---
date: "2025-08-10T00:00:00Z"
categories:
  - how-i-do-things
  - visualisation
  - linkedin
  - llms
description: "Personal behavior suggests chat is increasingly substituting for search, raising deeper questions about how knowledge gets filtered, curated, and audited."
keywords: ["ChatGPT", "Google Search", "search substitution", "usage trends", "knowledge interfaces", "information ecosystems"]
---

My ChatGPT engagement is now far higher than with Google.

I started using ChatGPT in June 2023. From Sep 2023 - Feb 2024, my Google usage was 5x ChatGPT. Then, fell to 3x until May 2024. Then about 2x until Apr 2025. Since May 2025, it sits at the 1.5x mark.

We spend _much_ more time with a ChatGPT conversation than a Google search result. So clearly, ChatGPT is my top app, beating Google some months ago.

This is a global trend. ChatGPT gets 2.5B requests/day. Google gets 14B (~5-6x larger). But if we spend 5x more time on a ChatGPT conversation than a Google search, Google would rightly be worried.

This usage isn't complementary. My negative correlation of -0.74 is a strong substitution signal. I'm using ChatGPT _instead_ of Google, not _in addition_ to Google.

But it's not just ChatGPT vs Google. It's chat vs search. What will people _search_ for instead of _chat_? Will search become just background data for LLMs? Should search engines optimize output for chatbots?

That might be a good thing for information diversity. I'm glad ChatGPT helps me ask fresh questions. Authors might be glad that different kinds of content will find an audience.

My chat will overtake search in 12-18 months. When ChatGPT becomes my primary lens on knowledge, "Who curates the lens? And who audits the curvature?" (to quote ChatGPT)

Full analysis: https://sanand0.github.io/datastories/chatgpt-vs-google/

![](https://sanand0.github.io/datastories/chatgpt-vs-google/chatgpt-vs-google-usage-ratio.webp)

[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sanand0_my-chatgpt-engagement-is-now-far-higher-than-activity-7354015077819142144-8F-A)