• by Laurie Sullivan , 8 hours ago

Google Gemini has overtaken Perplexity to become the world’s second-largest source of AI chatbot referrals to websites for the first time, according to independent web analytics company Statcounter.

Publishers have struggled with the lack of referral traffic from AI chatbots to websites from one of the most used traditional search engines worldwide, but recently this has changed.

March 2026 data released in April shows Google Gemini accounted for 8.65% of referrals -- up from 2.31% in the year-ago month. It measured all AI chatbot referrals globally, surpassing Perplexity, which fell to 7.07%.

Perplexity -- in second place with 12.07% in April 2025 -- has seen its share erode steadily to a decline of more than 40% from its peak.

ChatGPT continues to lead the percentage of referrals sent from the chatbot to websites, with 78.16%, while others trail.

Microsoft Copilot accounted for 3.19% of all referrals, Claude for 2.91%, and DeepSeek for 0.02%, according to the data.

Chatbot referral traffic represents visitors who arrive at a website by clicking links within AI interfaces like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or Perplexity. As AI transitions into a primary "discovery engine" for users, this traffic has become increasingly critical.

Referral traffic from AI chatbots to websites based on queries or news-driven spikes is an important metric for brands because it represents a pre-qualified audience willing to take action like making a purchase. AI traffic converts roughly twice as well as standard organic search traffic, according to numerous reports.

"Google has the advantage of integrating Gemini across its ecosystem -- Search, Android, Workspace and Chrome,” stated Aodhan Cullen, CEO, Statcounter.

While the advantage appears to translate into growing website referral traffic, per Cullen, the AI chatbot referral market is shifting rapidly, with Claude experiencing substantial growth.

Anthropic's Claude jumped from 1.37% in February to 2.91% in March 2026 -- more than doubling its share in a single month.

Since April 2025, Claude's referral share has grown nearly tenfold from just 0.30%. Claude's recent surge in referral traffic comes amid a widely reported wave of users switching from ChatGPT.

Cullen explained that weekly data shows Claude's referral share peaked at 3.6% in week 12 in mid-March before falling back to 2.49% in week 13 of 2026. ''

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.