Google Traffic Grows 4% as AI Chatbots Surge from Small Bases

Google’s dominance in web search remains intact even as new AI rivals post eye-popping growth, according to web-traffic data compiled by BofA Securities. Global daily visits to Google rose 4% year-over-year to about 2.8 billion in June, a sign that AI chatbots are expanding the market for information rather than replacing traditional search overnight.

Big incumbents vs. fast-growing challengers
BofA’s numbers show dramatic percentage gains for emerging AI services that started from much smaller user bases. Anthropic’s Claude saw web visits jump roughly 736% year-over-year, while Meta AI nearly doubled, up about 98%. Those headline rates reflect rapid ramp-ups from relatively low starting points. Claude’s monthly visits expanded from roughly 16 million in early 2025 to the hundreds of millions by early 2026.

Google’s own AI offerings are gaining ground as well. Gemini has been climbing the ranks in the generative-AI chatbot category and captured more than 21% of global generative-AI traffic earlier this year, overtaking Perplexity as the second-largest source of AI chatbot referrals to websites.

Why the market still favors scale
The contrast between modest percentage gains for Google and sky-high growth rates for AI rivals highlights a familiar technology-market pattern: companies that start small can post enormous growth percentages, but scale matters. Google’s vast user base means even modest increases translate into large absolute traffic gains, and that scale underpins its ad business.

Search remains central. A 4% lift in daily Google visits suggests users continue to rely on traditional search for many queries, even as chatbots attract attention for conversational answers and creative tasks.

Google’s steady traffic growth shows the company’s entrenched position in web search is holding up despite the rapid rise of AI chatbots. For investors and product strategists, the story is less about an abrupt takeover and more about a shifting landscape where scale, ad monetization, and AI-enabled experiences will determine winners over the coming years.