Compiled & maintained by Scale Rankings — Search & AI Visibility Research Updated September 17, 2026 — 16 sources cited
For twenty years the logic of a Google ranking was simple: climb to position one, and roughly a third of searchers clicked your blue link. That logic broke between 2024 and 2026. AI Overviews now answer questions directly inside the results page, AI Mode has turned search into a conversation with no link required, and fewer than one in three Google searches now ends in a click to any website at all. This page is Scale Rankings’ working reference for what click-through rate actually looks like on Google today — broken out by ranking position, device, industry, and AI Overview presence — with every figure traced back to its original study, sample size, and collection window so it can be checked and cited. Where studies disagree, and several disagree by a wide margin, we show the range instead of a false single number.
At a glance
| Stat | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 68.0% | of Google searches ended with zero clicks in early 2026 | SparkToro / Search Engine Land [4] |
| -61% | organic CTR compression on queries where an AI Overview appears | Seer Interactive [7] |
| 48% | of Google queries now trigger an AI Overview | 2026 industry tracking [16] |
| 93% | zero-click rate inside Google’s AI Mode | Seer Interactive / Nobori [9] |
| +35% | more organic clicks for brands cited inside an AI Overview | Seer Interactive [7] |
| 7.1% | average conversion rate of AI-assistant referral traffic | Similarweb [10] |
Organic CTR by Google ranking position
Two of the most-cited 2026 benchmark sets put position-one CTR in different places — not because either is wrong, but because they measure different SERP mixes. First Page Sage’s meta-analysis leans toward cleaner, AI-Overview-free result sets; the Navboost aggregation of five-plus studies blends in a large share of AI-Overview-affected queries. Both are worth knowing, because the gap between them is itself a measurement of how much AI Overviews are costing the top result.
| Position | First Page Sage (2026) [1] | Navboost aggregation (2026) [2] |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | 39.8% | 27.6% |
| #2 | 18.7% | 15.8% |
| #3 | 10.2% | 11.4% |
| #10 | 1.6% | 2.8% |
Positions 4–9 vary meaningfully by query type and SERP feature mix across the underlying studies; see the source reports for full per-position breakdowns rather than a single blended figure.
For reference: when an AI Overview is present, position-#1 CTR collapses to roughly 19% [2].
How much of the click pie goes to the top three results?
Estimates of the “top-3 share” of all organic clicks range from 54.4% to 68.7% depending on dataset and query mix [2][3] — but every study agrees on the shape: somewhere between half and two-thirds of all organic clicks on a page still go to the first three blue links, which is exactly why AI Overviews sitting above them have such an outsized effect on CTR.
How AI Overviews are reshaping CTR
AI Overviews went from a limited experiment to a default SERP feature in under two years. Coverage climbed from roughly 31% of queries in February 2025 to 34.5% by December 2025 and an estimated 48% by early 2026 [16] — meaning nearly half of all Google searches now surface an AI-generated summary before a single organic result.
| Study | CTR effect | Sample |
|---|---|---|
| Seer Interactive, 2026 update [7] | −61% | 53 brands, 5.47M queries, 2.43B impressions (Jan 2025–Feb 2026) |
| Ahrefs, Feb 2026 [6] | −58% | 300,000 keywords |
| Pew Research panel, via RelevantAudience [8] | 8% vs. 15% click rate | Panel-based behavioral study |
Zooming in on the Seer Interactive dataset, organic CTR on AI-Overview-present queries measured just 0.61%, against 1.62% on otherwise-comparable queries without an AI Overview [7] — the 61% figure above. That’s the lowest point in the dataset, recorded around September 2025.
Scale Rankings Insight: The most important line in the Seer Interactive data isn’t the crash — it’s the recovery. Organic CTR on AI-Overview queries climbed back from that 0.61% floor to roughly 2.4% by February 2026, an 85% rebound [7]. Google appears to be actively tuning AI Overview layout and citation behavior in response to publisher pressure. That means the 2026 baseline isn’t “AI Overviews killed CTR” — it’s a persistent ~37% structural gap between AIO-present and AIO-absent queries that clients should plan around, not a one-way collapse.
