ChatGPT is becoming a more important route into news, according to Similarweb data cited by THE DECODER. The shift is not just about more people using the app. It is also about what they ask, which publishers receive traffic, and how Google’s role as a news gateway is changing.
From January 2024 to May 2025, news-related prompts in ChatGPT rose sharply, while comparable Google search queries slipped. The pattern accelerated in early 2025, suggesting that users are increasingly turning to AI tools when they want fast information, explanation, or context around current events.
News habits are moving toward AI prompts
Over the past six months, monthly active users on the ChatGPT app more than doubled, rising 116% year-over-year. Web usage also grew, increasing 52% during the same period.
The more important change is in news behavior. Between January 2024 and May 2025, news-related prompts in ChatGPT climbed 212%. Over the same period, comparable Google search queries fell 5%.
That does not mean Google has disappeared from news discovery. But the data points to a meaningful change in user behavior: some readers are beginning their news journey with a conversational AI system instead of a search results page.
For readers, the appeal is easy to understand. A prompt can ask for a summary, comparison, explanation, or current update in one place. That changes the shape of the news interaction from a list of links into a direct request for an answer.
Real-time topics still dominate ChatGPT news use
Similarweb’s data shows that most ChatGPT news prompts remain focused on subjects where people often want timely information. The largest categories are stocks, finance, sports, and weather.
- Stocks account for 33% of news prompts.
- Finance accounts for 21%.
- Sports accounts for 17%.
- Weather accounts for 15%.
These categories fit the way many people use information tools during the day. They are practical, fast-moving, and often checked repeatedly.
But the fastest growth is happening elsewhere. Similarweb reports especially strong growth in prompts about politics, along with increases in questions about inflation, the economy, climate issues, and customs duties.
That matters because those topics are less likely to be simple status checks. They often require background, cause and effect, and plain-language explanation. Similarweb interprets the pattern as evidence that users are not only asking for headlines, but also looking for broader context around the news.
Some publishers are gaining from ChatGPT referrals
ChatGPT is also sending more traffic to news publishers, though the gains are not evenly distributed. According to the source article, the biggest increases are going to outlets OpenAI has chosen to work with.
Referral traffic from ChatGPT to news publishers rose from under one million visits between January and May 2024 to over 25 million in the same period in 2025. The outlets named as the biggest winners are Reuters, the New York Post, Business Insider, the Guardian, and the Wall Street Journal.
Some of those publishers have exclusive partnerships with OpenAI. That creates a new kind of distribution problem for the news industry: visibility may depend not only on search rankings or reader loyalty, but also on which publishers an AI platform can access and surface.
The source article notes that CNN is absent from the top referral list, while the New York Times barely registers. It says this is likely because the New York Times restricts ChatGPT’s access to its content.
For publishers, this raises a difficult strategic question. Blocking access may protect content from being used without consent. But limited access can also mean fewer referrals from a fast-growing news interface.
Google’s AI Overviews add pressure to news traffic
At the same time, Google’s dominance as a news gateway is weakening in the data cited by THE DECODER. The source connects that trend largely to Google’s own product changes.
Since AI Overviews rolled out in May 2024, the share of zero-click news searches rose from 56% to 69%. In a zero-click search, users get the answer they need without visiting a publisher’s site.
That shift has direct consequences for news organizations. Organic traffic to news publishers fell from more than 2.3 billion visits to under 1.7 billion visits, according to Similarweb.
For publishers, fewer visits can mean fewer chances to build reader relationships, show subscriptions, display advertising, or explain reporting in full. The source article describes this as an existential threat for many publishers and notes that EU publishers have started pushing back against Google’s practices.
The news gateway is being rebuilt
The larger story is not simply that ChatGPT is growing or that Google search is declining in one category. It is that the interface between readers and journalism is changing.
Search trained users to scan options and choose a source. AI systems encourage users to ask a question and receive an answer, sometimes with referrals, sometimes without. That changes which publishers are seen, how stories are framed, and whether a reader clicks through at all.
Similarweb’s data suggests that AI-powered news consumption is moving from novelty toward routine behavior. The strongest growth in politics, inflation, the economy, climate issues, and customs duties also suggests that users may be leaning on AI tools for explanation, not just updates.
For the news business, the stakes are practical. ChatGPT referrals can create a major new traffic source for selected outlets. Google’s AI Overviews can reduce visits by answering more questions directly. Between those forces, publishers face a distribution landscape where platform decisions increasingly influence who reaches the public.