Gemini overtakes Perplexity as No. 2 in global AI referrals

Google’s Gemini passed Perplexity to become the No. 2 source of global AI chatbot referrals to websites in March 2026, capturing 8.65% of clicks versus Perplexity’s 7.07%, according to Statcounter. ChatGPT led the category with 78.16% of referrals worldwide. The March figures were released in April and cover global traffic.

Statcounter tracks visitors who reach websites by clicking links inside AI chat interfaces such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity. The metric focuses on users who click through after receiving an answer. Industry reports have found AI-sourced traffic tends to convert at about twice the rate of standard organic search.

Across the category in March, Microsoft Copilot accounted for 3.19% of referrals, Anthropic’s Claude reached 2.91%, and DeepSeek registered 0.02%, Statcounter reported.

Gemini’s share more than tripled year over year, rising from 2.31% in March 2025 to 8.65% in March 2026. Perplexity, which held 12.07% in April 2025, declined to 7.07% in March 2026.

“Google has the advantage of integrating Gemini across its ecosystem — Search, Android, Workspace and Chrome,” Aodhan Cullen, CEO of Statcounter, stated in a release. He noted that the AI referral market is moving quickly.

Claude posted one of the largest recent gains, increasing from 1.37% in February to 2.91% in March 2026, nearly ten times its 0.30% share in April 2025. Weekly readings reflected volatility. Cullen pointed to internal tracking showing Claude’s referral share at 3.6% in week 12 of March before easing to 2.49% in week 13. “This suggests the initial wave of users switching from ChatGPT may have been driven to an extent by the news cycle, and it remains to be seen whether Claude can sustain its gains,” he noted.

Publishers have struggled to receive traffic from AI chatbots. March data indicates higher referral volumes for some services as more users click through from AI results.