Being cited inside the AI Overview pays off
Brands that Google actually cites inside an AI Overview see 35% more organic clicks and 91% more paid clicks than non-cited brands ranking on the same SERP [7]. In practice, this reframes the KPI: on AI-Overview queries, “ranking #1” matters less than “being one of the sources the summary names.”
Zero-click search in 2026
In the first four months of 2026, 68.01% of Google searches ended without a click to any result — organic, paid, or otherwise [4][5]. The share of searches producing at least one click has fallen 9.5 percentage points since 2024, a 22.9% relative decline [4].
| Segment | Zero-click rate |
|---|---|
| All Google searches | 68.0% |
| Mobile searches | 77.0% |
| Desktop searches | 46.5% |
| Informational queries | 74.0% |
| Transactional queries | 31.0% |
| Queries with an AI Overview | 83.0% |
| Queries in AI Mode | 93.0% |
Methodologies differ (clickstream panels vs. log-based estimates), so treat the all-search headline figure as a range of roughly 58–68% rather than a single fixed number.
AI Mode: the highest zero-click surface yet
Google’s AI Mode — a fully conversational search experience with no default results list — produces zero outbound clicks on 93% of queries, based on an analysis of 25.1 million impressions at a point where AI Mode had crossed 100 million users [9]. That’s meaningfully higher than the 83% zero-click rate on standard AI-Overview queries, and it makes AI Mode the least click-generating surface Google has shipped to date.
Scale Rankings Insight: We treat AI Mode as a visibility channel, not a traffic channel. At a 93% zero-click rate, the realistic goal for a brand isn’t clicks — it’s being the source AI Mode quotes, recommends, or names by brand. That requires structured, extractable content and consistent entity signals, which is a different optimization target than classic ranking-for-CTR work.
CTR by device: mobile vs. desktop
Desktop still converts rankings into clicks more efficiently than mobile. Position-one CTR runs 31.7% on desktop versus 24.1% on mobile [3], largely because mobile SERPs pack in more AI Overviews, ads, and rich features above the fold, pushing organic results further down the scroll. That device gap compounds with the zero-click gap above: mobile searches are zero-click 77% of the time against 46.5% on desktop [4].
| Device | Position #1 CTR |
|---|---|
| Desktop | 31.7% |
| Mobile | 24.1% |
CTR by industry and query intent
Not every vertical has been hit equally. Google has, so far, been more conservative about placing AI Overviews on commercial and transactional queries — the ones closest to a purchase decision — which helps protect CTR in categories like ecommerce and local services [11].
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Average ecommerce organic CTR (all positions) | 1.93% |
| YoY change, Aug 2024–Jul 2025 | +11.4% |
| Zero-click rate, transactional queries | 31.0% |
| Zero-click rate, informational queries | 74.0% |
Ecommerce CTR sourced from a Search Console-level industry benchmark study [13]; intent-level zero-click split sourced separately [4].
One 2026 study measuring AI-assisted CTR specifically found that the choice of AI platform swings click-through rate by up to 9.1×, query type by 2.8×, and industry vertical by 2.1× [12] — a reminder that “AI search CTR” is not one number but a spread wide enough to make blended averages nearly meaningless for planning purposes.
AI-assistant referral traffic: ChatGPT, Claude, and beyond
Traffic referred directly from AI chat assistants is still small next to organic search, but it is growing fast and converting well. Similarweb measured AI referral traffic converting at 7.1% — second only to paid search at 7.8%, and roughly 2.5× the conversion rate of standard Google organic traffic [10]. Year-over-year growth in AI referral volume exceeded 527% between 2024 and 2025 [10].
The competitive picture inside “AI referral traffic” is shifting quickly, and different trackers show different magnitudes of the same trend:
| Tracker | Then | Now |
|---|---|---|
| SE Ranking-style dataset [14] | 79.7% (2025) | 76.0% (2026) |
| Higoodie 2026 AI Search Traffic Report [15] | 89% (8 mo. ago) | 63% (now); Claude #2 at 18.5% |
Both trackers agree on direction — ChatGPT’s dominance of AI referral traffic is eroding as Claude and other assistants gain share — even though the exact magnitude differs by methodology.
