Back in April 2025, we found that AI overviews reduced clicks on top-ranking content by 34.5%, despite Google’s statements to the contrary.
Since then, AI overviews have been rolled out in more countries and languages, and many websites have seen organic search clicks decline month over month.
Today, it seems likely that the impact of AI overviews has worsened. As I wrote in our previous study:
Assuming AI overviews remain in this current form, this is also likely to be the highest CTR. As the novelty wears off and the law of crappy clicks kicks in, I expect clicks to continue to decline.
To find out, we re-ran our study using data from December 2025.
We found that having an AI overview now correlates with one 58% lower average click-through rate for the page with the highest ranking.
Thanks (again) Google.
We used the same methodology as in our previous study:
- We have chosen 300,000 keywords from the Ahrefs Keywords Explorer database, consisting of 150,000 keywords with AI overview present and 150,000 keywords with informational intent and without AI overview present.
- We used aggregated data from Google Search Console to determine the average desktop click-through rate (CTR) of each keyword per month (sum of clicks/sum of impressions).
- Us then compared the click rates for both samples for December 2023 (pre-AI overviews) and December 2025
Side note.
This is a two-year time gap (versus one year in the previous study), for the simple reason that December 2024 is after the launch of the AI overviews.
See where AI overviews appear for your rankings
You can use that SERP features Filter to see exactly where AI overviews influence your keyword rankings. Go to Ahrefs Site Explorernavigate to Organic keywords report and select AI overview from the SERP features filter.
As of December 2023, the average position one CTR for information keywords was 0.076. In December 2025 this had fallen to 0.039:
As of December 2023, the average position one CTR for AI overview keywords was 0.073. In December 2025, this value fell to 0.016:
Side note.
“AI Overview Keywords” refers to keywords that triggered an AI Overview in December 2025. In December 2023, before the launch of AI Overviews, these keywords did not trigger an AI Overview.
Using the decline in CTR for informational keywords, we can again predict the CTR for AI Overview keywords if AI Overviews had not been introduced: 0.037 (0.072627*(0.038943/0.075730)).
If we calculate the difference between predicted and actual CTR, the data suggests that the presence of AI overviews now reduces the click-through rate for position 1 by ~58% ((0.015677-0.03734)/0.03734):
This is another significant drop in click-through rate. For every 100 clicks you got on a top-ranking page in the past, Google now “keeps” 58.
What Caused the CTR Decline for Non-AI Overview Keywords?
AI Overviews are the latest in a long line of search features that help answer a user’s query without leaving Google, including Local Pack, Top Stories and, most importantly, Featured Snippets.
As these SERP features increased their presence, click-through rates decreased. So-called zero-click searches have been on the rise for a long time.
Learn more.
As we previously examined, about 9% of AI overviews appear outside of the first position in the SERP:
We conducted the same analysis for AI overviews that appear in lower places.
The negative effects of AI Overviews remain, albeit in less dramatic forms (no mercy given the already low click rates of positions 2-10):
| Position in search results | Impact on click-through rate |
|---|---|
| 1 | -58.0% |
| 2 | -50.8% |
| 3 | -46.4% |
| 4 | -38.8% |
| 5 | -32.6% |
| 6 | -30.5% |
| 7 | -29.7% |
| 8 | -28.8% |
| 9 | -29.7% |
| 10 | -19.4% |
Final thoughts
As of December 2025, AI overviews Reduce the organic click-through rate for content in position one by 58%. This dismal result is confirmed by other research, including Seer Interactive (organic CTR down 49.4% to 65.2%), Kevin Indig (>50%), Authoritas (47.5%), and even the Daily Mail (reporting 80-90% lower CTR).
Regardless of your opinion on the usefulness and value of AI overviews, it seems absolutely true that they pull the majority of once-available clicks to top-ranking pages. The search becomes zero-click.
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