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The Headline Numbers on Google's AI Summaries
Five findings frame everything else. Semrush's 10-million- keyword tracker watched AI Overview prevalence climb from 6.49% of queries in January 2025 to a peak near 25% in July before settling at 15.69% by November. Ahrefs measured a 34.5% CTR penalty on the top organic result in April 2025 and 58% by December. Seer Interactive clocked a 61% organic CTR drop on affected queries (September 2025). Pew Research found users click a traditional result on only 8% of visits that include an AI summary, versus 15% without one (2025). And only about 38% of AI Overview citations come from top-10 organic results per Ahrefs, so ranking and getting cited remain different games.
This page covers Google's AI Overviews specifically: how often they appear, what they do to clicks, and who gets cited inside them. Each section is a table you can quote row by row. For the wider AI search picture, ChatGPT, Perplexity, citation behavior across assistants, see the companion hub of AI SEO statistics. And if you want strategy rather than data, start with the guide to appearing in Google AI Overviews.
How Often AI Overviews Appear, and Where
Prevalence depends on whose keywords you track: Semrush says 15.69% of queries (November 2025), Ahrefs says 21% of a 146- million-SERP sample (2025), and BrightEdge's nine-industry tracker reads roughly 48% by early 2026. What every study agrees on: informational, question-shaped, and YMYL queries trigger AI Overviews at multiples of the baseline rate.
| Stat | Figure | Source, year |
|---|---|---|
| Share of Google queries showing an AI Overview across 2025 (January, July peak, November) | 6.49% to ~25% to 15.69% | Semrush, 10M-keyword study, 2025 |
| Keywords triggering an AI Overview in SE Ranking's 100,013-keyword benchmark | 8.71% | SE Ranking, 2024 |
| Keywords showing an AI Overview across 146 million SERPs | 21% | Ahrefs, 2025 |
| Tracked queries showing an AI Overview across nine industries | ~48% | BrightEdge, early 2026 |
| Range of 2026 prevalence estimates, conservative to broad methodology | ~21% to ~48% | Safari Digital, Conductor (21.9M queries), BrightEdge, as compiled by SQ Magazine, 2026 |
| Monthly users Google says AI Overviews reach | 2 billion | Google, Alphabet earnings remarks, mid-2025 |
| Informational queries triggering an AI Overview | 57.1% | Semrush, 2025 |
| Commercial / transactional / navigational queries triggering one | 18.57% / 13.94% / 10.33% | Semrush, 2025 |
| Share of AI Overview keywords that are informational | 99.9% | Ahrefs, 2025 |
| "Why" queries triggering an AI Overview, the highest category measured | 59.8% | Ahrefs, 2025 |
| Trigger rate for one-word vs seven-plus-word queries | 9.5% vs 46.4% | Ahrefs, 2025 |
| YMYL queries triggering an AI Overview vs the all-keyword baseline | 34.3% vs 20.5% | Ahrefs, 2025 |
| Medical YMYL queries triggering an AI Overview | 44.1% | Ahrefs, 2025 |
| Highest-trigger topic categories: Science / Health / Pets & Animals | 43.6% / 43.0% / 36.8% | Ahrefs, 2025 |
| Leading verticals by AI Overview saturation: Science / Computers & Electronics / People & Society | 25.96% / 17.92% / 17.29% | Semrush, Nov 2025 |
| Lightly affected verticals (Real Estate, Shopping, Arts & Entertainment) | under 3% of keywords | Semrush, Nov 2025 |
| Healthcare query coverage; education coverage May to Dec 2025 | 88%; 18% to 83% | BrightEdge, 2025 to 2026 |
| AI Overview SERPs also showing Google Ads, Mar to Oct 2025 | 5.17% to 25.56% (+394%) | Semrush, 2025 |
| Share of AI Overview queries occurring on mobile | ~81% | industry data as compiled by SQ Magazine, 2026 |
Two rows explain most of the confusion in the discourse. The prevalence arc (6.49% to ~25% to 15.69%) means any single-month number is a snapshot of a moving target. And the gap between Semrush's 15.69% and BrightEdge's ~48% is not a contradiction: one tracks a broad keyword mix, the other tracks nine industries weighted toward informational queries, exactly where AI Overviews concentrate.
What AI Overviews Do to Clicks
Every credible study finds fewer clicks when an AI Overview is present; none finds the same amount fewer. The spread runs from Ahrefs' 34.5% top-result CTR penalty (April 2025) through its 58% December update and Seer Interactive's 61% drop on affected queries, to Pew's visit-level finding of 8% versus 15% click rates. The one bright spot is consistent: being cited inside the Overview claws a meaningful share of clicks back.
| Stat | Figure | Source, year |
|---|---|---|
| CTR reduction on the top-ranking result when an AI Overview is present | 34.5% | Ahrefs, Apr 2025 |
| Same measurement repeated on 300,000 keywords eight months later | 58% | Ahrefs, Dec 2025 |
| Position-one CTR on informational keywords, Dec 2023 vs Dec 2025 | 0.076% to 0.039% | Ahrefs, Dec 2025 |
| Organic CTR on queries with an AI Overview (3,119 informational queries, 42 organizations) | 1.76% to 0.61% (a 61% drop) | Seer Interactive, Sep 2025 |
| Paid CTR on the same queries with an AI Overview | 19.7% to 6.34% (a 68% drop) | Seer Interactive, Sep 2025 |
| Organic CTR decline year over year even on queries without an AI Overview | 41% (to 1.62%) | Seer Interactive, Sep 2025 |
| CTR premium for sites cited inside the AI Overview, organic / paid | +35% / +91% | Seer Interactive, Sep 2025 |
| Visits where users clicked a traditional result, with vs without an AI summary | 8% vs 15% | Pew Research Center, Mar 2025 data |
| Visits where users clicked a source link inside the AI summary itself | ~1% | Pew Research Center, 2025 |
| Users ending their browsing session after a results page with an AI summary vs without | 26% vs 16% | Pew Research Center, 2025 |
| Extra clicks per impression for brands cited in AI Overviews vs uncited brands | ~120% more | one 2026 roundup (omnibound.ai, attributing Seer Interactive) |
An honest note before you quote any of those rows: the measurements disagree because they measure different things. Ahrefs' 34.5% and 58% describe the top-ranking result on keyword sets sampled eight months apart, on a feature whose footprint changed between samples. Seer's 61% covers all organic positions on 3,119 hand-picked informational queries. Pew's 8% versus 15% is not a CTR at all but the share of real user visits that produced any click. Present them side by side with their dates and query sets, as this table does. Do not average them into one scary number; the average of three different denominators is noise.
