Are AI chatbots replacing search engines? A look at the numbers

Once upon a not-so-distant time, if you had a burning question like “Who is the new President of the African Development Bank?”, you would type it into a search engine and sift through a sea of links, hoping one would provide a satisfactory answer. 

For decades, Google has been the undisputed king of search. With its trained algorithms and vast index of web pages, it is the go-to source for finding information on just about anything. However, as incredible as Google’s search capabilities are, they’re still based on indexing and ranking existing web content. You are limited to what already exists on the web. Sometimes, not all that exists.

However, there is a tectonic shift in the world of information gathering: the entry of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI).

AI does not only provide links. It provides answers that are instant, conversational and with room for follow-up queries. AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini don’t just regurgitate pre-existing information. They generate entirely new content using advanced language models and machine learning techniques.

Generative AI crafts human-like, contextually relevant answers that are tailored to your specific query.

However, as AI chatbots become popular, the pressing question for analysts and digital strategists is whether their rise will result in a drop in traditional search engine usage. A traffic report by onelittleweb.com indicates that although AI chatbot adoption is growing, it is not enough to displace search engines, just yet.

It shows that while ChatGPT is leading the AI adoption drive, it does not rival Google’s scale. In fact, the data revealed that the top 10 AI chatbots received 30.5 billion visits between April 2023 and March 2024, while the top 10 search engines saw 1.86 trillion within the same period- a massive 61x difference.

Fast forward one year: from April 2024 to March 2025, chatbot traffic surged to 55.2 billion, an 80.92% YoY increase, while search engine traffic dipped slightly to 1.86 trillion, a decline of 9.57 billion visits or 0.51%.

See a table of the top 10 AI Chatbots by web traffic between April 2024 and March 2025 below:

Rank	Name	URL	Total (Apr 23 – Mar 24)	Avg. Visits/Mo  (Apr 23 – Mar 24)	Total (Apr 24 – Mar 25)	Avg. Visits/Mo  (Apr 24 – Mar 25)	YoY Change	YoY Change (%)
1	ChatGPT	https://chatgpt.com/	28.5B	2.4B	47.7B	4.0B	19.1B	67.09%
2	DeepSeek	https://www.deepseek.com/	1.5M	128.1K	1.7B	144.9M	1.7B	113007.49%
3	Gemini	https://gemini.google.com/	1.2B	99.8M	1.7B	141.0M	494.4M	41.28%
4	Perplexity	https://www.perplexity.ai/	388.5M	32.4M	1.3B	111.3M	946.9M	243.74%
5	Claude	https://claude.ai/	240.1M	20.0M	1.2B	96.7M	920.7M	383.44%
6	Microsoft Copilot	https://copilot.microsoft.com/	80.8M	6.7M	920.4M	76.7M	839.6M	1038.72%
7	Blackbox AI	https://www.blackbox.ai/	39.5M	3.3M	221.5M	18.5M	182.1M	461.38%
8	Grok	https://grok.com/	61.2K	5.1K	216.5M	18.0M	216.5M	353787.60%
9	Monica	https://monica.im/	49.9M	4.2M	164.5M	13.7M	114.6M	229.83%
10	Meta AI	https://www.meta.ai/	76.4K	6.4K	108.9M	9.1M	108.8M	142430.21%
	Chatbot Total		30.5B	2.5B	55.2B	4.6B	24.7B	80.92%

The table above also indicates that chatbot traffic is still just a fraction of search engine traffic—about 1/34th—showing that search engines still dominate daily and monthly web usage.

See the top 10 Search Engines by Web Traffic between April 2024 and March 2025 below:

Rank	Name	URL	Total (Apr 23 – Mar 24)	Avg. Visits/Mo  (Apr 23 – Mar 24)	Total (Apr 24 – Mar 25)	Avg. Visits/Mo  (Apr 24 – Mar 25)	YoY Change	YoY Change (%)
1	Google	https://www.google.com/	1654.8B	137.9B	1631.5B	136.0B	-23.28B	-1.41%
2	Microsoft Bing	https://www.bing.com/	47.0B	3.9B	60.1B	5.0B	13.1B	27.77%
3	Yandex	https://yandex.ru/	31.3B	2.6B	41.5B	3.5B	10.2B	32.65%
4	Yahoo	https://www.yahoo.com/	53.2B	4.4B	41.3B	3.4B	-11.98B	-22.50%
5	DuckDuckGo	https://duckduckgo.com/	40.5B	3.4B	37.0B	3.1B	-3.55B	-8.77%
6	Naver	https://www.naver.com/	17.9B	1.5B	24.1B	2.0B	6.1B	34.28%
7	Baidu	https://www.baidu.com/	19.4B	1.6B	16.7B	1.4B	-2.65B	-13.71%
8	Ecosia	https://www.ecosia.org/	3.7B	305.9M	4.3B	360.3M	653.1M	17.79%
9	Brave Search	https://search.brave.com/	2.3B	193.5M	3.8B	317.7M	1.5B	64.20%
10	AOL	https://www.aol.com/	2.4B	199.2M	2.7B	225.2M	312.3M	13.07%
	Search Engine Total		1872.5B	156.0B	1863.0B	155.2B	-9.57B	-0.51%

AI vs search engine: a growing trend not taking over… yet

Overall, the data above reinforces the gap in user behaviour. Despite the rapid rise of AI chatbots, search engines remain the dominant force online.

Yet, here are some key takeaways:

• Search is still the starting point: Users still rely heavily on traditional search engines for deeper research, multiple-source validation, and broader exploration compared to the direct answers often provided by chatbots.
• Google is the undisputed champion: Even with the boom in AI adoption, Google’s dominance shows little signs of weakening. Its traffic dipped only -1.41% year-over-year, a minor change considering the scale.
• Chatbot growth is explosive: Platforms like Grok (by X Corp) and Microsoft Copilot are witnessing jaw-dropping percentage growths (353,787.60% and 1038.72% respectively).
• But, AI is reshaping user expectations: While not dethroning search engines yet, chatbots are redefining how quickly and conversationally users expect answers.

So, what does this mean for the future of search engines? They are not going to become obsolete overnight. But, they need to do more than integrate AI into their search page to survive the growing onslaught.

At the moment, platforms like Google are incorporating AI capabilities into search (hello, BERT and MUM!). But these language models are still focused on understanding and ranking existing web content. Chatbots, on the other hand, are generating brand-new information on demand.

The difference is like between having a librarian pointing you to the right book section (Google and others) and having a personal tutor who can explain complex concepts in a way that’s tailored specifically to your learning style (chatbots).

Maybe a symbiotic relationship where users can use search engines to find basic information and seamlessly integrate with an AI assistant to take the information and provide personalised insights and recommendations. Maybe not.

Only time will tell.