What this means for SEO strategy in 2026
Scale Rankings tracks click-through rate, AI Overview citation rate, and ranking position together for every client keyword portfolio, because in 2026 none of those three numbers tells the full story alone. Three patterns from the data above shape how we advise clients:
1. Ranking #1 still matters — but it’s necessary, not sufficient. Position-one CTR is still 5–10× higher than position-ten CTR in every dataset above. Ranking still drives the majority of whatever click volume remains. But on the roughly half of queries where an AI Overview now appears, ranking #1 without being cited in the summary leaves most of the available clicks on the table.
2. Citation rate is the new CTR for AI-heavy queries. With a 35–91% click lift for cited brands [7] and AI Mode’s 93% zero-click ceiling [9], the marginal value of one more ranking position keeps shrinking relative to the value of being the entity an AI Overview or AI Mode response actually names. Scale Rankings treats AI-citation tracking as a parallel KPI to rank tracking, not a replacement for it.
3. Zero-click doesn’t mean zero value. A 68% zero-click rate sounds like a crisis for a site owner, but a meaningful share of that “zero-click” volume is brand exposure: being the source cited in an AI Overview, or the domain name a user sees repeatedly before ever clicking anything, still shapes demand even when it doesn’t show up as a session in analytics. Reporting that ignores this undercounts the value of ranking well.
Scale Rankings Insight: If your CTR reporting still treats “AI Overview present” and “AI Overview absent” queries as one blended average, you’re almost certainly misreading your own performance trend. Split them. A page that looks flat in aggregate is often improving sharply on clean SERPs while losing ground on AI-heavy ones — or vice versa — and the two require different fixes.
Methodology & how to cite this page
This page is compiled and maintained by Scale Rankings by aggregating publicly published, dated research from search analytics firms, agencies, and research groups, current as of September 2026. We did not independently re-run these studies; where sample sizes, collection windows, or methodology are disclosed by the original source, we include them so each figure can be evaluated on its own terms rather than treated as a single universal constant. Figures are refreshed periodically as newer studies replace older ones — if you’re citing a specific number for a fast-moving metric like AI Overview coverage or zero-click rate, note the “Updated” date at the top of this page alongside the original source.
Suggested citation:
Scale Rankings. (2026, September 17). Click-Through Rate on Google: Organic vs. AI Search, 2026. Retrieved from [URL of this page].
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a “good” CTR for a Google result in 2026? It depends entirely on whether an AI Overview is present. On a clean SERP, a position-one CTR in the 28–40% range is normal [1][2]. On a query where an AI Overview appears, position-one CTR near 19–27% is closer to today’s benchmark [2], and organic CTR across the whole AI-Overview query set can run as low as 0.6–2.4% [7]. Always benchmark CTR against comparable SERP types, not a single blended target.
How much have AI Overviews actually reduced organic CTR? Published figures range from a 58% drop (Ahrefs, 300,000 keywords) [6] to a 61% drop (Seer Interactive, 5.47M queries) [7], with Pew Research panel data showing an 8%-vs-15% click-rate gap [8]. The consistent finding across every methodology is a large, real reduction — the exact percentage just depends on how “reduction” and “comparable query” are defined.
What share of Google searches result in zero clicks now? Roughly 68% of all Google searches produced zero clicks in the first four months of 2026 per the most widely cited study [4][5], though other panel-based methodologies put the U.S. figure closer to 58%. That rate rises to 83% on queries with an AI Overview and 93% inside AI Mode [9].
Does ranking #1 still matter if AI Overviews are eating the clicks? Yes — position one still out-clicks position ten by roughly 10× in every dataset in this report. What’s changed is that ranking #1 is no longer sufficient by itself on the ~48% of queries where an AI Overview appears [16]; being cited inside that AI Overview now carries its own, separate click premium of 35–91% [7].
