RankDude
Updated 11/02/2026 · next update 12/01/2026

Is the AI market research tool market growing or shrinking?

Miles FosterOwner and tester, RankDude

The answer▼ Shrinkingbut visits without Similarweb are up 22% on a year ago

Visits, year on year, without Similarweb
+22%
Visits, last six months
-19%
Name searches vs October 2025
-21%

Every month I add up the Google visits to the 50 AI market research tool 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 27 million visits. Much of the year’s change is one site, Similarweb; without it, visits are up 22% on a year ago.

The total hides very different stories: one site grew 12263% in a year while another lost 93% 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 market research tool market demand: key numbers, October 2026

Four numbers for October 2026. Visits mean visits from Google search to the 50 tracked sites. Tap one for the detail below.

  • The AI market research tool market is shrinking as of October 2026, but visits without Similarweb are up 22% on a year ago.
  • The 50 AI market research tool sites RankDude tracks got 27,275,000 visits from Google search in October 2026, 17% fewer visits than in October 2025, or 22% more without Similarweb.
  • People in the US searched Google for these sites by name 745,960 times in September 2026, 21% fewer searches than in October 2025.
  • The five most-visited AI market research tool sites get 95.7% of all visits.
  • Fastest-growing AI market research tool site over the year: Black Swan Data, +12263% (11.0K to 1.4M visits a month).
  • Steepest fall over the year: Crayon, -93% (32.1K to 2.4K visits a month).
  • Forecast for November 2026: about 27M visits, likely between 25M and 30M.

Source: DataForSEO visit estimates and Google Ads search data, published 2 November 2026 by RankDude.

1.Are more people visiting AI market research tool sites than a year ago?

Down 17% on a year ago; down 6% on September 2026

Only because of Similarweb. The 50 tracked AI market research tool sites got 27,275,000 visits from Google search in October 2026. That is 17% fewer visits than in October 2025, or 22% more without Similarweb, and 6% fewer visits than in September 2026.

The highest month of the last two years was December 2024, with 57,728,904 visits; October 2026 is 53% below it. In the US, visits were 2,305,828, down 19% on a year ago.

WorldVisits a month to AI market research tool sites, worldwide, two years

025M50M75M100MNov 24Jan 25Mar 25May 25Jul 25Sep 25Nov 25Jan 26Mar 26May 26Jul 26Oct 2627M
Low 23MHigh 58MAverage 35M
Hover, tap, or use the arrow keys to inspect a month

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

Worldwide, this month

27M

-16.5% on a year ago

United States, this month

2.3M

-19.2% on a year ago

Two-year high

58M

December 2024

US share of visits

8.5%

of worldwide visits

Miles explains

Visits are lower than a year ago. Most of the drop since September 2026 is one site: Semrush went from 17,680,113 to 15,035,371 visits. Without it, the other sites grew 8% on the month. Name searches (-21%) and Google Trends interest in the term (-90%) fell too, so people are less interested, not just finding these sites less often.

2.Are people searching for AI market research tool sites by name?

Down 21% on October 2025; 746K name searches a month in the US

Fewer than before. People in the US searched Google for the names of the counted AI market research tool sites 745,960 times in September 2026, 21% 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. The term “ai market research tool” itself gets about 210 US searches a month (Google Ads, 12-month average).

USName searches a month for AI market research tool sites, US

0500K1.0M1.5M2.0MOct 25Dec 25Feb 26Apr 26Jun 26Sep 26746K
Low 617KHigh 1.1MAverage 785K
Hover, tap, or use the arrow keys to inspect a month

Source: Google Ads via DataForSEO, to September 2026.

USMost searched AI market research tool sites by name, searches a month

  1. SurveyMonkey165K a month
  2. Qualtrics135K a month
  3. Speak90.5K a month
  4. Semrush74.0K a month
  5. AlphaSense40.5K a month
  6. Dovetail40.5K 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 market research tool sites grew, and which shrank?

The five most-visited sites hold 95.7% of all visits; the ten most-visited hold 98.2%

The five most-visited AI market research tool 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: Black Swan Data, from 10,956 to 1,354,448 visits (+12263%). Steepest fall: Crayon, from 32,135 to 2,351 visits (-93%).

Growing fastest, year on year

  1. Black Swan Data1.4M visits+12263%
  2. YouScan164K visits+2180%
  3. Discuss36.6K visits+375%
  4. Attest36.6K visits+101%
  5. Semrush15M visits+32%

Falling fastest, year on year

  1. Crayon2.4K visits-93%
  2. Placer.ai8.6K visits-89%
  3. Brand2418.0K visits-85%
  4. Listen Labs1.1K visits-83%
  5. Speak31.7K visits-80%

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