They reach a lot of people. Google said at its I/O event in May 2026 that AI Overviews had passed 2.5 billion monthly users, as reported in a press release (Pressat).
They change how people click. Pew Research Center found that people clicked a regular result on 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, against 15% when none did. They clicked a link inside the summary on 1% of visits (Pew Research Center). Google called the method flawed.
To be quoted, a page must be “indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet” (Google Search Central). Ranking well helps, but less than it used to. In an April 2026 Ahrefs study, 38% of quoted pages ranked in the top 10 for the same search, down from 76% in 2025 (DesignRush).
Visits from AI Overviews are counted with normal search traffic in Google Search Console, so you can’t see them on their own (Google Search Central).
Sources
Every number here links to where it came from. We checked each source on 6 Nov 2026.
Pressat UK press release reporting Google I/O 2026 figures
pressat.co.uk Checked
A second-hand report of Google's figures.
Pew Research Center Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears
pewresearch.org Checked
Browsing data from 900 US adults, March 2025. Google called the method flawed.
Google Search Central AI features and your website
developers.google.com Checked
DesignRush Summary of Ahrefs' 2026 study of pages quoted in AI Overviews
news.designrush.com Checked
Ahrefs changed how it detects quotes between its 2025 and 2026 studies.