Everywhere you look, the story is the same.
AI search is exploding. Generative engines are reshaping discovery. Traditional Google search is being replaced.
And yes, AI really is changing how people look for information. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity are now real search destinations. People are getting answers, recommendations, and decisions straight from AI. For SEOs, that shift absolutely matters.
But when you take a breath, step back from the hype, and look at the actual query volume, a different picture comes into focus. One that is grounded in real numbers and not just industry momentum.
Generative AI is the future.
Google is still the present.
And the gap between them is enormous.
Let’s walk through the numbers.
Google’s scale is still unmatched
Google handles an estimated 13.7 to 16.4 billion searches every day according to DemandSage.
Zoom that out and you end up with roughly 400 to 500 billion searches every month. DemandSage puts one estimate at about 492 billion.
That is the baseline. The floor. The consistent volume businesses depend on every day.
Now let’s compare that to the AI platforms everyone keeps talking about.
ChatGPT is huge, but still nowhere near Google
TechCrunch reports that ChatGPT users generate about 2.5 billion prompts per day.
That works out to about 75 billion prompts per month.
Big. Important. Growing fast.
But still not even close to Google’s 400 to 500 billion monthly queries.
Even the largest AI platform is operating at roughly 15 to 20 percent of Google’s scale.
We can go further and estimate total AI query volume
FirstPageSage published market share data for generative AI search tools.
ChatGPT holds 59.7 percent.
Copilot holds 14.4 percent.
Gemini holds 13.5 percent.
Perplexity holds 6.2 percent.
Claude holds 3.2 percent.
Using ChatGPT’s daily prompt count and its market share, we can back into the overall size of the generative search market.
If ChatGPT processes about 2.5 billion prompts per day and that represents 59.7 percent of the category, the total number of daily prompts across all AI engines should fall around 4.1 to 4.3 billion.
That means generative AI search as a whole likely processes around 120 to 130 billion prompts per month.
Again, big. Growing. Transformative.
But still far below Google’s 400 to 500 billion.
What about AI Overviews
AI Overviews appear in roughly 13.14 percent of U.S. desktop results according to SEMrush.
Some studies measured closer to 29.9 percent in certain verticals.
Even with those numbers, most searches still surface traditional SERPs. Which means the largest part of the funnel remains unchanged.
The takeaway on generative AI search is simple
AI search is rising.
AI search is important.
AI search deserves real attention from SEOs.
But Google processes more searches in a single day than most AI engines process in an entire month. And that alone starts to reframe the conversation.
Traditional Google search is still driving the overwhelming majority of total queries. Its scale is unmatched. Its role in discovery is still central. And for brands that rely on organic visibility, that matters more than the hype cycle.
The best strategy is not choosing one side or the other. It is preparing for both.
What this means for Search Visibility for 2026
Search visibility in 2026 will reward balance. Not extremes. Not either-or thinking.
Companies that are ignoring generative engines and refusing to tackle GEO are not future proofing. They will be left behind as users rely more on AI for synthesis, evaluation, and decision making. But companies that swing the other way and shift too many resources into GEO at the expense of traditional SEO will give up hard-won visibility. They will lose share to competitors who never stopped investing in the channels that still drive the most volume.
The truth is simple. GEO and SEO are built from the same DNA. Structured content. Entities. Expertise. Clear internal linking. Strong topical signals. They share foundation and philosophy. But they are not identical. The way AI models evaluate authority is not the same as how Google ranks pages. The way LLMs surface citations is not the same as how SERPs reward intent. The nuance matters.
Success in 2026 comes from treating both channels as part of one visibility system.
SEO for scale.
GEO for acceleration.
SEO for reach and local intent.
GEO for context and reasoning.
SEO to win the funnel today.
GEO to protect the funnel tomorrow.
Each strengthens the other when the strategy is intentional.
That is why at Trebletree we do not choose sides. We focus on overall visibility. We build strategies that show up in Google, in maps, in AI engines, and everywhere people search for answers. Because the future will belong to companies that invest in both. Not companies that wait. Not companies that overcorrect.
Both directions matter. Both channels matter. And the brands that balance SEO and GEO together will define the next era of organic search.
