Google Gemini Sends More Traffic To Sites Than Perplexity: Report

Google Gemini more than doubled its referral traffic to web sites between November and January, based on SE Rating information from greater than 101,000 websites with Google Analytics put in.

The rise began in December, shortly after Google started rolling out Gemini 3 throughout its merchandise. SE Rating measured a 51% improve in December and a 42% improve in January, for a mixed acquire of about 115%.

For transparency, SE Rating sells AI visibility monitoring instruments, and the information under comes from their very own Google Analytics dataset.

Gemini Passes Perplexity

In January, SE Rating’s information exhibits Gemini despatched 29% extra guests to web sites than Perplexity globally. Within the U.S., the hole was wider at 41%.

5 months earlier, the positions had been reversed. In August, Perplexity was sending roughly 3 times extra referral site visitors than Gemini, based on the same dataset.

ChatGPT’s Decline From Peak

ChatGPT’s referral site visitors peaked in October and has fallen since then. SE Rating measured an 8% drop in November and an 18% drop in December, with a partial restoration in January.

Even after the decline, ChatGPT nonetheless generates about 80% of all AI referral site visitors to web sites. ChatGPT’s lead over Gemini narrowed from roughly 22x in October to about 8x in January. That’s nonetheless a big hole.

Similarweb’s January data confirmed the same sample when measuring direct visits to chatbot websites. ChatGPT’s site visitors share fell from 86% to 64% over the previous 12 months, whereas Gemini rose from 5% to 21 %. The 2 datasets measure various things, however each present the identical path.

The Gemini 3 Connection

The timing of Gemini’s site visitors improve strains up with Google’s rollout of Gemini 3 fashions.

Google launched Gemini 3 Professional on November 18, Gemini 3 Deep Assume on December 4, and Gemini 3 Flash on December 17. Flash turned the default mannequin within the Gemini app and in AI Mode for Search.

Earlier than these releases, Gemini’s referral site visitors had been largely flat for eight months. SE Rating’s information exhibits it grew at roughly 4% monthly from January by way of October. The soar to 47% month-to-month progress in December and January represents a couple of 12x acceleration from the prior tempo.

AI Site visitors In Context

All AI platforms mixed nonetheless account for a small share of general internet site visitors. SE Rating places the determine at about 0.24% of worldwide web site visitors as of January, up from 0.15% in 2025.

An earlier SE Rating report of 13,700 web sites discovered Google producing 94% of natural site visitors. ChatGPT and Perplexity had been beginning to present up in referral experiences. The brand new dataset is bigger at 101,574 websites throughout 250 markets however makes use of the identical GA-based methodology.

Why This Issues

Two months of progress from Gemini doesn’t predict the place AI referral site visitors can be by 12 months’s finish. The rise from November to January is measurable and correlates with a identified product launch, however it’s too early to name it a sustained sample.

The Perplexity milestone is extra concrete. Gemini might now present up as a bigger referral supply than Perplexity in your personal analytics. That’s value checking.

Trying Forward

SE Rating says it would proceed monitoring AI referral site visitors by way of 2026. Google hasn’t disclosed referral site visitors figures for Gemini or AI Mode instantly. The subsequent Similarweb AI Tracker replace may present a second information level on whether or not Gemini’s progress continued previous January.

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