AI assistants are no longer a niche tool. Anyone who wants to know how visibility is changing today needs reliable figures – not claims. That is exactly what we gather on this page: curated, with a linked primary source, survey period and as-of date on every single statistic.
The page is freely accessible, with no form. Every figure can be cited on its own, every core chart used individually. We keep it up to date on an ongoing basis – and the address always stays the same, so links you set keep pointing to the current version.
How many people search with AI?
The reach of ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude – and how the search market is shifting as a result.
What AI search does to traffic
Click numbers are falling – but not equally everywhere. These figures document the decline for classic search results and, at the same time, the growth of visitors who come directly from AI answers.
Whom do ChatGPT, Gemini & co. cite?
In practice this is the central question: which pages end up as a source in an AI answer? The data shows a clear link between classic Google rankings and AI citations.
A page that ranks #1 on Google is cited as a source by ChatGPT in 43.2% of cases – around 3.5× more often than a page outside the top 20. Good SEO is therefore the foundation for visibility in AI answers, not its opposite.
Source: AirOps – Retrieval Fanout & Google SERPs in ChatGPT ↗come from position #1
AI search in the DACH region
Most studies on AI search come from the US market. For companies in the DACH region, though, the German figures are what matter – here are the most reliable surveys.
The key figures as charts
All charts may be used freely – with attribution to Farbentour as the source, including a link. The embed code is directly below each one.
The rest end without a click, on a Google-owned property or in a new search.
For context: What is counted here is clicks per search across all devices and query types – including multiple clicks and navigational searches. Surveys that instead measure the share of page visits with a click (e.g. Pew: 8 and 15% respectively) therefore arrive at much lower values. Both figures are correct, but not directly comparable.
For informational queries with an AI Overview, the average organic click-through rate fell from 1.76% to 0.61%.
Important context: These are averages across the entire keyword set analysed – across all positions, predominantly informational queries with high search volume. It is not the CTR of position #1: that remains in the double-digit percentage range. What matters here is the relative decline, not the absolute value.
before AI Overviews
with AI Overviews
without AI Overview
Share of internet users aged 16 and over – total and in the 16-to-29 age group.
Share of AI users in Germany who use each service (multiple answers possible).
Cite this page
All figures may be used freely. We only ask for a source citation with a link – here are ready-made snippets to copy.
Source: Farbentour – AI Search & AI Answers: Facts and Statistics, https://www.farbentour.de/en/advice/ki-suche-statistiken (as of: 29 Aug 2026)
<a href="https://www.farbentour.de/en/advice/ki-suche-statistiken">Farbentour – AI Search & AI Answers: Facts and Statistics</a>
Farbentour Online Marketing GmbH (2026): AI Search & AI Answers – Facts and Statistics. Available at: https://www.farbentour.de/en/advice/ki-suche-statistiken (accessed 29 Aug 2026).
Note on use: The primary source of each statistic is linked at the respective figure and should be named alongside it in editorial contexts. Farbentour is the source of the compilation and the charts – not of the raw data.
Methodology & maintenance of this page
We only include figures whose primary source is publicly accessible – provider data, studies with a documented sample, or surveys by established institutes. Every statistic carries a source, collection period and as-of date.
Where several studies report differing values for the same issue, we give the range instead of a single value. That is often the case with AI topics: measurement methods, markets and time periods differ widely.
The page is revised on an ongoing basis. The URL always stays the same – without a year, so links you set keep pointing to the current version. Outdated figures are replaced, not deleted: for larger corrections we note the previous value.
This overview is part of our Farbentour advice section and is permanently available at farbentour.de/en/advice/ki-suche-statistiken .
Statistics show the trend – for your company, your own numbers are what count. We check which prompts you appear for today in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, and where your competitors rank ahead of you.
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Fabian Auler is the founder and owner of Farbentour. For more than ten years he has supported companies with SEO, digital PR and, more recently, visibility in AI search. As a published author with Springer Gabler and a speaker, he regularly shares his knowledge at industry conferences.
