Google AI Overviews Now Appear on 21% of Searches, New Data Reveals

A new study by Ahrefs has found that Google’s AI Overviews now appear on about 21% of all searches.

The analysis looked at more than 146 million search results to understand when and where these AI-generated summaries show up.

The findings show that Google AI Overviews appear more often in long, question-style searches and less often in local or breaking news queries.

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AI Overviews Dominate Informational Searches

Ahrefs found that AI Overviews (AIOs) mostly appear in informational and question-based searches — the kind users make to learn or explore topics.

Key Highlights:

Appear on 20.5% of all keywords analyzed.
Question-style queries trigger AIOs 57.9% of the time.
Longer searches (7+ words) show AIOs in 46.4% of results.
Single-word searches show AIOs just 9.5% of the time.
Informational intent drives nearly 99.9% of AIO results.

This means Google mainly uses AI Overviews when users ask detailed or educational questions rather than quick lookups or navigational queries.

Also read about: Google AI 2025: Overviews Show 54% Overlap with Organic Search

Lower Presence in News, Local, and Commercial Queries

AI Overviews rarely appear for news, local, and shopping-related searches. Google seems to limit AIOs where freshness and accuracy are most important.

Findings by Category:

News-related searches: Only 6.3% show AIOs.
Local searches: Just 7.9% trigger AI Overviews.
Shopping queries: Only 3.2% show AIOs.
Health-related (YMYL) searches: Appear in 44.1% of cases.

Experts believe this selective rollout helps Google maintain trust and accuracy in sensitive or real-time topics.

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Sonia Allan

Hey, I’m Sonia Allen- a freelance content writer and senior SEO analyst at Digiexe, where I geek out over content and data-driven SEO. With seven years of digital marketing and affiliate marketing experience, I love sharing tips on everything from eCommerce to social media. You’ll catch my work on sites like AffiliateBay, and Digiexe.com and SchemaNinja, where I break down big ideas into practical advice. When I’m not writing or tweaking SEO strategies, I’m probably sipping coffee and dreaming up my next project!