Is the self-hosted AI agent market growing or shrinking?
Miles FosterOwner and tester, RankDude
The answer▲ Growing
- Visits, year on year, without OpenClaw
- +1.7%
- Visits, last six months
- +47%
- Name searches vs October 2025
- +195%
Every month I add up the Google visits to the 16 self-hosted AI agent 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 1.1 million 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 91% in a year while another lost 75% 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.
Self-hosted AI agent market demand: key numbers, October 2026
Four numbers for October 2026. Visits mean visits from Google search to the 16 tracked sites. Tap one for the detail below.
- Visits from Google1.1Mvisits+214% vs a year ago
- Name searches, US115Ksearches+195% vs October 2025
- Top five sites91.7%of visitsfastest grower: AnythingLLM
- Expected in November1.1Mvisitslikely 891K to 1.3M
- The self-hosted AI agent market is growing as of October 2026.
- The 16 self-hosted AI agent sites RankDude tracks got 1,090,992 visits from Google search in October 2026, 214% more visits than in October 2025, or about the same without OpenClaw.
- People in the US searched Google for these sites by name 114,650 times in September 2026, 195% more searches than in October 2025.
- The five most-visited self-hosted AI agent sites get 91.7% of all visits.
- Fastest-growing self-hosted AI agent site over the year: AnythingLLM, +91% (13.1K to 25.1K visits a month).
- Steepest fall over the year: Jan, -75% (91.3K to 22.7K visits a month).
- Forecast for November 2026: about 1.1M visits, likely between 891K and 1.3M.
Source: DataForSEO visit estimates and Google Ads search data, published 1 November 2026 by RankDude.
1.Are more people visiting self-hosted AI agent sites than a year ago?
Up 214% on a year ago; about level with September 2026 (+3%)
Only because of OpenClaw. The 16 tracked self-hosted AI agent sites got 1,090,992 visits from Google search in October 2026. That is 214% more visits than in October 2025, or about the same without OpenClaw, and about the same as in September 2026.
October 2026 is the highest month of the last two years. In the US, visits were 200,679, up 261% on a year ago.
WorldVisits a month to self-hosted AI agent sites, worldwide, two years
Source: DataForSEO, Google search visits, all tracked sites.
Worldwide, this month
1.1M
+214.2% on a year ago
United States, this month
201K
+261.3% on a year ago
Two-year high
1.1M
October 2026
US share of visits
18.4%
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 195% on October 2025; 115K 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 114,650 times in September 2026, 195% 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
Source: Google Ads via DataForSEO, to September 2026.
USMost searched self-hosted AI agent sites by name, searches a month
OpenClaw74.0K a month
Open WebUI14.8K a month
AnythingLLM8.1K a month
LibreChat8.1K a month
Langflow3.6K a month
Activepieces1.9K a month
Miles explains
Name searches are up 195%. 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 91.7% of all visits; the ten most-visited hold 99.4%
The five most-visited self-hosted AI agent sites get 91.7% 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 13,094 to 25,056 visits (+91%). Steepest fall: Jan, from 91,316 to 22,671 visits (-75%).
Growing fastest, year on year
- AnythingLLM25.1K visits+91%
Falling fastest, year on year
Jan22.7K visits-75%- LibreChat22.0K visits-50%
- Langflow17.1K visits-49%
- Open WebUI46.8K visits-49%
- Activepieces17.5K visits-6%
Source: DataForSEO. Sites with 5,000+ visits a year ago.