B
Evidence Grade B
Graded
accuracy verified by the review judge
Safe to Cite
Current
78.16%
78.16% -- ai referral share for ChatGPT (2026-03)
ChatGPT held a 78.16% share of AI chatbot referral traffic in March 2026.
- Represents share of AI-to-publisher referral traffic only; does not measure total open web traffic or misattributed direct traffic.
Attribution:
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Lighthouse Research Team
Last verified:
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Source verified
Evidence graded
Value
78.16%
Unit
Percentage
Data Vintage
2026-03
Entity
Evidence Quality
B
Strong, reliable evidence
Sourced from a well-regarded research firm or industry leader with transparent methodology and a reasonably large sample.
Single source - not yet corroborated
Score breakdown
Extraction
95
Source Trust
60
Citation Chain
20
Independence
30
Methodology
45
Freshness
95
Source
Statcounter
Primary
Tier A
https://thepromptinsider.com/aeo/perplexity-vs-chatgpt-vs-google-ai-which-one-sends-the-most-traffic… ↗
Source Article
Perplexity vs ChatGPT vs Google AI: Which Sends More Traffic?
Short Answer: Google vs Perplexity Traffic
Google sends roughly 134x more total website traffic than all AI platforms combined, and far more than Perplexity alone. Perplexity accounts for roughly 7% of AI referral traffic, which itself represents only 0.32% of total website visits. But Perplexity vi…
Original Research
Statcounter
· Original study ↗
Methodology
Statcounter AI chatbot referral data
Methodology documented
Trend Over Time
| Period | Value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 87.4% | |
| 2026-03 (current) | 78.16% | -10.6% |
Segmentation
Industrymarketing
Cite this stat
Plain Text
ChatGPT: 78.16% ai referral share. Source: Statcounter (2026-03). Via Lighthouse Intelligence -- https://lighthousedata.io/data/chatgpt-ai-referral-share-2026
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<blockquote cite="https://lighthousedata.io/data/chatgpt-ai-referral-share-2026" style="border-left:3px solid #2563eb;padding:12px 16px;margin:16px 0;font-family:system-ui,sans-serif;background:#f0f4ff;"><strong>78.16%</strong> -- ai referral share for ChatGPT<br><small>Source: Statcounter (2026-03) · <a href="https://lighthousedata.io/data/chatgpt-ai-referral-share-2026" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lighthouse Intelligence</a></small></blockquote>
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