Statcounter, the Irish owned easy-to-use web analytics company, has announced the launch of new research which measures the number of referrals from individual AI chatbots to websites. The data, updated daily by individual country and region, is free to access at
Statcounter Global Stats.
“With the massive growth in AI chatbot usage, it is crucially important for website owners and marketers to know which chatbots are sending the most referrals to websites,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, Statcounter. “We are already moving into a new era from SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).”
The new data finds that ChatGPT is by far the global leader in terms of referral market share at 79.8%, followed by Perplexity (11.8%); Microsoft Copilot (5.2%); Google Gemini (2%); DeepSeek; (0.8%) and Claude (0.5%).
Commenting on the fact that Google’s chatbot is ranked fourth globally for referrals, Aodhan Cullen added: “Google now finds itself in the same dilemma as traditional on-premise software providers at the birth of cloud computing. Its cash cow, Search, is at risk from new AI technology, which ironically, it helped to create.”
He added that
reports that Apple may add AI search to Safari emphasises Google’s challenge.
The Statcounter data finds that ChatGPT dominates referral market share in all G20 countries except China. DeepSeek leads with 89.3% in China.
Commenting on the launch of the latest addition to Statcounter Global Stats, Aodhan Cullen said: “AI is the big investment play by the tech industry. This new free service means that analysts, digital marketers and media can get an insight into how the AI landscape is evolving.”
Statcounter Global Stats data is based on over 3.8 billion page views per month to over 1.5 million websites. Further information:
https://gs.statcounter.com/faq .
Note: Grok cannot be included in the data, as unlike the other chatbots, it does not provide referral data in its header.
Statcounter’s core business is to provide website owners and marketers with an easy to use web analytics,
session replay and
heatmap service for their websites.
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