Is the AI tools for research market growing or shrinking?
Miles FosterOwner and tester, RankDude
The answer▲ Growing
- Visits, year on year, without ChatGPT
- +7.9%
- Visits, last six months
- +68%
- Name searches vs October 2025
- +4.6%
Every month I add up the Google visits to the 195 AI tools for research 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 1.2 billion visits. Much of the year’s change is one site, ChatGPT; without it, visits are up 8% on a year ago.
The total hides very different stories: one site grew 12263% 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 tools for research market demand: key numbers, October 2026
Four numbers for October 2026. Visits mean visits from Google search to the 195 tracked sites. Tap one for the detail below.
- Visits from Google1159Mvisits+163% vs a year ago
- Name searches, US139Msearches+5% vs October 2025
- Top five sites95.1%of visitsfastest grower: Black Swan Data
- Expected in November1194Mvisitslikely 1098M to 1289M
- The AI tools for research market is growing as of October 2026.
- The 195 AI tools for research sites RankDude tracks got 1,158,993,473 visits from Google search in October 2026, 163% more visits than in October 2025, or 8% more without ChatGPT.
- People in the US searched Google for these sites by name 139,468,610 times in September 2026, 5% more searches than in October 2025.
- The five most-visited AI tools for research sites get 95.1% of all visits.
- Fastest-growing AI tools for research site over the year: Black Swan Data, +12263% (11.0K to 1.4M visits a month).
- Steepest fall over the year: Logically, -99.9% (7.2K to 4 visits a month).
- Forecast for November 2026: about 1194M visits, likely between 1098M and 1289M.
Source: DataForSEO visit estimates and Google Ads search data, published 2 November 2026 by RankDude.
1.Are more people visiting AI tools for research sites than a year ago?
Up 163% on a year ago; about level with September 2026 (+2%)
Yes. The 195 tracked AI tools for research sites got 1,158,993,473 visits from Google search in October 2026. That is 163% more visits than in October 2025, or 8% more without ChatGPT, and about the same as in September 2026.
October 2026 is the highest month of the last two years. In the US, visits were 89,953,805, up 330% on a year ago.
WorldVisits a month to AI tools for research sites, worldwide, two years
Source: DataForSEO, Google search visits, all tracked sites.
Worldwide, this month
1159M
+162.6% on a year ago
United States, this month
90M
+330.1% on a year ago
Two-year high
1159M
October 2026
US share of visits
7.8%
of worldwide visits
Miles explains
More visits than a year ago means new people are still finding AI tools for research sites through Google. Most of that growth is one site, ChatGPT; without it, visits are up 8% on a year ago.
2.Are people searching for AI tools for research sites by name?
Up 5% on October 2025; 139M name searches a month in the US
Yes, more than before. People in the US searched Google for the names of the counted AI tools for research sites 139,468,610 times in September 2026, 5% 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 tools for research” itself gets about 720 US searches a month (Google Ads, 12-month average).
USName searches a month for AI tools for research sites, US
Source: Google Ads via DataForSEO, to September 2026.
USMost searched AI tools for research sites by name, searches a month
ChatGPT124M a month
Claude9.1M a month
Grammarly2.7M a month
Dimensions368K a month
UpToDate368K a month
Citation Machine368K a month
Miles explains
Name searches are up 5%. 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 tools for research sites grew, and which shrank?
The five most-visited sites hold 95.1% of all visits; the ten most-visited hold 97.9%
The five most-visited AI tools for research sites get 95.1% 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: Logically, from 7,238 to 4 visits (-99.9%).
Growing fastest, year on year
Black Swan Data1.4M visits+12263%
YouScan164K visits+2180%
Paperguide205K visits+1200%
PubMed.ai52.0K visits+883%
ResearchPal49.7K visits+442%
Falling fastest, year on year
Logically4 visits-99.9%
StrongSuit13 visits-99.9%
SciSpace2.7K visits-99%
Recall1.5K visits-96%
Ainvest42.6K visits-95%
Source: DataForSEO. Sites with 5,000+ visits a year ago.