatGPT users on September 29, 2026, up from 900 million on February 27, 2026 and 800 million on October 6, 2025.
ChatGPT handled more than 2.5 billion messages a day in July 2025, and Similarweb estimated about 5.9 billion web visits to chatgpt.com in September 2026.
BrightEdge measured in August 2026 that ChatGPT sent 95.1% of all AI referral traffic to websites, while Ahrefs found in September 2026 that AI assistants as a whole sent 0.43% of website traffic.
OpenAI announced on August 31, 2026 that ChatGPT ads reached a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate in under 200 days, expanding to 89 countries and more than 100,000 advertisers by October 21, 2026.

Key ChatGPT statistics at a glance

Number	What it measures	Source	Date
1.2 billion	Weekly active ChatGPT users	OpenAI	Sep 29, 2026
2.5 billion+	Messages handled by ChatGPT per day	The Verge / OpenAI	Jul 2025
About 5.9 billion	Monthly web visits to chatgpt.com (web only)	Similarweb	Sep 2026
24%	Share of ChatGPT messages seeking information	OpenAI usage study	Sep 15, 2025
95.1%	ChatGPT's share of AI referral traffic to websites	BrightEdge	Aug 2026
0.43%	Share of total website traffic sent by AI assistants	Ahrefs (115,254 sites)	Sep 2026
63.6%	Free instant mode search results from OpenAI's own index	RESONEO (1,249 answers)	Jul 2026
1.78	Average searches ChatGPT ran per prompt	Ahrefs (118,931 queries)	Aug 20, 2025
$1 billion	Annualized revenue run rate for ChatGPT ads	OpenAI	Aug 31, 2026
100,000+	Advertisers that have run ChatGPT ad campaigns	OpenAI	Oct 21, 2026

ChatGPT user growth, daily messages, and web visits

1.2 billion weekly users: Reported by OpenAI on September 29, 2026, up from 900 million on February 27, 2026 and 800 million on October 6, 2025 (TechCrunch).
2.5 billion+ daily messages: Reported by The Verge in July 2025; no newer official figure exists.
70% non-work and 24% information-seeking: OpenAI's September 15, 2025 usage study found 70% of messages were non-work and "Seeking Information" reached 24%, up from 14% a year earlier.
about 5.9 billion monthly web visits in September 2026 and 53% AI web share: Similarweb estimated about 5.9 billion web visits to chatgpt.com in September 2026 (Visual Capitalist), and reported on July 29, 2026 that ChatGPT held about 53% of generative AI web visits in May 2026, down from about 76% in June 2025.

ChatGPT search and retrieval statistics

ChatGPT search launched on October 31, 2024 and opened without sign-up on February 5, 2025. See our ChatGPT vs Google and zero-click searches guides for context.

63.6% from OpenAI's index in free instant mode: RESONEO analyzed 1,249 answers in July 2026 and found 63.6% of free instant mode results came from OpenAI's index ("labrador") and 34.7% from "bright", while paid thinking mode drew 74.6% from "bright". Peec AI observed four result source labels between May 21 and July 21, 2026: "labrador", "bright", "oxylabs", and "serp".
87% match with Bing's top 20: Seer Interactive found on February 6, 2025 that 87% of ChatGPT search citations matched Bing's top 20 organic results, versus 56% for Google.
6.82% overlap with Google's top 10: Ahrefs analyzed 118,931 fan-out queries on August 20, 2025 and found 6.82% of retrieved results were in Google's top 10, 83.39% did not appear in Google's results at all, and ChatGPT ran 1.78 searches per prompt on average.
18 publisher partners and Cloudflare indexing: Search Engine Land tracks 18 publisher content partners (updated October 21, 2026), and Cloudflare reported on October 15, 2026 that a July 2026 pilot helped OpenAI index hundreds of millions of new pages across about 1% of Cloudflare's network.

AI referral traffic and conversion statistics

See our AI traffic statistics guide for full benchmarks.

