Which of the AI search engines is the most popular?
Microsoft Bing had the most website visits in September 2026: 3.63B. Perplexity and Consensus followed.
Most popular AI search engines by traffic (September 2026)
Our reading
Microsoft Bing is a general search engine with AI answers built in. Among search engines built around AI answers, Perplexity leads with 94.5 million visits, far ahead of Consensus (6.3 million) and Kagi (4.8 million).
| Rank | Product | Monthly visits | vs last month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AI-powered web search | 3.63B−6.7% | −6.7% |
| 2 | AI answer engine | 94.5M−4.9% | −4.9% |
| 3 | AI academic search engine | 6.32M+5.6% | +5.6% |
| 4 | Ad-free search engine with AI | 4.82M−1.2% | −1.2% |
| 5 | AI search engine | 4.61M−11.8% | −11.8% |
| 6 | Face recognition search engine | 4.38M−10.4% | −10.4% |
| 7 | AI business agent for e-commerce sellers | 2.56M−6.6% | −6.6% |
| 8 | AI search and creation platform | 1.79M+7.8% | +7.8% |
| 9 | AI for scientific research | 936K−7.8% | −7.8% |
| 10 | Web search API for AI | 933K−4.0% | −4.0% |
| 11 | AI search over Zhihu answers | 890K+5.1% | +5.1% |
| 12 | AI research assistant with citations | 872K+22.2% | +22.2% |
| 13 | AI search and search API | 870K−11.4% | −11.4% |
| 14 | AlgoliaNot an AI product hosted search and retrieval API | 766K−3.9% | −3.9% |
| 15 | AI search engine and answer engine | 742K−3.2% | −3.2% |
| 16 | AI search for developers | 594K−30.7% | −30.7% |
| 17 | AI mobile browser and search | 577K−12.7% | −12.7% |
| 18 | AI chat assistant | 253K−21.4% | −21.4% |
| 19 | AI stock image search engine | 251K+40.8% | +40.8% |
| 20 | AI academic search | 199K−31.4% | −31.4% |
Where the numbers come from
Monthly website visits as published by AI产品榜 (AICPB) on 2026-10-12. GenGrades does not measure traffic itself; we check each product, add its official site and logo, and link our review where we have one.
What a visit counts
Visits to the product’s website in the month, from desktop and mobile browsers. Apps, desktop programs and command-line tools are not counted, so products used mostly that way, such as Claude Code or Codex, rank lower here than their real use, or not at all.
Traffic measures attention, not quality. A tool can be popular and still be the wrong choice for your task; our rankings by test score answer that question.
Common questions
Answer first, then why, an example, the limits and what to do next.
Which one grew fastest in September 2026?
Everypixel grew most among products that were on the list the month before: +40.8%, to 251K visits.
Is the most popular tool the best one?
Popularity counts visits, not results. The most visited tool is often the best known or the cheapest to try, not the one that does your job best; our test-based rankings answer that question.
How is this ranking measured?
By monthly visits to each product’s website, as published by AI产品榜 (AICPB). Apps and command-line tools are not counted.