Rudra Kasturi Inc.

Article · LLMs

OpenAI says ChatGPT's search-like queries are about one-fifth of Google's, as weekly users reach 1.2 billion

Illustrated avatar of Sofia Alvarez

By Sofia Alvarez · Reviewed by Editorial Desk
November 4, 2026 · 3 min read

SUMMARY

ChatGPT consumer product lead Adam Fry told Big Technology that ChatGPT's volume of search-like queries is roughly one-fifth of Google's, that weekly active users rose from 1 billion to 1.2 billion in about two months, that voice and dictation have 250 million combined weekly users, and that users create 1.5 billion images a week. These are OpenAI's own figures, and the comparison method was not given in the part of the interview we could read.

OpenAI says ChatGPT now handles roughly one fifth as many search-like queries as Google. The claim comes from ChatGPT consumer product lead Adam Fry, who spoke to Alex Kantrowitz of Big Technology at an OpenAI-hosted dinner in New York on Monday night, 2 November. We read the part of the Big Technology interview that is free to read. The rest is behind a paywall, so we report only what that part says. We also list 9to5Google’s coverage of the same claim, which we have not opened.

ChatGPT figures shared by OpenAI: 1.2 billion weekly users, search-like query volume about one fifth of Google, 250 million combined weekly voice and dictation users, and 1.5 billion images a week

What OpenAI said

According to the Big Technology report, OpenAI says:

  • ChatGPT’s weekly active users went from 1 billion to 1.2 billion in 60 days, which is 200 million added in about two months.
  • The volume of search-like queries on ChatGPT is now roughly one fifth of Google’s.
  • Users create 1.5 billion images a week.
  • Voice mode, counting dictation and speaking with ChatGPT, has 250 million combined weekly active users.

Fry said ChatGPT started about a year and a half ago with no up-to-date information, and called the growth “just going big”. He also said OpenAI plans to merge ChatGPT’s Chat and Work modes, and discussed the cost of serving its personal assistant, Dots, and topics including image generation, advertising and education, which are in the part we could not read.

Kantrowitz asked what counts as a search, given that one conversation can contain many prompts. Fry’s answer, as reported, is that people first came to ChatGPT for writing and coding help, which are not things you search for. Over the past year they have added topics where up-to-date information matters, such as looking up a person, place or thing, and finance or health questions where answers should be current and factual. For those, ChatGPT does a web search. In his words, it is basically anything a user would once have taken to a traditional search engine and now takes to ChatGPT.

What was not said

In the part we could read, Fry did not give the Google figure he compared with, the time period, or the regions. We do not know whether every prompt in a conversation is counted. So treat “one fifth” as OpenAI’s own estimate of a defined set of queries, not as an independent measurement.

Our view

This is our opinion, not OpenAI’s. Three points for site owners:

  1. Query volume is not traffic. A query answered inside ChatGPT may send no visit to your site. Do not read “20 percent of Google” as “20 percent as many clicks”.
  2. Current, factual pages matter more. Fry names finance and health among the topics where ChatGPT searches the web for current facts. If you publish in those areas, show dates, sources and authorship, and keep pages updated.
  3. Measurement is shaky. As we covered in where your ChatGPT traffic went in October, ChatGPT visits were recently misfiled as Direct for several days.

What to do

Sources

More on LLMs

See all →