Studies find Google AI Overviews cut clicks to top search results

Four studies published between July 2025 and April 2026 found that Google’s AI Overviews cut the clicks websites get from search. The estimates run from 38% fewer organic clicks in a randomized experiment to a 58% lower click-through rate for the top-ranking page. Google’s last public figure, from August 2025, says total organic clicks have been “relatively stable year-over-year.”

For a business that pays an agency for SEO, rankings alone no longer show what the work earns.

What the four studies found

Study	Data and dates	Main finding
Pew Research Center	900 U.S. adults, March 2025	Clicked a result in 8% of visits with an AI summary, 15% without
Ahrefs	300,000 keywords, December 2023 vs. December 2025	58% lower click-through rate for the top-ranking page
Seer Interactive	53 brands, 5.47 million queries, January 2025 to February 2026	Organic click-through rate with an AI Overview hit 1.3% in December 2025
Indian School of Business and Carnegie Mellon	1,065 desktop Chrome users, January and February 2026	38% fewer outbound organic clicks

Pew: users click less when a summary appears

Pew Research Center tracked the browsing of 900 U.S. adults in March 2025 Pew Research Center . Of 68,879 Google searches in the data, 18% produced an AI summary. Users clicked a traditional search result in 8% of visits when a summary appeared. They clicked one in 15% of visits without a summary.

Clicks inside the summary were rare. Users clicked a link in the summary itself in 1% of visits. They ended their browsing session in 26% of visits with a summary, compared with 16% without one. Longer searches triggered summaries more often. Some 53% of searches with 10 or more words produced one, against 8% of one- or two-word searches.

Ahrefs: the top result lost more than half its expected clicks

Ahrefs compared December 2023 with December 2025 across 300,000 keywords, using aggregated Google Search Console data Ahrefs . It found that an AI Overview correlated with a 58% lower average click-through rate for the top-ranking page. Its April 2025 study had put the drop at 34.5%.

The 58% figure rests on a forecast. On keywords with an AI Overview, the top page’s average desktop click-through rate was about 1.6% in December 2025. Ahrefs put the expected rate without an AI Overview at about 3.7%. It based that estimate on the drop for informational keywords that showed no AI Overview.

Seer Interactive: a low point in December, then a partial rebound

Seer Interactive’s April 24, 2026 update covered 53 brands, 5.47 million queries and 2.43 billion organic impressions Seer Interactive . On queries with an AI Overview, organic click-through rate fell to 1.3% in December 2025. It rose to 2.4% in February 2026. Queries without an AI Overview earned 3.8% that month.

Brands cited inside an AI Overview did better. They earned 120% more organic clicks per impression than brands left out Seer Interactive . Seer says it cannot claim causation, and brands with more authority are more likely to be cited.

The field experiment: 38% fewer organic clicks

Researchers Saharsh Agarwal and Ananya Sen, of the Indian School of Business and Carnegie Mellon University, ran a randomized field experiment Search Engine Journal . They followed 1,065 U.S. desktop Chrome users for two weeks each in January and February 2026. A browser extension hid AI Overviews for one group.

AI Overviews cut outbound organic clicks by 38% on queries where they appeared. The share of searches with no click rose from 54% to 72%. Satisfaction scores were nearly identical with and without AI Overviews.

The paper is a draft on SSRN and has not been peer reviewed, according to Search Engine Journal. Some other write-ups cite 39.8% instead of 38%.

What Google says about clicks

Google has pushed back on reports of steep traffic losses. On August 6, 2025, Liz Reid, Google’s head of Search, wrote that total organic click volume from Google Search to websites “has been relatively stable year-over-year” Google . She said Google sends slightly more “quality clicks,” meaning clicks where users do not quickly return to the results. She called some outside reports “often based on flawed methodologies.”

That statement came before the Ahrefs, Seer and field experiment data. We found no newer click figure from Google.

Google now gives site owners a way to track AI visibility. Search Console’s Generative AI performance report shows how often a site’s pages appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode Google Search Central . Google says the report reached all websites worldwide as of August 31, 2026. The announcement lists impressions, pages, countries, devices and dates. It does not mention click data.

Why rankings no longer prove SEO is working

The studies measure different things. Pew counts visits, Ahrefs and Seer track click-through rates, and the field experiment counts outbound clicks. Ahrefs and Seer sell SEO tools and services, and both used their own data. But all four point the same way. When an AI Overview appears, fewer people click through to websites.

That changes what a useful SEO report looks like. A page can hold the No. 1 spot and still get fewer visits than it did in 2023. A report built on rankings can look healthy as leads fall.

Ask for reports built on clicks, leads and sales from organic search. Ask which of your pages Google cites inside AI Overviews. Seer’s data links citations to more clicks, but cited brands still trailed results on queries with no AI Overview.

Treat any promise of steady traffic growth from rankings alone with caution. For Google’s view of AI search work, read Google says GEO is still SEO. For the chatbot side, see our report on AI chatbot use and website traffic. Our guide to SEO and AI search covers how to hire for this work, and our SEO agency shortlist shows how firms score.

Questions to ask your agency

1. How many organic clicks, leads and sales did we get this month, compared with last year? Rankings and impressions alone do not answer this.
2. Which of our pages appear in AI Overviews? Ask to see the Generative AI performance report in Search Console.
3. Which pages kept their rankings but lost clicks? Those pages are the first place to look for AI Overview effects.
4. What will you change on those pages? A good answer names the pages and the fixes.
5. What counts as success if search clicks keep falling? Agree on lead and sales targets before the work starts.