ChatGPT Information Queries Reach 20% of Messages
OpenAI's Signals data points to a growing role for the chatbot in daily answer-seeking, though it has not shown how much traffic that shifts away from the web.
Updated on Nov. 3, 2026 in Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI reported that information-seeking accounted for 20.2% of sampled individual ChatGPT messages in September 2026, up from 16.7% in July 2024. The figure comes from OpenAI's Signals report, updated October 26, 2026, and describes a share of messages, not of account holders or searches. The findings are reported usage data from the company, not an independent audit.
Why it matters
The rising share of information-seeking requests suggests ChatGPT is taking on a larger role as a general-purpose answer engine, competing for the kinds of queries that have long run through search. The Signals classification does not show whether those messages used ChatGPT Search or led users to outside websites, so the shift's effect on web traffic cannot be read directly from this number.
The share of individual messages labeled information-seeking rose from 16.7% in July 2024 to 20.2% in September 2026, according to OpenAI's sampled Signals data covering Free, Go, Plus and Pro accounts. Organizational use is tracked separately, and the classification does not reveal the underlying tooling behind each message.
The players
OpenAI
The San Francisco-based AI lab behind ChatGPT, whose Signals report tracks how individual users apply the product across message categories.
The search giant whose annual search count exceeded 5 trillion in early 2025, serving as the comparison point for ChatGPT's message volume.
The details
OpenAI's Signals report sorts sampled individual ChatGPT messages into topic categories, and information-seeking groups together requests for specific facts, purchasable products, and cooking and recipes. The metric counts the share of messages in each category rather than the number of users or searches, so a rise in its percentage can reflect either growth in such requests or a slower growth in other kinds of use. Because the sample spans July 2024 through September 2026 and covers only individual accounts, it reflects one usage segment rather than all ChatGPT activity.
Timeline
July 2024: information-seeking measured at 16.7% of sampled messages.
July 2025: ChatGPT reported over 2.5 billion messages per day globally and over 330 million per day in the United States.
September 2026: information-seeking measured at 20.2% of sampled messages.
October 26, 2026: OpenAI updated the Signals report.
The Tech Race
ChatGPT's growing information-seeking share places it closer to Google Search as a daily answer source, though the comparison is loose because the two figures use different metrics and periods. The Signals data does not establish how much of this activity has displaced traditional web search.
For users, the trend means more everyday questions, product lookups and recipe requests are being answered inside a chat window rather than through a list of links. Whether this changes how often people visit outside websites is not established by the Signals data.
The takeaway
The information-seeking share is a useful gauge of ChatGPT's drift toward search-like use, so watch the next Signals update for whether the 20.2% figure keeps climbing. Track whether future reports separate ChatGPT Search and web-linked usage, which would show how much of this activity sends people to outside sites.
Further reading
For broader context on how these tools are reshaping everyday queries, explore our Artificial Intelligence coverage.
