ChatGPT Hits 20% of Google's Search Volume — But It Isn't Finding Vendors for B2B Buyers

By Olivia Hart

ChatGPT now handles roughly one-fifth of Google's search-like query volume, Adam Fry, who leads ChatGPT's consumer product, said at an OpenAI-hosted dinner in New York on November 2. "ChatGPT's volume of search-like queries is now roughly one-fifth the volume of queries of Google," Fry said. By OpenAI's definition, that covers "basically anything that a user would have traditionally gone to a traditional search engine for."

It is a big number with thin documentation. OpenAI did not say which Google figure it compared against, over what period, or in which countries. The traffic ChatGPT actually sends to websites remains small: Ahrefs, tracking 118,671 websites, found Google delivered 24.74 percent of their visitors in October while ChatGPT delivered 0.36 percent. Both facts can hold at once, because a question answered inside ChatGPT never has to send anyone to a website at all.

Where is the marketing money going?

Some budgets are already moving. Media buyers told Digiday this month that clients are questioning 10 to 30 percent of their Google search budgets as AI answers occupy more of the results page. Before any business follows suit, it should examine what buyers actually do with AI — because the data says they mostly use it to check decisions they have largely made already.

What does the buyer survey actually show?

6sense, a vendor of account-based marketing and buyer intent data with a clear stake in the question, surveyed buyers behind more than 4,600 recent B2B purchase journeys across North America, Europe, the UK and Asia-Pacific for its 2026 B2B Buyer Experience Report.

• 81 percent used an AI model somewhere in their evaluation, down from 94 percent a year earlier.
• Only 26 percent used one to find new vendors.
• Before speaking to sales, buyers cited AI tools at 21 percent as shaping their vendor views — behind their own existing knowledge (34 percent) and internal company discussions (32 percent).
• Buyers made first contact with a seller roughly 59 percent of the way through a buying cycle averaging just over 10 months; 91 percent had already ranked their shortlist, and the pre-favored vendor won 82 percent of the time.

That may appear to contradict G2's widely shared finding earlier this year that 51 percent of B2B software buyers start their research in an AI chatbot. It does not. A buyer can open ChatGPT to learn what a software category does or summarize three vendors' sites, then still choose among the names they already knew.

Does AI create visibility or mirror it?

Ahrefs analyzed 10,000 US brands across 260 million AI prompts that did not name the brand, and found that how often a brand appeared in AI answers tracked closely with how often it was mentioned elsewhere online. Ahrefs concedes it cannot prove the mentions cause the visibility, and brand size explains part of the pattern. For most business leaders, that caveat is the point: AI mostly reflects a reputation built elsewhere rather than creating one.

Robert Gillespie, the AI marketing expert behind the analysis, notes that when he asks B2B leaders where their best deals came from, the answer is usually a referral, a conference conversation, or a buying-team member who used the product at a previous employer. The 6sense data suggests that pattern has changed far less than AI search headlines imply.

What is OpenAI itself offering?

On November 10, OpenAI opened a beta called Businesses in ChatGPT, letting companies claim a profile in front of what it says are 1.2 billion weekly users. OpenAI's own FAQ states plainly that "claiming does not guarantee higher placement or sales" and that ChatGPT "continues to make independent recommendations and comparisons."

The Business Hub also shows how often ChatGPT mentions a company, how many clicks it sends, and the themes of conversations where it is cited — the first AI visibility figures from OpenAI itself rather than a third-party estimate. Business Agents, which let customers chat with a company inside ChatGPT, are limited for now to US ecommerce and online service businesses; profile claiming is open to any eligible business with a website where ChatGPT is offered.

What should companies do?

Gillespie's recommendations, with the caveats built in:

• Protect shortlist-building channels. In the 6sense survey, vendor websites, industry events, review sites and industry publications led how buyers keep up with a category between purchases; AI models ranked last of 11 channels at 15 percent. Ask what gets cut before funding AI visibility.
• Claim the ChatGPT profile this month. It is the simplest way to influence what a buyer reads when checking you out — though OpenAI promises no ranking benefit.
• Fix the rest of the check. Keep pricing, product and review-site information current, and monthly-test ten key buying questions in ChatGPT, Gemini and Google for errors.
• Ask customers directly where they first heard of you; within a few months that beats any AI dashboard, OpenAI's included.

A buyer who asks ChatGPT to compare you with two competitors is making a real judgment, and a wrong price or a retired product in the answer can cost a deal you were winning. The mistake is treating AI as where buyers discover you, funded by cutting the channels that put you on the list.

ChatGPT handling a fifth of Google's search volume is a genuine shift, and it will change how buyers research. But for most B2B purchases, the research AI assists happens after the shortlist exists — the winners will be the companies buyers already knew by the time they asked.