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

Is the AI research assistant market growing or shrinking?

Miles FosterOwner and tester, RankDude

The answer▼ Shrinkingbut name searches are up 20% since October 2025

Visits, year on year, without Screener
-37%
Visits, last six months
-19%
Name searches vs October 2025
+20%

Every month I add up the Google visits to the 124 AI research assistant 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 104 million visits. Much of the year’s change is one site, Screener; without it, visits are down 37% on a year ago.

The total hides very different stories: one site grew 1200% in a year while another lost 99.9% 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 research assistant market demand: key numbers, October 2026

Four numbers for October 2026. Visits mean visits from Google search to the 124 tracked sites. Tap one for the detail below.

  • The AI research assistant market is shrinking as of October 2026, but name searches are up 20% since October 2025.
  • The 124 AI research assistant sites RankDude tracks got 104,088,164 visits from Google search in October 2026, 21% more visits than in October 2025, or 37% fewer without Screener.
  • People in the US searched Google for these sites by name 1,752,750 times in September 2026, 20% more searches than in October 2025.
  • The five most-visited AI research assistant sites get 94.3% of all visits.
  • Fastest-growing AI research assistant site over the year: Paperguide, +1200% (15.8K to 205K visits a month).
  • Steepest fall over the year: Logically, -99.9% (7.2K to 4 visits a month).
  • Forecast for November 2026: about 104M visits, likely between 96M and 112M.

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

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

Up 21% on a year ago; about level with September 2026 (+2%)

Only because of Screener. The 124 tracked AI research assistant sites got 104,088,164 visits from Google search in October 2026. That is 21% more visits than in October 2025, or 37% fewer without Screener, and about the same as in September 2026.

The highest month of the last two years was April 2026, with 127,748,304 visits; October 2026 is 19% below it. In the US, visits were 3,088,409, down 18% on a year ago.

WorldVisits a month to AI research assistant sites, worldwide, two years

050M100M150M200MNov 24Jan 25Mar 25May 25Jul 25Sep 25Nov 25Jan 26Mar 26May 26Jul 26Oct 26104M
Low 59MHigh 128MAverage 94M
Hover, tap, or use the arrow keys to inspect a month

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

Worldwide, this month

104M

+21.4% on a year ago

United States, this month

3.1M

-18.4% on a year ago

Two-year high

128M

April 2026

US share of visits

3%

of worldwide visits

Miles explains

More visits than a year ago means new people are still finding AI research assistant sites through Google. Most of that growth is one site, Screener; without it, visits are down 37% on a year ago.

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

Up 20% on October 2025; 1.8M name searches a month in the US

Yes, more than before. People in the US searched Google for the names of the counted AI research assistant sites 1,752,750 times in September 2026, 20% 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. The term “ai research assistant” itself gets about 1,900 US searches a month (Google Ads, 12-month average).

USName searches a month for AI research assistant sites, US

0500K1.0M1.5M2.0MOct 25Dec 25Feb 26Apr 26Jun 26Sep 261.8M
Low 1.2MHigh 1.8MAverage 1.4M
Hover, tap, or use the arrow keys to inspect a month

Source: Google Ads via DataForSEO, to September 2026.

USMost searched AI research assistant sites by name, searches a month

  1. Dimensions368K a month
  2. UpToDate368K a month
  3. AnswerThis165K a month
  4. Quartr165K a month
  5. Recall165K a month
  6. Zotero165K a month

Miles explains

Name searches are up 20%. This number does not change when Google reshuffles its results, so it is the most reliable sign of growth on this page.

3.Which AI research assistant sites grew, and which shrank?

The five most-visited sites hold 94.3% of all visits; the ten most-visited hold 96.5%

The five most-visited AI research assistant sites get 94.3% of all visits, so one of them winning or losing a big Google ranking moves the whole total. Fastest grower over the year: Paperguide, from 15,769 to 204,959 visits (+1200%). Steepest fall: Logically, from 7,238 to 4 visits (-99.9%).

Growing fastest, year on year

  1. Paperguide205K visits+1200%
  2. PubMed.ai52.0K visits+883%
  3. ResearchPal49.7K visits+442%
  4. Video Highlight147K visits+264%
  5. AnswerThis56.0K visits+249%

Falling fastest, year on year

  1. Logically4 visits-99.9%
  2. StrongSuit13 visits-99.9%
  3. SciSpace2.7K visits-99%
  4. Recall1.5K visits-96%
  5. Ainvest42.6K visits-95%

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