Learn
Article 03 / Data

Ahrefs' AI Benchmark Report

Ahrefs' AI Search Benchmark Report (Q4 2025 / Q1 2026), released May 27, 2026, gathers 13 Ahrefs studies on AI search. It has three main takeaways. First, Google still sends far more traffic than AI tools. Second, AI answers cite many pages outside Google's top 10. Third, mentions of a brand around the web, especially on YouTube, track AI visibility more closely than backlinks or content volume do.

Last updated: October 12, 2026

What is the Ahrefs AI Search Benchmark Report?

The Ahrefs AI Search Benchmark Report draws on datasets including 146 million search results pages and 730,000 AI responses, plus original experiments by Ahrefs researchers, according to Ahrefs' May 2026 Business Wire release. Each finding below links back to the original Ahrefs blog study and its date. Most findings are correlational. Several come from Ahrefs' own Brand Radar tool, and a few measure Ahrefs' own brand only.

How often do Google AI Overviews appear?

Ahrefs' November 2025 study of 146 million desktop SERPs (September 2025 data) found AI Overviews on 20.5% of keywords, often rounded to 21%. 99.9% of keywords that triggered an AI Overview were informational. Longer queries triggered more: 9.5% of single-word queries versus 46.4% of queries with seven or more words. Rates varied by category, from 3.2% for Shopping to about 44% for Science.

Implication for independent SMBs: AI Overviews mostly appear on informational, question-style searches. For an independent business, the realistic win is answering pre-purchase questions clearly, not expecting AI Overviews on "near me" or transactional searches.

Are Google AI Mode and AI Overviews the same?

Ahrefs' comparison of AI Mode and AI Overviews (September 2025 US data) found that the two features cited the same URLs only 13.7% of the time, across 540,000 query pairs. Across 730,000 pairs, the answers still had 86% semantic similarity. Word overlap was 16%. AI Mode answers were about four times longer and included about 2.5 times more people and brand entities.

Implication for independent SMBs: Showing up in one Google AI feature does not mean showing up in the other. A business needs broad, consistent information across many trusted sources, because each feature picks different pages to say the same thing.

Do ChatGPT's sources match Google's rankings?

Ahrefs' study of ChatGPT's top 1,000 most-cited pages (Louise Linehan, late 2025) found that 28.3% had zero organic visibility in Google. Ahrefs also reported that about two-thirds of those top citations came from sources marketers cannot easily influence, such as Wikipedia, homepages, and app stores. Only about 32.3% were influenceable content types such as articles, reviews, and news.

Implication for independent SMBs: Google rankings alone do not predict ChatGPT citations. Independent businesses should focus on the influenceable share: reviews, accurate directory listings, local news coverage, and helpful articles.

Do AI Overviews only cite top-ranking pages?

Ahrefs' March 2, 2026 update (863,000 keyword SERPs, 4 million AI Overview URLs) found that 37.9% of cited URLs ranked in the top 10, 31.2% ranked 11–100, and 31.0% did not rank in the top 100. Ahrefs' July 2025 study had reported about 76% in the top 10. Ahrefs links the shift to fan-out queries and notes that its parsing improved. Among cited pages outside the top 100, 18.2% were YouTube URLs.

Implication for independent SMBs: A page outside the top 10 can still be cited in an AI Overview if it answers a related sub-question well. Clear answers to the specific follow-up questions customers ask are worth writing.

Ahrefs tracked more than 31,000 mentions of the Ahrefs brand across 150 million Brand Radar prompts. AI Overviews linked to Ahrefs in 10.7% of mentions. Perplexity linked in 51.6%. The average was about 28%. These rates describe one software brand, Ahrefs, and should not be generalized to local or professional-services businesses.

Implication for independent SMBs: AI tools often name a business without linking to it. Brand mentions still matter for awareness, so track mentions as well as clicks.

Which signals correlate with AI brand visibility?

Ahrefs' study of 75,000 brands (original version mid-2025, follow-up December 2025) found that YouTube mentions had the strongest correlation with AI brand visibility in ChatGPT, AI Mode, and AI Overviews, at about 0.737. Branded web mentions came next, at about 0.66–0.71 depending on the platform. Backlinks (about 0.218) and content volume (about 0.194) correlated weakly. Ahrefs notes that correlation is not causation.

Implication for independent SMBs: Earned mentions beat publishing volume. A local firm benefits more from being discussed in videos, reviews, local media, and industry directories than from publishing dozens of thin blog posts.

Does content length affect AI Overview citations?

Ahrefs' December 2025 study of 174,048 pages cited in AI Overviews found a near-zero correlation (0.04 Spearman) between word count and citation. The average cited page was 1,282 words, and 53.4% of cited pages were under 1,000 words. About 36.8% were 350–1,000 words, 30.6% were 1,000–2,000 words, and 16.0% were over 2,000 words.

Implication for independent SMBs: Write pages as long as the answer needs and no longer. A tight, complete answer competes with a long guide.

What content does ChatGPT cite for "best" queries?

Ahrefs' study by Glen Allsopp (late 2025) analyzed 26,283 source URLs from 750 top-of-funnel ChatGPT prompts in software, products, and agencies. "Best X" blog lists made up 43.8% of cited page types. 79.1% of cited lists had been updated in 2025, and 35% sat on low-authority domains. Brands placed higher on lists tended to be recommended more.

