Three studies published in October 2026 compare the visits websites get from ChatGPT and other AI assistants with the visits they get from Google and other search engines. All three find that organic search still brings far more visits and conversions. That matters to any business deciding where to put its visibility effort.
What we know
- Marie Haynes, October 21: the SEO consultant analyzed 12 months of GA4 data from 100 websites of different sizes, covering more than 145 million sessions. In her analysis, sessions from ChatGPT equaled 0.62% of the sessions from Google organic search. With all AI assistants combined, the figure was 0.73%.
- Conversions, per Haynes: 55 of the 100 sites tracked conversions. ChatGPT visitors converted at 13.8% and Google organic visitors at 3.02%, yet Google organic produced 27 times more conversions than all AI assistants combined. She adds that ChatGPT referral growth stopped in August 2025, around the GPT-5 release, and has declined since.
- The SEO Works, a UK agency: it measured 95 websites from September 2025 to August 2026. Its report says organic search delivered 39 times more visits than AI assistants, which sent 2.6% of organic volume. For every 100 organic conversions, AI referrals delivered 3.2.
- Conversion, per The SEO Works: AI visitors converted at 7.18% versus 6.08% for organic, but worse than organic on 23 of 63 sites and worse than paid search (0.67x). The traffic gap narrowed from 44 times (September 2025 to April 2026) to 33 times from May 2026.
- Kevin Indig, October 19: in his Growth Memo newsletter he checked whether AI inflates direct traffic across 12 sites, mostly B2B and US-focused. Direct traffic jumped, but much of it was bots: one site logged 409,000 direct sessions and only 198 engaged ones. On average, direct sessions with an identifiable AI trace were 0.003% of the total.
What changes and what doesn't
What changes: three independent measurements now point the same way. Today AI assistants bring a small share of a website's visits compared with organic search. The gap runs from about 39 times (The SEO Works) to about 160 times (Haynes, ChatGPT only), a calculation made for this article from their figures.
What doesn't change is how far you can take it. These are studies by a consultant, an agency and an analyst using their own samples, not data from OpenAI or Google. Clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode arrive in GA4 as organic search, so Google's own AI sits inside "Google". The two conversion rates (13.8% and 7.18%) are not comparable, since each study uses its own sample and counting. None of them captures people who read an AI answer and then search for the brand or type the URL. Haynes calls her sample small, and Indig found that his correlations between AI visibility and direct traffic did not hold up against a control with shifted weeks. Calling AI optimization "a distraction", as Haynes's headline does, is her opinion, not a result of the data.
How to check your own site
- Work out your own ratio. In GA4's traffic acquisition report, group by session source and filter for sources containing chatgpt, openai, perplexity, gemini, copilot or claude. Compare those sessions with google / organic over the same 12 months.
- Mark your conversions. 45 of the 100 sites in Haynes's study tracked no key events at all. If your form, chat click or purchase isn't a key event in GA4, you can't tell whether AI visitors are worth more or less than Google visitors.
- Question a direct-traffic spike. Before crediting AI, compare daily direct sessions with engaged sessions: a jump without engagement is usually bots.
- Don't neglect Google for AI. In The SEO Works' numbers, 5% more organic visits adds about 10.3 conversions per site per month, while doubling AI visits adds about 6.6. Both benefit from the same thing: fast, clear pages that answer the customer's question.
- Ask how people found you. A "How did you hear about us?" field on your contact form captures what GA4 can't, such as someone an AI assistant recommended you to.
Related: Search Now Brings Just 12% of Publisher Pageviews
Sources
- Marie Haynes, "GEO is a distraction", October 21, 2026
- The SEO Works, "AI Referral Traffic 2026: How Much, And Does It Convert?"
- Kevin Indig, Growth Memo, "Does AI drive more direct traffic?", October 19, 2026
- Search Engine Roundtable, October 22, 2026
Updates: if OpenAI or Google publish their own data on the visits they send to websites, it will be added here with a link.