Update: AI Overviews cut organic clicks by 58%

According to research by Ahrefs, the impact of AI Overviews on organic traffic has become clearer. Back in April 2025, Ahrefs found that AI Overviews reduced clicks to top-ranking content by 34.5%. Since then, Google has rolled AI Overviews out to more countries and more languages, while many websites have recorded a drop in the clicks they receive from organic search.

The new data shows that, as of December 2025, the presence of an AI Overview reduces the average CTR of the page in first position by roughly 58%. This means that a top position in Google still matters, but it no longer delivers the same volume of clicks it used to.

Study methodology

Ahrefs used the same methodology as in the previous study. They selected 300,000 keywords from the Ahrefs Keywords Explorer database. Of that data, 150,000 keywords triggered an AI Overview, while 150,000 were informational keywords where no AI Overview appeared.

Ahrefs then used aggregated Google Search Console data to calculate the average desktop CTR for each keyword. The comparison was made between December 2023 and December 2025. 2023 was chosen as a period before AI Overviews spread, while 2025 served as an example of an already changed search environment.

Key findings

The study showed that CTR declined even for informational keywords. In December 2023, the average CTR for informational keywords in first position was 0.076, while in December 2025 it fell to 0.039.

For keywords with an AI Overview, the decline was even sharper. In December 2023, the average CTR for this type of keyword in first position was 0.073, while in December 2025 it dropped to 0.016. By Ahrefs' calculation, had AI Overviews not appeared, the expected CTR would have been about 0.037; the actual figure turned out to be 0.016. It is from this gap that they drew the conclusion that AI Overviews reduce the CTR of the page in first position by roughly 58%.

Why CTR declines even when no AI Overview appears

Ahrefs' analysis shows that the drop in CTR is not tied to AI Overviews alone. Over the years, Google's results page has been filled with more and more elements that give the user an answer without a click through to a site. Local Pack, Top Stories, Featured Snippets and other SERP features are examples of this.

That is why zero-click searches have been growing for a long time. AI Overviews are a new and stronger form of this trend, but not the only reason for it. Google's results page is increasingly turning into a space where the user gets the answer directly within Google, while visiting a website becomes less necessary.

The impact of AI Overviews on other positions

Ahrefs also examined the impact of AI Overviews in cases where the AI Overview does not appear in the first position of the search results. The results show that the negative impact persists at other positions too, though on a comparatively smaller scale.

According to the data, the impact of AI Overviews on CTR is as follows:

This table shows that AI Overviews do not harm only the sites in first position. The impact extends across the organic results as a whole, though the strongest blow still lands on the first position.

Ahrefs concludes that, as of December 2025, AI Overviews reduce the organic CTR of top-ranking content by roughly 58%. This result is consistent with other studies as well, including data from Seer Interactive, Kevin Indig and Authoritas, which also point to a significant decline in organic CTR.

The main point is this: AI Overviews change the value of visibility in Google. In the past, the first position often automatically meant a high number of clicks. Now a page can sit in first place while the user gets the answer inside Google's AI block and never moves on to the site.

This does not mean that SEO no longer works. More precisely, it means that positions alone are no longer enough to measure SEO. It is essential to analyse CTR, impressions, the presence of an AI Overview, zero-click searches and real organic clicks together. In today's search environment, visibility and traffic are no longer the same thing.