Who Gets Cited Inside the Overviews
The citation pool overlaps organic rankings less than most people assume, though the gap is closing: Ahrefs puts top-10 overlap at ~38%, BrightEdge measured as little as ~17% early on but tracked overlap climbing from 32% to 54% over 16 months. Format matters more than length: 40 to 61% of AI Overviews use list formatting, and 53.4% of cited pages run under 1,000 words.
| Stat | Figure | Source, year |
|---|---|---|
| AI Overview citations coming from top-10 organic results | ~38% | Ahrefs, 2025 |
| Same overlap per BrightEdge's early measurements | as low as ~17% | BrightEdge, 2025 |
| Citation-to-organic-ranking overlap across 16 months of tracking | 32% to 54% | BrightEdge, 2026 |
| Overlap by vertical: healthcare / education / e-commerce | 75.3% / 72.6% / 22.9% | BrightEdge, 2026 |
| AI Overviews using list formatting | 40 to 61% | Semrush and Search Engine Land optimization guides, 2025 |
| AI Overviews containing an unordered list, the single most common format | 61% | Semrush AI Overviews study, 2025 |
| Cited pages under 1,000 words; correlation between word count and citation | 53.4%; near zero | Ahrefs, 2025 |
| Share of AI Overview links going to review platforms | 8.5% | MaxAEO/aisosystem, 2025 to 2026 |
| Share of analyzed responses in which review platforms appeared | 34.5% | MaxAEO/aisosystem, 2025 to 2026 |
| Links cited per AI Overview on average; sources in the longest answers | 4 to 6 links; up to 28 sources | SE Ranking, 2025 |
| Average AI Overview length across successive SE Ranking studies, 2024 to 2025 | 4,342 to 2,633 to 1,766 characters | SE Ranking, 2024 to 2025 |
The strategic read: the citation-versus-ranking gap is narrowing (BrightEdge's 32% to 54%) but far from closed, and in e-commerce it barely moved. Pages that never crack page one still get quoted, which is why extraction-friendly structure and off-site presence both matter; the data on whether backlinks still matter for AI search makes the same point from the mentions side, and the AI Overviews guide turns it into a plan. Deciding which of your pages are worth that effort is what the Growth Map does from your own Search Console data.
How to Cite These Numbers
Everything on this page is free to cite in articles, decks, and reports. Two asks: credit the original study named in the table row, ideally as "per [source], as compiled by SearchHandled", and link back here so readers can find the current figures. This is the July 2026 edition and the page is updated monthly; stale numbers get retired, not left to age. For AI search data beyond Google, ChatGPT and Perplexity citation behavior, zero-click baselines, conversion quality, use the sister hub of AI SEO statistics.
If a study listed here revises or retracts a figure, tell us and the correction lands in the next monthly pass. That standard, every number attached to a named study and a date, is the whole reason this page exists.
Questions People Ask About This Data
- What percentage of Google searches show an AI Overview?
Published estimates range from roughly 21% to 48% because each tracker measures a different query set. Semrush's 10-million-keyword tracker put prevalence at 15.69% in November 2025 after a peak near 25% in July. Ahrefs found 21% across 146 million SERPs in 2025. BrightEdge's nine-industry tracker reported roughly 48% by early 2026. Informational queries trigger them far more often than commercial ones: 57.1% versus 18.57% per Semrush.
- How much do AI Overviews reduce clicks?
The major studies land between one third and two thirds, because they measure different things. Ahrefs found a 34.5% lower CTR for the top organic result when an AI Overview appears (April 2025), rising to 58% in its December 2025 update. Seer Interactive measured a 61% organic CTR drop (1.76% to 0.61%) on affected informational queries by September 2025. Pew Research took a visit-level view: users clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits with an AI summary versus 15% without. All agree on direction; none agree on magnitude.
- Do AI Overviews cite pages that don't rank on page one?
Frequently, though less than they used to. Ahrefs found only about 38% of AI Overview citations come from the top-10 organic results. BrightEdge measured overlap as low as roughly 17% early on, but its 16-month tracking shows citation-to-ranking overlap climbing from 32% to 54% by 2026, with healthcare at 75.3% and e-commerce still just 22.9%. A large share of citations still go to pages that do not rank on page one, which makes extraction a partly separate game from ranking.
- Are AI Overviews growing or shrinking?
Both, depending on the window. Semrush tracked growth from 6.49% of queries in January 2025 to roughly 25% in July, then a pullback to 15.69% by November, so 2025 ended below its own peak. But the 2026 trackers point up again: BrightEdge reported about 48% coverage across its nine industries by early 2026, education coverage jumped from 18% to 83% of queries between May and December 2025, and Google said AI Overviews reach 2 billion monthly users (mid-2025). The footprint is volatile month to month and expanding year over year.
