ChatGPT Search Volume Now About 20% of Google’s, OpenAI Says

ChatGPT search volume is now roughly one-fifth of Google’s, according to OpenAI. ChatGPT consumer product lead Adam Fry shared the figure during a fireside chat with Big Technology’s Alex Kantrowitz at an OpenAI-hosted dinner in New York on Monday night, alongside fresh numbers on users, voice and images.

Fry, who previously worked at Google, said ChatGPT’s volume of “search-like queries” has reached that level about a year and a half after the chatbot started pulling in up-to-date information from the web. OpenAI has not published the underlying data, so the comparison comes from the company itself rather than an independent measurement.

How OpenAI Counts ChatGPT Search Volume

The definition matters here. Fry said every question that makes ChatGPT go out and search the web counts as one search, so a single long conversation can produce several. He described the queries as the kind people used to take to a traditional search engine: looking up a person, place or thing, plus finance and health questions where current, factual answers matter.

He also pointed to personalization as the main difference from classic search. Instead of answering a one-off question in isolation, ChatGPT can tie it to what it already knows about the user, such as an upcoming trip.

1.2 Billion Weekly Users, 250 Million on Voice

Fry said ChatGPT went from 1 billion to 1.2 billion weekly active users in about 60 days, or roughly 100 million new users every 30 days. OpenAI first confirmed the 1.2 billion mark in late September. “The growth is just going big,” Fry said.

Other figures he shared:

• Voice input, which combines dictation and voice mode conversations, has 250 million weekly active users.
• Users create 1.5 billion images per week, and Fry said a majority of ChatGPT users use the image features.
• ChatGPT passed 50 million subscriptions several months ago and has “grown considerably” since.
• Ads reached more than $1 billion in annualized revenue within 200 days of launch, following the rollout of visual ads in ChatGPT.

Chat and Work Merge, Dots Stays at $100

Fry confirmed that ChatGPT’s separate Chat and Work modes will be combined into a single interface that figures out whether you want a quick reply or a longer agent task. He said it is “coming soon,” which lines up with the ChatGPT Work merge OpenAI announced to subscribers this week.

On Dots, OpenAI’s personal agent, Fry admitted the always-on assistant is “on the compute-heavier side” and said there is no date yet for bringing it to a broader set of users beyond the $100 monthly plan. OpenAI plans to lower the cost with more efficient models over time.

For users, the takeaway is that ChatGPT is increasingly where people go for everyday lookups, not just writing or coding help. Whether that dent in Google’s traffic shows up in independent data is the next thing to watch.