Do AI Overviews take your clicks? What the studies show
The evidence points to lost clicks, but the headline percentages measure different things.
Steen Stones · Reviewed
Yes, AI Overviews can take clicks from websites. Ahrefs and Pew found fewer clicks alongside AI summaries, and a randomised experiment found fewer outbound organic clicks. Semrush’s results were different when it followed the same keywords over time. The studies explain the risk, but do not give a single loss rate for your website.
What did Ahrefs find about the top result?
Ahrefs found that AI Overview presence correlated with a 58% lower average clickthrough rate for the top-ranking page. Clickthrough rate is clicks divided by appearances in search. This was a desktop analysis using aggregated Google Search Console data.
Ahrefs compared 150,000 keywords with an AI Overview against 150,000 informational keywords without one, using December 2023 and December 2025 data. Its finding is about the top-ranking page’s clickthrough rate, not total website traffic.
What did Pew find when it followed people?
- Without an AI summary15%
- With an AI summary8%
Pew Research Center. Values and source link in the table below.
| Search page | Visits with a traditional-result click |
|---|---|
| Without an AI summary | 15% |
| With an AI summary | 8% |
Pew found clicks on traditional results in 8% of visits with an AI summary, compared with 15% without one. Links inside the summary received a click in 1% of visits to pages with a summary. Those figures count visits, not the share of people who never click.
Pew followed the browsing of 900 US adults during March 2025. It collected the corresponding search results on April 7-17, 2025, so the search pages were read later than the visits. Pew notes that AI summaries can change over time.
Why did Semrush find a different pattern?
Semrush and Datos analysed over 200,000 keywords between January 2025 and October 2025. For the same keywords before and after AI Overviews appeared, the zero-click rate fell from 33.75% to 31.53%. In that comparison, searches became slightly less likely to end without a click.
Semrush points out that informational searches may explain some of the higher zero-click rate for AI Overview keywords. Following the same keywords over time answers a different question from comparing separate groups of searches.
Is there evidence beyond correlation?
A research abstract hosted by Toulouse School of Economics describes a randomised experiment. A Chrome extension assigned users to Google Search with AI Overviews or a version without them. The abstract reports 39.8% fewer outbound organic clicks when an AI Overview appeared.
Random assignment tests the effect of showing the summary more directly than comparing different keyword groups. We could read the university’s abstract, but not the full paper, so this section reports the abstract’s finding.
What should you measure on your own website?
| Study | What was measured | Finding | Scope and limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs | Average desktop clickthrough rate, top result | 58% lower with AI Overview presence | 150,000 keywords with and 150,000 without; December 2023 versus December 2025. Correlation. |
| Pew | Visits with a traditional-result click | 8% with a summary; 15% without | 900 US adults, March 2025. Search pages collected later, in April. |
| Semrush / Datos | Zero-click rate for the same keywords before and after AI Overviews | 33.75% before; 31.53% after | Over 200,000 keywords, January–October 2025. Different measure from top-result clicks. |
| Toulouse research abstract | Outbound organic clicks in a randomised experiment | 39.8% fewer when AI Overviews appeared | Chrome-extension experiment. Abstract read; full paper could not be retrieved. |
Keep the measures separate when you review the evidence. Ahrefs measures desktop clickthrough rates, Pew follows browsing visits, and Semrush compares zero-click behaviour. Their percentages make sense beside their methods.
Measure what happens on your website, too. Google recommends tracking conversions and time spent on the site alongside Search Console. Google also says AI Overviews often do not appear, so check their presence rather than assuming every search shows one.