Is the AI answering service market growing or shrinking?
Miles FosterOwner and tester, RankDude
The answer▼ Shrinking
- Visits, year on year
- -40%
- Visits, last six months
- -72%
- Name searches vs October 2025
- -6.7%
Every month I add up the Google visits to the 21 AI answering service sites I track (DataForSEO estimates) and how often people in the US search for them by name (Google Ads). In October 2026 they got about 486,043 visits. Goodcall alone takes 72% of the visits, so the totals mostly follow it. Without it, visits would be down 71.6% on a year ago instead of down 39.7%. Goodcall made most of the move in October 2026: it lost 56,095 of the market's 101,363 visits; without it, visits to the other sites fell 24.9% on September 2026.
The total hides very different stories: one site grew 29% in a year while another lost 99.7% of its visits. See who grew and who shrank, the visits month by month and the name searches, plus what I expect for November 2026.
AI answering service market demand: key numbers, October 2026
Four numbers for October 2026. Visits mean visits from Google search to the 21 tracked sites. Tap one for the detail below.
- Visits from Google486Kvisits-40% vs a year ago
- Name searches, US12.1Ksearches-7% vs October 2025
- Top five sites95.7%of visitsfastest grower: Moneypenny
- Expected in November513Kvisitslikely 342K to 684K
- The AI answering service market is shrinking as of October 2026.
- The 21 AI answering service sites RankDude tracks got 486,043 visits from Google search in October 2026, 40% fewer visits than in October 2025.
- People in the US searched Google for these sites by name 12,080 times in September 2026, 7% fewer searches than in October 2025.
- The five most-visited AI answering service sites get 95.7% of all visits.
- Fastest-growing AI answering service site over the year: Moneypenny, +29% (6.4K to 8.3K visits a month).
- Steepest fall over the year: Phonely, -99.7% (294K to 983 visits a month).
- Forecast for November 2026: about 513K visits, likely between 342K and 684K.
Source: DataForSEO visit estimates and Google Ads search data, published 1 November 2026 by RankDude.
1.Are more people visiting AI answering service sites than a year ago?
Down 40% on a year ago; down 17% on September 2026
No. The 21 tracked AI answering service sites got 486,043 visits from Google search in October 2026. That is 40% fewer visits than in October 2025, and 17% fewer visits than in September 2026.
The highest month of the last two years was April 2026, with 1,735,031 visits; October 2026 is 72% below it. In the US, visits were 318,227, down 26% on a year ago.
WorldVisits a month to AI answering service sites, worldwide, two years
Source: DataForSEO, Google search visits, all tracked sites.
Worldwide, this month
486K
-39.7% on a year ago
United States, this month
318K
-26.1% on a year ago
Two-year high
1.7M
April 2026
US share of visits
65.5%
of worldwide visits
Miles explains
Visits are lower than a year ago and lower than in September 2026, so the fall is still going. Name searches fell (-7%), but Google Trends interest in the term rose (+420%). The counted sites are losing ground; that does not mean interest in AI answering service sites is falling.
2.Are people searching for AI answering service sites by name?
Down 7% on October 2025; 12.1K name searches a month in the US
Fewer than before. People in the US searched Google for the names of the counted AI answering service sites 12,080 times in September 2026, 7% fewer 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 AI answering service sites, US
Source: Google Ads via DataForSEO, to September 2026.
USMost searched AI answering service sites by name, searches a month
Smith.ai3.6K a month
Goodcall2.9K a month
Loman AI1.9K a month
Abby Connect1.3K a month
Sameday AI720 a month
Dialzara480 a month
Miles explains
Name searches are down, so fewer people are coming back on purpose. Better Google rankings will not fix that.
3.Which AI answering service sites grew, and which shrank?
The five most-visited sites hold 95.7% of all visits; the ten most-visited hold 98.4%
The five most-visited AI answering service sites get 95.7% of all visits, so one of them winning or losing a big Google ranking moves the whole total. Fastest grower over the year: Moneypenny, from 6,404 to 8,278 visits (+29%). Steepest fall: Phonely, from 294,013 to 983 visits (-99.7%).
Growing fastest, year on year
Moneypenny8.3K visits+29%- Goodcall350K visits+7%
Falling fastest, year on year
Phonely983 visits-99.7%
Newo1.2K visits-95%- Smith.ai17.5K visits-51%
Frontdesk (My AI Front Desk)81.4K visits-23%
Source: DataForSEO. Sites with 5,000+ visits a year ago.