Implication for independent SMBs: Being included, and placed well, on reputable third-party "best" lists in your category and city is a realistic target. Ahrefs itself flags that many cited lists are low quality, so focus on credible lists.

How do AI Overviews vary by country?

Ahrefs' November 2025 Brand Radar analysis of 108 million AI Overview queries reported the highest coverage in Indonesia (37.2%), the Philippines (29.1%), Mexico (29.1%), and India (26.8%). The United States had 20.5%.

Implication for independent SMBs: AI Overview exposure depends on the market. Businesses that serve customers in several countries should check AI visibility market by market.

How much do AI Overviews reduce clicks?

Ahrefs' February 2026 update by Ryan Law compared aggregated Google Search Console desktop CTR for 300,000 keywords in December 2023 and December 2025. It found that an AI Overview correlated with a 58% lower click-through rate for the top-ranking page. Ahrefs' April 2025 version had found a 34.5% reduction.

Implication for independent SMBs: Informational pages can lose clicks even when they rank first. Measure success by citations, enquiries, and branded searches as well as traffic.

How does ChatGPT compare with Google for traffic?

Ahrefs' February 11, 2026 study by Patrick Stox estimated that ChatGPT handles about 12% of Google's search volume. The estimate assumes 65% of ChatGPT's more than 2.5 billion daily prompts (the figure OpenAI gave Axios, as TechCrunch reported on July 21, 2025) count as search, set against about 13.7 billion daily Google searches, an NP Digital estimate cited by TechCrunch (Alphabet's disclosed 5 trillion queries a year comes to just under 14 billion a day). Across 76,000 sites using Ahrefs Web Analytics, Google sent about 190 times more traffic. Google drove nearly 40% of visits to those sites, and ChatGPT drove 0.21%.

Implication for independent SMBs: Google remains the main traffic source. GEO should add to SEO, not take budget away from it.

Can AI tools repeat false information about a brand?

Ahrefs researcher Mateusz Makosiewicz published an experiment on December 10, 2025. He created a fictional luxury paperweight brand, Xarumei, and seeded three contradictory false stories on the Weighty Thoughts blog, Medium, and a Reddit AMA, according to PPC Land. The brand's own FAQ denied those stories. PPC Land lists the eight platforms tested: ChatGPT-4, ChatGPT-5 Thinking, Claude Sonnet 4.5, Gemini 2.5 Flash, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Grok 4, and Google AI Mode. Several of them repeated the false details, and Search Engine Journal quotes Ahrefs saying Perplexity "failed about 40% of the questions." Makosiewicz concluded that "in AI search, the most detailed story wins, even if it's false." Search Engine Journal's Roger Montti argued that the fake brand lacked real-world signals, which limits how far the results generalize.

Implication for independent SMBs: Fill gaps in your official information with specific facts: services, prices, locations, and credentials. Monitor what Reddit, Quora, and review sites say about your business.

How stable are AI Overviews?

Ahrefs' study by Louise Linehan and data scientist Xibeijia Guan tracked 43,000 keywords, each with at least 16 recorded AI Overviews, over one month. AI Overview content changed every 2.15 days on average, with a 70% chance of change between observations. 45.5% of cited sources were new each time. Meaning stayed stable, with 0.95 cosine similarity.

Implication for independent SMBs: A single spot-check of AI answers is unreliable. Track visibility over weeks, not days.

Has Ahrefs published newer data since the report?

Ahrefs has published related studies since May 2026. A 2026 study of 137,000 sites found that 97% of llms.txt files received no requests. A July 2026 CTR benchmarks post repeats the 58% click-loss figure. No Ahrefs post found for this article overturns the report's main findings as of October 12, 2026.

Key takeaways

  • Google still sends about 190x more website traffic than ChatGPT.
  • AI Overviews appear on about 21% of keywords, almost all of them informational.
  • Only 37.9% of AI Overview citations ranked in the top 10 in March 2026.
  • YouTube and web mentions correlate with AI visibility far more than backlinks do.
  • Content length barely matters. Clarity, freshness, and third-party presence matter more.

Questions and answers

What is the Ahrefs AI Search Benchmark Report?

The Ahrefs AI Search Benchmark Report is a May 2026 compilation of 13 Ahrefs studies on AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, and brand visibility, based on datasets including 146 million SERPs and 730,000 AI responses.

Do the Ahrefs findings prove what causes AI citations?

The Ahrefs findings mostly show correlations, not causes. The click and misinformation studies use comparisons or experiments, but they have their own limits.

Are the link-in-mention rates true for every business?

The link-in-mention rates measure the Ahrefs brand only. A local or professional-services business may see very different rates.

Should small businesses publish their own "best X" lists?

Ahrefs' data shows "best X" lists are heavily cited by ChatGPT. For independent businesses, earning a place on credible third-party lists is usually the safer target.

Does long content help AI visibility?

Long content does not help by default. Ahrefs found a 0.04 correlation between word count and AI Overview citations across 174,048 pages.

Sources

Kiseo uses findings like these to plan AI visibility work for independent businesses.

See Solutions
More in Learn

What is GEO?

Read article

What is the difference between SEO and GEO?

Read article