How many people use Google AI Mode?
More than one billion a month, according to Google. On 19 May 2026, the day of the Google I/O keynote, Elizabeth Reid, Google's VP of Search, wrote in A new era for AI Search that one year after its debut AI Mode "has surpassed one billion monthly users, with queries more than doubling every quarter since launch". Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, gave the same milestone in keynote remarks and added that AI Overviews has over 2.5 billion monthly active users.
| Source | Date | What it says | What it leaves out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elizabeth Reid, VP of Search, Google blog | 19 May 2026 | AI Mode passed one billion monthly users a year after debut; its queries more than doubled every quarter since launch; Search queries hit an all-time high last quarter | Clicks to websites, and any split by country or industry |
| Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, I/O keynote remarks | 19 May 2026 | AI Mode passed 1 billion monthly active users; AI Overviews has over 2.5 billion | The same |
| Similarweb, blog summary of its 2026 report | 29 July 2026, updated 17 September 2026 | AI Mode grew fast early on, then levelled off and started to soften, while AI Overviews kept climbing | User counts, and the measure its trend is based on |
The Google figures and the Similarweb summary measure different things. Google counts monthly users of a feature built into Search. Similarweb describes AI Mode as a feature that asks people to switch into a conversational interface on purpose, and says that, for now, that kind of deliberate switch is losing out to AI built into the searches people already run. Neither tells you how many of those people look for what you sell.
What does one billion users mean for a site with 2,000 visits a month?
On its own, very little. Take a hypothetical B2B site with 2,000 visits a month; the 2,000 is our example, not a benchmark. SE Ranking's study of 101,574 websites, published 18 June 2026, gives each channel's share of all traffic across those sites for January to April 2026. Applied to that example site, those shares look like this (our arithmetic):
| Channel | SE Ranking's share of all website traffic, January to April 2026 | The same share of a hypothetical 2,000 visits |
|---|---|---|
| Organic search | 42.75% | About 855 visits |
| All AI platforms SE Ranking tracks, combined | 0.32% | About 6 visits |
Three caveats. Your mix will differ from figures aggregated across 101,574 sites. SE Ranking's AI platforms are ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Claude, DeepSeek, Grok, Poe, Mistral AI and smaller tools; Google AI Mode is not on its list. And AI Mode clicks come from Google itself: Google's documentation says sites appearing in AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in your overall search traffic in Search Console. Whatever AI Mode sends you shows up there with your other Google clicks.
So the useful question for a 2,000-visit site is narrower than the headline. Do the 20 or 30 searches your buyers type get an AI answer, and is your site one of its links? You can check that in an afternoon.
Where does AI Mode traffic show up in Search Console?
In the Performance report, under the Web search type, mixed in with the rest of your Google traffic. Google's AI features documentation, last updated 10 December 2025, says so. The Search Console help page on performance data, checked on 20 October 2026, explains how AI Mode is counted:
- Click: clicking a link to an external page in AI Mode counts as a click.
- Impression: standard impression rules apply.
- Position: follows the same method as a normal Google results page.
- Follow-up questions: each one counts as a new query, with its own impressions, positions and clicks.
- Search Labs: data from Search Labs experiments is not included.
Two practical effects follow. Your Search Console totals already include AI Mode activity, so there is nothing new to install. And because follow-ups are counted as new queries, you may see more long, conversational queries with a handful of impressions each.
Google also says that when people click from results pages with AI Overviews, they are more likely to spend more time on the site. That is Google's own observation, and its documentation gives no figure for it.
What should a small B2B site change for AI Mode?
Build pages that answer comparison and decision questions in plain text. Google's documentation describes AI Mode as particularly helpful for queries that need further exploration, reasoning or complex comparisons. Its Search Central post of 21 May 2025 says people in its AI experiences ask longer, more specific questions, and follow-up questions to dig deeper. That points to where a small site should spend its time:
- Comparison pages. Your product against the two or three tools buyers actually compare you with, in one dated table with sources.
- How-to-choose pages. The questions a buyer asks before they know your name: which type of tool fits a team of five, what it should cost, what to test in a trial.
- Follow-up answers on the same page. Price, setup time and limits, each in a short section or an FAQ, so one page can serve the first question and the next.
- Text Google can show. Google says a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet to appear as a supporting link, so check that no nosnippet setting covers the parts you want quoted.
- Long, specific questions as headings. In Pew Research Center's data on searches made in March 2025 and re-run by Pew on 7 to 17 April 2025, 8% of one- or two-word Google searches produced an AI summary, against 53% of searches with 10 words or more. That data covers AI Overviews rather than AI Mode. It still shows which kinds of searches got AI answers.
