Google Says AI Mode Has Passed 1 Billion Monthly Active Users
TLDR
At Google I/O in May 2026, Sundar Pichai said Google's AI Mode had passed 1 billion monthly active users and called it the company's biggest upgrade to Search.
Optimixed Overview
Optimixed's original report on this story.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai called AI Mode "our biggest upgrade to Search ever" at Google I/O in May 2026 and said the feature had passed 1 billion monthly active users. Ahrefs notes that AI Mode is no longer just an experiment, as first reported in its overview of the feature.
How we got here
- Sep 28Google Globally Rolls Out Monitoring Capabilities in AI Mode
Google is expanding monitoring capabilities in its AI Mode search feature from paid subscribers to all users globally.
- Sep 18Google testing AI Mode button directly in search results page
Google is expanding where it displays its AI Mode button by adding it to the search bar on search results pages, not just the homepage.
- Aug 28Google Testing Auto-Promotion of AI Mode From Search AI Overviews
Google is testing an AI Overview experience that automatically expands to full AI Mode responses without requiring users to click a button.
- Aug 26Google Asks Search Users What Features They Want Most in AI Mode
Robby Stein, Google Search's VP of Product, asked users on X what single feature they'd most want added to AI Mode.