How is AI Mode different from AI Overviews for click-through rate? AI Overviews sit above a traditional results list, so a user can still scroll past them to organic links. AI Mode replaces the results list with a conversational answer, and produces zero outbound clicks on about 93% of queries [9] — noticeably higher than the 83% zero-click rate for standard AI Overviews.
Is traffic from ChatGPT and other AI assistants meaningful yet? It’s small relative to Google organic but growing quickly and converting well — AI referral traffic grew over 527% year-over-year and converts at roughly 7.1%, nearly 2.5× the rate of standard organic search traffic [10]. ChatGPT remains the largest single source of AI referral traffic, though its share has been declining as Claude and other assistants gain ground [14][15].
Does getting cited inside an AI Overview help or hurt my traffic? It helps, relative to not being cited on the same SERP. Seer Interactive found cited brands earn 35% more organic clicks and 91% more paid clicks than non-cited competitors ranking on the same AI-Overview query [7]. The absolute click volume on AI-Overview queries is still lower than on clean SERPs, but citation is the strongest lever currently available to recover some of that gap.
How often does Scale Rankings update this page? We revisit this page as major new CTR, zero-click, or AI Overview studies publish, and note the update date at the top. Because AI Overview coverage and CTR figures are moving quickly — the data above shows a genuine rebound between September 2025 and February 2026 — treat any single figure here as time-bound to its stated collection window, not a permanent constant.
Sources
- First Page Sage — “Google Click-Through Rates (CTRs) by Ranking Position,” 2026 report. https://firstpagesage.com/reports/google-click-through-rates-ctrs-by-ranking-position/
- Outerbox Design — “SERP CTR by Position & Feature.” https://www.outerboxdesign.com/articles/seo/ctr-based-on-organic-position/
- Search Engine Land — “Google zero-click searches reach 68% in early 2026: Study.” https://searchengineland.com/google-zero-click-searches-2026-study-479717
- SparkToro — “In 2026, Less than One Third of Google Searches Still Send a Click.” https://sparktoro.com/blog/in-2026-less-than-one-third-of-google-searches-still-send-a-click/
- Ahrefs — “AI Overviews Reduce Clicks,” 2026 update (300,000-keyword study). https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overviews-reduce-clicks-update
- Seer Interactive — “AIO Impact on Google CTR: 2026 Update.” https://www.seerinteractive.com/insights/aio-impact-on-google-ctr-2026-update
- RelevantAudience — “Google AI Overviews & Organic CTR in 2026: Data + Strategy.” https://www.relevantaudience.com/seo/ai-overview-impact-on-organic-search-2026/
- Nobori — “Google AI Mode: 93% Zero-Click Rate at 100M Users,” 2026. https://nobori.ai/blog/google-ai-mode-zero-click-rate-100m-users-2026
- Similarweb — “AI Search Stats in 2026.” https://www.similarweb.com/blog/marketing/geo/gen-ai-stats/
- SEOProfy — “Click-Through Rate (CTR) Benchmarks by Industry: 2026 Statistics & Data.” https://seoprofy.com/blog/ctr-benchmarks-by-industry/
- Focus Digital — “AI CTR by LLM, Industry, and Query Type: 2026 Study.” https://focus-digital.co/ai-ctr-by-llm-industry-and-query-type/
- Taylor Scher SEO — “58 Ecommerce SEO Statistics Marketers Should Know in 2026.” https://www.taylorscherseo.com/blog/ecommerce-seo-statistics
- SE Ranking — “Referral Traffic from ChatGPT Hit an All-Time High in May 2026.” https://seranking.com/blog/chatgpt-referral-traffic-may-2026/
- Higoodie — “2026 AI Search Traffic Report: ChatGPT’s Grip Slipped…” https://higoodie.com/blog/ai-search-traffic-report-2026/
- Neil Patel — “AI Overview Expansion Is Cutting Organic CTR by Up to 61%.” https://neilpatel.com/marketing-stats/ai-overview-expansion-organic-ctr-decline/
Scale Rankings tracks organic CTR, AI Overview citation rate, and rankings for client keyword portfolios continuously. If you want to know where your own pages stand against these benchmarks, get in touch with Scale Rankings at scalerankings.com.