RankDude
Updated 10/15/2026 · next update 11/01/2026

Is the self-hosted AI agent market growing or shrinking?

Miles FosterOwner and tester, RankDude

The answer▲ Growing

Visits, year on year, without OpenClaw
+1.5%
Visits, last six months
+129%
Name searches vs October 2025
+313%

Every month I add up the Google visits to the 13 self-hosted AI agent sites I track (DataForSEO estimates) and how often people in the US search for them by name (Google Ads). In September 2026 they got about 987,202 visits. Much of the year’s change is one site, OpenClaw; without it, visits are about level on a year ago.

The total hides very different stories: one site grew 107% in a year while another lost 60% of its visits. See who grew and who shrank, the visits month by month and the name searches, plus what I expect for October 2026.

Self-hosted AI agent market demand: key numbers, September 2026

Four numbers for September 2026. Visits mean visits from Google search to the 13 tracked sites. Tap one for the detail below.

  • The self-hosted AI agent market is growing as of September 2026.
  • The 13 self-hosted AI agent sites RankDude tracks got 987,202 visits from Google search in September 2026, 337% more visits than in September 2025, or about the same without OpenClaw.
  • People in the US searched Google for these sites by name 107,850 times in September 2026, 313% more searches than in October 2025.
  • The five most-visited self-hosted AI agent sites get 96.8% of all visits.
  • Fastest-growing self-hosted AI agent site over the year: AnythingLLM, +107% (11.4K to 23.5K visits a month).
  • Steepest fall over the year: Jan, -60% (74.7K to 29.8K visits a month).
  • Forecast for October 2026: about 992K visits, likely between 626K and 1.4M.

Source: DataForSEO visit estimates and Google Ads search data, published 15 October 2026 by RankDude.

1.Are more people visiting self-hosted AI agent sites than a year ago?

Up 337% on a year ago; up 24% on August 2026

Only because of OpenClaw. The 13 tracked self-hosted AI agent sites got 987,202 visits from Google search in September 2026. That is 337% more visits than in September 2025, or about the same without OpenClaw, and 24% more visits than in August 2026.

September 2026 is the highest month of the last two years. In the US, visits were 169,692, up 316% on a year ago.

WorldVisits a month to self-hosted AI agent sites, worldwide, two years

0250K500K750K1.0MOct 24Dec 24Feb 25Apr 25Jun 25Aug 25Oct 25Dec 25Feb 26Apr 26Jun 26Sep 26987K
Low 83.9KHigh 987KAverage 370K
Hover, tap, or use the arrow keys to inspect a month

Source: DataForSEO, Google search visits, all tracked sites.

Worldwide, this month

987K

+336.9% on a year ago

United States, this month

170K

+315.7% on a year ago

Two-year high

987K

September 2026

US share of visits

17.2%

of worldwide visits

Miles explains

More visits than a year ago means new people are still finding self-hosted AI agent sites through Google. Most of that growth is one site, OpenClaw; without it, visits are about level on a year ago.

2.Are people searching for self-hosted AI agent sites by name?

Up 313% on October 2025; 108K name searches a month in the US

Yes, more than before. People in the US searched Google for the names of the counted self-hosted AI agent sites 107,850 times in September 2026, 313% more searches than in October 2025. Someone who searches a site’s name already knows it, so this is the clearest sign of people coming back on purpose.

USName searches a month for self-hosted AI agent sites, US

0500K1.0M1.5M2.0MOct 25Dec 25Feb 26Apr 26Jun 26Sep 26108K
Low 26.1KHigh 1.1MAverage 301K
Hover, tap, or use the arrow keys to inspect a month

Source: Google Ads via DataForSEO, to September 2026.

USMost searched self-hosted AI agent sites by name, searches a month

  1. OpenClaw74.0K a month
  2. Open WebUI14.8K a month
  3. AnythingLLM8.1K a month
  4. LibreChat8.1K a month
  5. ZeroClaw1.0K a month
  6. Khoj720 a month

Miles explains

Name searches are up 313%. This number does not change when Google reshuffles its results, so it is the most reliable sign of growth on this page.

3.Which self-hosted AI agent sites grew, and which shrank?

The five most-visited sites hold 96.8% of all visits; the ten most-visited hold 99.9%

The five most-visited self-hosted AI agent sites get 96.8% of all visits, so one of them winning or losing a big Google ranking moves the whole total. Fastest grower over the year: AnythingLLM, from 11,362 to 23,519 visits (+107%). Steepest fall: Jan, from 74,694 to 29,788 visits (-60%).

Growing fastest, year on year

  1. AnythingLLM23.5K visits+107%

Falling fastest, year on year

  1. Jan29.8K visits-60%
  2. LibreChat21.9K visits-51%
  3. Open WebUI52.9K visits-41%

Source: DataForSEO. Sites with 5,000+ visits a year ago.