One search in five now goes to ChatGPT, not Google

OpenAI says ChatGPT now handles about one-fifth as many search-like queries as Google, consumer product lead Adam Fry told reporters at a press event on Monday. OpenAI counts a search as any question that sends ChatGPT to look something up on the web — not asking it to define a word or walk through a simple how-to.

The number is OpenAI's own: Fry did not say where the Google figure came from, and no absolute volumes were disclosed, so the one-fifth claim can't be checked against an outside baseline.

OpenAI also boasted it got there faster than Bing ever did — at a comparable stage, Bing had only one-tenth as many searches as Google. The Verge calls the shift recent, driven by chatbots' popularity and a year of OpenAI pulling searchers toward ChatGPT.