ChatGPT dominates AI search with 78.16% market share, followed by Gemini at 8.65%, Perplexity at 7.07%, Copilot at 3.19%, and Claude at 2.91%. ChatGPT accounts for 87.4% of all AI referral traffic to websites. Claude has doubled its share in one month, rising from 1.37% to 2.91%. This page is updated monthly with the latest data.

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

While ChatGPT holds 78% of AI search market share by usage, it drives 87.4% of all AI referral traffic to websites. This means ChatGPT users are more likely to click through to cited sources than users of other AI platforms. For businesses optimising for AI search, ChatGPT visibility should be the top priority — which means Bing optimisation is critical since ChatGPT searches Bing.

Claude is the fastest-growing platform

Claude's market share doubled in a single month, rising from 1.37% to 2.91%. While still small in absolute terms, this growth rate is notable. Claude uses its own crawler (ClaudeBot) and tends to cite sources with strong factual content and clear attribution. Our audit found 16.7% of UK business websites block ClaudeBot — those businesses are missing a fast-growing channel.

Perplexity has the best crawl-to-referral ratio

Perplexity holds 7.07% of market share but drives 5.2% of AI referral traffic — the best conversion ratio of any platform relative to its size. Perplexity's model of always citing sources with clickable links means businesses that appear in Perplexity answers see disproportionately high click-through rates. PerplexityBot is also the least blocked crawler in our audit (3.3%), meaning most businesses already allow it.

Copilot matters more than its numbers suggest

Copilot's 3.19% market share may look small, but it's embedded in Microsoft Edge, Windows, and Office — reaching users who may not actively choose to use AI search but encounter it in their daily workflow. Copilot pulls from Bing's index, so optimising for Bing serves both ChatGPT and Copilot simultaneously.

DeepSeek is negligible for now

At 0.02% market share, DeepSeek is not yet a factor for Western businesses. This could change as the platform develops, but current optimisation efforts should 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 is compiled from publicly available platform usage statistics, referral traffic analysis across multiple website analytics datasets, and third-party AI search tracking tools. Referral traffic share is based on aggregate data from websites tracking AI-sourced visits. We cross-reference multiple data sources to ensure accuracy.

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AI Search Market Share 2026 — Monthly Tracker