AI Overviews and click-through rate: what the 2026 studies show

By more than half for the top result, in Ahrefs' study. Ahrefs found that an AI Overview correlates with a 58% lower click-through rate for the top-ranking page, across 300,000 keywords comparing December 2023 with December 2025. Seer Interactive found an organic click-through rate of 1.31% on queries with an AI Overview in December 2025, against 3.16% without one. Being cited inside the AI Overview is associated with a higher click-through rate.

The figures come from Ahrefs' Update: AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 58%, by Ryan Law with Xibeijia Guan (February 4, 2026), and Seer Interactive's AIO Impact on Google CTR: 2026 Update, by Tracy McDonald, Hannah Cooley and Marketa Williams (April 24, 2026). Both are vendor and agency studies of data they have access to.

How much do AI Overviews reduce click-through rate?

The two studies measure it differently, but agree on direction.

Ahrefs splits its sample evenly: 150,000 keywords with an AI Overview and 150,000 informational keywords without one. It forecasts what the first group's click-through rate would have been without AI Overviews, using the second group's change as a guide, and measures the gap.

How does the effect change by position?

It shrinks further down the page. Ahrefs reports these changes for keywords with an AI Overview.

The position 1 rates explain the headline. Keywords with an AI Overview fell from 0.073 in December 2023 to 0.016 in December 2025. Informational keywords without one fell from 0.076 to 0.039. Ahrefs' forecast for the AI Overview group, had it followed the other group, was 0.037. The actual 0.016 is about 58% below that, on Ahrefs' unrounded figures.

Worth noting: clicks fell on keywords without an AI Overview too, by about half at position 1. Something besides AI Overviews also lowered click-through rates over those two years.

What does being cited in the AI Overview change?

It is associated with a much higher click-through rate, on Seer's data. Seer splits informational queries into three groups and gives full-year 2025 averages.

Seer's summary: "Being cited in the AIO delivers +120% more organic clicks per impression versus when you are not cited." It also notes that cited brands still "underperforms No AIO by -38%" on informational queries.

The not-cited group fared worst over the year. Where an AI Overview appeared and the brand was not cited, Seer reports that organic "CTRs declined by 67% over 2025." Brand-cited organic click-through rate fell from 3.04% in January 2025 to 0.95% in December 2025, while not-cited fell from 1.65% to 0.55%.

Are clicks recovering in 2026?

Partly, in Seer's latest months. Organic click-through rate on queries with an AI Overview:

The February figure is well above December's low, but the gap with queries without an AI Overview remained. In January 2025, queries with an AI Overview actually had the higher rate. Seer also published projections for later months. This site does not repeat them, because they are forecasts.

What about paid search?

Paid clicks were affected as well, in Seer's data. Paid click-through rate on queries with an AI Overview was 14.64% in January 2025 and 16.21% in February 2026. On queries without one it was 25.98% and 21.85%. Seer notes that paid click-through rate where no AI Overview showed "continued a steady decline from January 2025 at 26%."

Brand-cited paid click-through rate "held between 13.99% and 17.95% all year," according to Seer. For B2B SaaS teams that run search ads on category terms, that suggests citation and paid visibility are worth looking at together.

What do the studies mean for B2B SaaS?

They set the direction, not the size, for any one site. Neither study breaks out B2B SaaS, and both say they show correlation. Seer is explicit: "We cannot claim causation. Higher-authority brands are also more likely to be cited."

Three practical readings follow.

1. Informational content is exposed. Both studies focus on informational queries, the kind many B2B SaaS blogs target.
2. Citation is worth pursuing. On Seer's data, cited brands earned more than twice the organic clicks per impression of brands that were not cited.
3. The effect needs measuring locally. Search Console counts AI feature traffic inside the Web totals, so a site has to infer the effect from click-through rate at stable positions.

The tracking method is in how to track AI search citations, and the wider picture on the AI search and clicks page.

What are the limits of this data?

Several, and both studies state most of them. Ahrefs' figure depends on a forecast built from a different set of keywords, covers desktop only and compares one month in each of two years. Seer's sample is 53 brands, one of which accounts for 47% of informational not-cited impressions, and its AI Overview labels come from the latest snapshot applied to all months. Both are vendor or agency studies. Other studies cited by Ahrefs report different figures, which were not read at source for this page.

FAQ

Do AI Overviews reduce organic clicks?

The two large studies read say yes. Ahrefs found AI Overviews correlate with a 58% lower click-through rate for the top-ranking page across 300,000 keywords. Seer Interactive found organic CTR of 1.31% with an AI Overview and 3.16% without in December 2025. Both describe correlation rather than proven cause.

What is the click-through rate when a brand is cited in an AI Overview?

Seer Interactive's full-year 2025 average for informational queries was 2.07% organic CTR when the brand was cited in the AI Overview, against 0.94% when it was not and 3.35% when no AI Overview appeared. That is 120% more clicks per impression than not being cited.

Does position 1 still get clicks with an AI Overview?

Fewer. Ahrefs found position 1 click-through rate on keywords with an AI Overview fell from 0.073 in December 2023 to 0.016 in December 2025. Keywords without one fell from 0.076 to 0.039 over the same period, so both lost clicks, but the AI Overview group lost far more.

Are AI Overview click losses getting better?

Partly, in Seer Interactive's data. Organic CTR on queries with an AI Overview rose from 1.31% in December 2025 to 2.36% in February 2026. Queries without one were at 3.82% in February 2026, so the gap remained. Two months is too short to call it a trend.

Do these studies apply to B2B SaaS?

In direction, probably. Neither study breaks out B2B SaaS, and the samples come from Ahrefs' keyword database and the 53 brands Seer tracked. A B2B SaaS site should check its own Search Console data, comparing click-through rate on informational queries against stable rankings over time.

Conclusion

Two large 2026 studies agree that AI Overviews correlate with fewer clicks for the pages below them. Ahrefs puts the drop at 58% for the top-ranking page, and Seer Interactive found organic CTR of 1.31% with an AI Overview against 3.16% without in December 2025. Being cited is associated with 120% more clicks per impression than not being cited. Both studies show correlation and neither isolates B2B SaaS, so each site should measure its own exposure.

Sources

• Update: AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 58%. Ahrefs, February 4, 2026.
• AIO Impact on Google CTR: 2026 Update. Seer Interactive, April 24, 2026.
• AI features and your website. Google Search Central.