0.43% of website traffic: Ahrefs measured across 115,254 sites in September 2026 that AI assistants sent 0.43% of traffic versus 26.82% from search. Conductor measured 1.08% across 1,215 enterprise sites (May to September 2025), and Marie Haynes found ChatGPT sessions equaled 0.62% of Google organic sessions across 100 sites (reported October 21, 2026).
95.1% share of AI referrals: BrightEdge reported on September 24, 2026 that ChatGPT sent 95.1% of AI referral traffic in August 2026 (Gemini 2.4%, Perplexity 1.1%, Claude 0.8%), with ChatGPT referrals up 101% from January to August 2026.
770.7 million monthly AI referral visits: Similarweb counted 770.7 million monthly AI referral visits worldwide (June 2025 to May 2026, published September 3, 2026), up 117.4% year over year.
Higher conversion rates: Adobe reported on October 29, 2026 that AI traffic to U.S. retail sites grew 71% year over year in September 2026, with AI visitors converting 90% better and bringing 83% more revenue per visit than non-AI visitors. Visibility Labs (94 ecommerce brands, 2025) measured a 1.81% conversion rate for ChatGPT visitors versus 1.39% for non-branded organic search.

ChatGPT advertising statistics and milestones

OpenAI announced ChatGPT ads on January 16, 2026 and started U.S. testing on February 9, 2026 for logged-in adults on Free and Go plans, while Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu stay ad-free.

$1 billion run rate, 89 countries, 100,000+ advertisers: OpenAI hit a $1 billion annualized ad revenue run rate in under 200 days on August 31, 2026, and reached 89 countries and more than 100,000 advertisers by October 21, 2026.
$25 daily minimum and $3 to $5 recommended starting max CPC: Self-serve Ads Manager beta launched May 5, 2026. The minimum daily budget is $25 (or a local equivalent such as 15 GBP or 15 EUR), and the recommended starting max CPC is $3 to $5.
Pilot CPMs: Digiday and Marketing Brew reported that early $60 CPMs and $200,000 to $250,000 minimums dropped to $25 to $45 CPMs and a $50,000 minimum by April 2026.

What these ChatGPT statistics mean for your business

OpenAI states that ads appear below answers and never influence organic answers. To be eligible for organic search results, allow OAI-SearchBot and OpenAI's published IP ranges. Test any URL with our free GEO audit (no account needed, 5 audits a day), which fetches your page using the OAI-SearchBot user agent, rebuilds the title and ~200-character snippet ChatGPT keeps, looks the page up in ChatGPT, and scores your setup out of 100.

FoundByChat checks your customers' questions in ChatGPT with web search on every 2 hours as a user in the U.S. (English) or the Netherlands (Dutch), records whether your pages are Found or Cited, lists the titles and snippets in ChatGPT's index, and emails you when a page is new or its snippet changes. Free to start with Google or an email link.

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Questions

How many people use ChatGPT in 2026?

OpenAI reported 1.2 billion weekly active ChatGPT users on September 29, 2026, up from 900 million on February 27, 2026 and 800 million on October 6, 2025. Similarweb estimated that chatgpt.com received about 5.9 billion web visits in September 2026.

How many searches or messages does ChatGPT get per day?

The Verge reported in July 2025 that ChatGPT handled more than 2.5 billion messages a day, the most recent official figure. OpenAI's September 15, 2025 usage study found that 24% of messages are "Seeking Information", up from 14% a year earlier.

How much website traffic comes from ChatGPT?

In September 2026, Ahrefs measured across 115,254 websites that AI assistants sent 0.43% of website traffic, compared with 26.82% from search. BrightEdge found in August 2026 that ChatGPT accounted for 95.1% of all AI referral traffic.

Does ChatGPT use Google or Bing for web search?

OpenAI states that ChatGPT search sometimes partners with third-party providers and names Bing for Enterprise and Edu queries, while Microsoft says its Web IQ grounding service (launched June 2, 2026 on the Bing index) powers ChatGPT. RESONEO found in July 2026 that 63.6% of free instant mode results came from OpenAI's own index ("labrador"), while Ahrefs found in August 2025 that 83.39% of retrieved results did not appear in Google's results at all.

How much do ChatGPT ads cost?

In OpenAI's self-serve Ads Manager (beta launched May 5, 2026), the minimum daily budget is $25 (or 15 GBP / 15 EUR) and the recommended starting max CPC is $3 to $5. Digiday and Marketing Brew reported that early $60 CPMs and $200,000 to $250,000 minimums dropped to $25 to $45 CPMs and a $50,000 minimum by April 2026.