If you write these pages with help, make sure the research step looks at what already ranks. Siela's SEO Blog Writer checks search volume, the top 10 Google results and People Also Ask before it drafts from an outline you approve, and it saves the draft without publishing it.
What should you ignore?
Ignore anything sold as a special AI Mode requirement, because Google says there isn't one. Its documentation says there are no additional requirements or special optimisations for AI Overviews or AI Mode, and that you don't need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special schema.org structured data to appear in them. On that basis we would skip:
- llms.txt as an AI Mode tactic. SE Ranking's study of about 300,000 domains, published 15 October 2026, found 10.13% had an llms.txt file and found no link between having one and how often a domain was cited by AI models.
- Extra markup sold for AI. Google says no special schema.org structured data is needed. Keep the structured data you already have accurate and matching the visible text.
- The one-billion figure as a forecast. It describes Google's audience, not your share of it. Plan from the queries in your own Search Console.
- Daily checks of AI answers. For a small site, we think a monthly check of your core questions is enough.
If nobody on your team owns this work, our guide to marketing without a marketing team lays out a weekly system for founders and small teams.
A 30-minute monthly AI Mode check
Once a month, check whether your buyers' questions get AI answers and whether you are linked in them. These steps are our advice; Google's own guidance for AI Mode is its normal SEO guidance.
List 20 buyer questions
Write the questions a buyer asks before and while comparing tools, in their words. Include comparison, alternatives, pricing and how-to-choose questions.
Run them in AI Mode
For each question, note whether your site is linked, which page, and which other sites appear. Ask one follow-up per question, since Google counts each follow-up as a new query.
Read the Web search type in Search Console
Open the Performance report with the Web search type for the last month. Look at impressions and clicks for your comparison, pricing and product pages, and at any new long queries.
Fix one page
Pick the page closest to being linked and make one change from the list above: a clearer first paragraph, a dated table or an answer to a follow-up.
Log what you saw
Date, question, whether you were linked and what you changed. Next month you compare against it.
Frequently asked questions
How many people use Google AI Mode in 2026?
Google said on 19 May 2026, at its I/O conference, that AI Mode had passed one billion monthly users a year after launch, with queries more than doubling every quarter since launch. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, said the same day that AI Overviews has over 2.5 billion monthly active users. Neither post gives a split by country or industry.
Can I see Google AI Mode traffic separately in Search Console?
Google's documentation says sites appearing in AI Mode and AI Overviews are included in overall search traffic in Search Console, reported in the Performance report under the Web search type. The pages we checked on 20 October 2026 describe no separate AI Mode report. A follow-up question in AI Mode counts as a new query, with its own impressions and clicks.
Do I need an llms.txt file to appear in Google AI Mode?
Google's AI features documentation says you don't need new machine-readable files, AI text files or markup to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. SE Ranking's study of about 300,000 domains, published 15 October 2026, found 10.13% had an llms.txt file and no link between having one and how often a domain was cited by AI models.
Is Google AI Mode different from AI Overviews?
Yes. Google says AI Mode is particularly helpful for queries needing further exploration, reasoning or complex comparisons, while AI Overviews are shown only when its systems judge them additive to classic Search, so they often don't trigger. Google says the two may use different models and techniques, so the responses and links they show will vary.
What counts as a click from Google AI Mode in Search Console?
Google's Search Console help says clicking a link to an external page in AI Mode counts as a click. Impressions follow the standard rules, and position uses the same method as a normal Google results page. Data from Search Labs experiments is not included, so activity in features still being tested in Labs is not in your report.
Sources
- Google: A new era for AI Search (Elizabeth Reid) (published 19 May 2026)
- Google: I/O 2026: Welcome to the agentic Gemini era (Sundar Pichai) (published 19 May 2026, updated 22 May 2026)
- Similarweb: AI Search Stats 2026 (published 29 Jul 2026, updated 17 Sep 2026)
- SE Ranking: AI traffic grew 16x from 2024 to 2026 (published 18 Jun 2026)
- Google Search Central: AI features and your website (last updated 10 Dec 2025, checked 20 Oct 2026)
- Google Search Console Help: Performance report metrics and methodology (checked 20 Oct 2026)
- Google Search Central blog: Top ways to ensure your content performs well in Google's AI experiences on Search (published 21 May 2025)
- Pew Research Center: Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results (published 22 Jul 2025)
- SE Ranking: Does LLMs.txt impact your AI visibility and citations? (published 15 Oct 2026)