As AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity change into more and more common for trying up data on the web, considerations have grown, significantly amongst information publishers, a couple of potential collapse in on-line site visitors to their web sites. However might these fears be overstated?
Analysis based mostly on information analytics and consumer surveys have to this point indicated combined outcomes, with some research suggesting notable drops in site visitors whereas others trace at minimal impression.
New information from net site visitors and analytics agency Similarweb reveals that the variety of referrals from AI platforms to information and media web sites has elevated by 770 per cent since June 2024, in response to a report by JHB.
Over 1.13 billion referrals to the highest 1,000 web sites globally got here from AI platforms in June this yr, up by 357 per cent from the year-ago interval. OpenAI’s ChatGPT accounted for a majority (80 per cent) of the AI referrals to the highest 1,000 web sites, as per the report.
Nevertheless, Google Search continues to be the dominant supply of referral site visitors because it accounted for 191 billion referrals to those websites throughout the identical interval.
An AI referral is when platforms reminiscent of ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok, Perplexity, Claude, and Liner direct a consumer to a selected web site or area. That is sometimes accomplished by citations or URLs proven inside AI-generated responses to consumer queries.
A few of the information web sites that noticed the very best quantity of AI referrals in June 2025 are:
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– Yahoo: 2.3 million
– Yahoo Japan: 1.9 million
– Reuters: 1.8 million
– The Guardian: 1.7 million
– India Instances: 1.2 million
– Enterprise Insider: 1 million
Information web sites reminiscent of The New York Instances don’t are likely to rank excessive as they block entry to AI platforms.
Based mostly on the evaluation by Similarweb, AI platforms are additionally driving referral site visitors to web sites in different classes reminiscent of e-commerce, science and training, tech, search, and social media, arts and leisure, enterprise, and many others.
A few of the tech and social media web sites that noticed the very best quantity of AI referrals in June 2025 are:
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– Google: 53.1 million
– Reddit: 11.1 million
– Fb: 11 million
– Github: 7.4 million
– Microsoft: 5.1 million
– Canva: 5 million
– Instagram: 4.7 million
– LinkedIn: 4.4 million
– Bing: 3.1 million
– Pinterest: 2.5 million
Amongst e-commerce websites, Amazon led the pack with 4.5 million AI referrals in June this yr, adopted by Etsy (2 million AI referrals) and eBay (1.8 million AI referrals) throughout the identical interval.
Whereas these numbers paint a constructive image, different research have discovered that options reminiscent of AI Overviews in Google Search are killing site visitors to information and different websites. A current survey of 900 Google customers within the US by Pew Analysis Heart discovered that those that encountered an AI Overview solely clicked on a web site hyperlink eight per cent of the time.
In the meantime, customers who weren’t proven an AI Overview have been 15 per cent extra prone to click on on related web site hyperlinks, as per the research.