OpenAI's 20% number comes with two big caveats
Adam Fry, who leads ChatGPT's consumer product, told Alex Kantrowitz of Big Technology that ChatGPT's "volume of search-like queries is now roughly one-fifth the volume of queries of Google." He said it at an OpenAI event in New York on Monday, November 2.
Two details matter before anyone panics (or celebrates):
- OpenAI counts a search as any prompt that makes ChatGPT go look something up on the web. Asking it to define a word or explain a how-to doesn't count, per The Verge.
- Fry didn't say where the Google number came from. It's OpenAI's own figure, and nobody has checked it independently yet.
Even with an asterisk, it's a big number. Microsoft's CEO said during Google's 2023 antitrust trial that Bing had about 3% of the search market after more than a decade of trying.
It also lines up with what people say they do. A Pew survey this summer found 42% of American adults have used AI to search for information, and 44% have used ChatGPT specifically, according to Business Insider. ChatGPT has about 1.2 billion weekly users now.
Google is still the biggest door into your business. ChatGPT is a second door, and it's getting wider.
A ChatGPT answer names about five programs, not fifty
Fry said people started with ChatGPT for writing and coding help, then moved to looking up "a person or people or a place or a thing." That last category is your customer.
A parent in Cleveland types "best goalie training near me for a 12 year old" into ChatGPT. It runs a web search, reads a handful of pages and writes back an answer that names a few programs. In our test (below), that was usually four to seven.
On Google, a parent can scroll to page two. A ChatGPT answer has no page two, so a program it doesn't name never gets the call.
Ads are coming, too. OpenAI said last month it will start showing images of sponsored products and services inside ChatGPT, and Fry told reporters "most people do not seem to mind ads in the product."
My guess is paid placement in AI answers ends up looking a lot like Google AdWords did 15 years ago: cheap early, crowded later. That's probably a 2027 conversation. Getting your own site right costs nothing and comes first.
We asked ChatGPT 32 parent questions in 12 lacrosse markets
OpenAI's number covers the whole internet. I wanted to see what a lacrosse parent actually gets back, so on November 4 we asked ChatGPT the questions parents ask in 12 of the biggest lacrosse markets in the country: Boston, Syracuse, Connecticut, Long Island, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Dallas, Denver, San Diego, Orange County and the Bay Area.
Every market got "best youth lacrosse camps near [area] this summer" and "private lacrosse lessons in [area] for a 12 year old." In Baltimore, Long Island, Philadelphia and Denver we also asked about goalie training and high school club teams. That's 32 answers.
ChatGPT quoted prices in 25 of 32 answers
All 12 private-lesson answers had prices, down to "$80/hour for one-on-one" and two-player rates. Camp answers had prices 9 times out of 12.
| Question | Markets | With prices |
|---|---|---|
| Private lessons for a 12 year old | 12 | 12 of 12 |
| Youth camps this summer | 12 | 9 of 12 |
| Goalie training | 4 | 4 of 4 |
| High school club teams | 4 | 0 of 4 |
| All questions | 32 answers | 25 of 32 |
The four high school club answers had none, and leaned on tryout dates and graduation years instead. In one Baltimore answer, ChatGPT said it had included pricing "where it's publicly listed," which tells you what happens to a program that doesn't list it.
When your site doesn't answer, ChatGPT asks someone else
ChatGPT cited Athletes Untapped, a marketplace for private coaches, in 7 of the 12 private-lesson answers. It cited registration pages on LeagueApps, SportsEngine and TotalCamps in four answers, in place of the program's own site.
The Dallas camp answer pulled from 17 different sources, including a pile of kids-activity directories. Those sites are fine, but they describe your program on their terms (or skip it).
ChatGPT is already shopping for summer 2027
We asked about "this summer" in November, and the camp answers jumped straight to summer 2027. In at least four markets (Long Island, Denver, San Diego and Orange County), ChatGPT warned the parent that many camps hadn't posted 2027 dates yet. The programs that already had dates up got listed with them.
Two of our clients came up first
Goaliesmith was ChatGPT's first recommendation for "best lacrosse goalie training near Baltimore." Platform Lacrosse was its first choice for private lessons in Syracuse, complete with the address, phone number and a link to platformlacrosse.com.
Both sites spell out what the program is, where it is and who it's for in plain text, and ChatGPT repeated those details back to the parent. I won't claim we can make that happen on command. Anyone who says they can is probably selling something.
ChatGPT skips lacrosse programs that bury their facts
OpenAI hasn't published how it picks sources, so be skeptical of a guaranteed "rank #1 in ChatGPT" package. What we do know is that ChatGPT runs a web search (The Verge reports it likely leans on Bing plus its own index), reads the pages that come back and writes a summary.
It favors what a tired parent favors: pages that answer the question plainly, with facts that match everywhere else the program shows up.
Our test points the same way. When the facts that matter (ages, locations, dates, cost) live in a PDF, an Instagram caption or a registration page, ChatGPT probably quotes someone else or moves on to a program that spells them out.
And if the website says one thing and Google My Business says another, it has to pick one.
We're in client sites every day, which is how Platform got to +127% traffic
None of this is a one-time fix. Google and the AI tools re-read your site constantly, competitors keep publishing, and every new camp, session or coach is another page to bolt on and get right.
So we work on client sites every day, and most of it is unglamorous (on purpose): on-page and technical SEO, copy that answers what parents actually ask, blog posts built around real searches, structured data, listings that match everywhere, and the rest of the best practices that keep a site easy for Google and ChatGPT to read and trust.
I started with our own site. This fall I tore down and rebuilt lacrossemarketing.co to the same standard we hold client sites to, down to a visible FAQ with matching structured data on every case study and client highlight.
The results show up in the boring metrics first.
For Platform Lacrosse, website traffic is up 127% and Google My Business interactions are up 61% from September 2024 to April 2025 (the full Platform story). That was Google work. It's also the foundation ChatGPT reads when it searches, which is why I'd build it before spending a dollar on anything labeled AI.
You can check whether ChatGPT names your program in five minutes
Open ChatGPT (logged out, so it isn't working from your history) and ask what your customers would ask. Use your real town and age group:
- "Best youth lacrosse camps near [your town] this summer"
- "Who offers private lacrosse lessons in [your town] for a [age]-year-old?"
- "Is [your program name] a good lacrosse program?"
Write down who gets named, what ChatGPT says about you (if anything) and which pages it cites. If a competitor shows up and you don't, look at what's on their site that isn't on yours. My money's on the boring facts.
How we ran the test
We used chatgpt.com, logged out, on November 4, 2026, with a fresh chat for every question and no follow-ups. We counted a price as any dollar figure in the answer, and a citation as any link ChatGPT gave.
ChatGPT tailors answers to the person asking (it guessed our general location in one answer), so a parent in another town on another day can get a different list. Treat this as a snapshot, not a ranking. We didn't name any program other than our own clients.
Sources: The Verge (Hayden Field, Nov 3, 2026) · Business Insider (Katie Notopoulos, Nov 2026) · Big Technology (Alex Kantrowitz, Nov 3, 2026)
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