For mind Retail, online SEO specialist Ahrefs analysed retail queries on AI search engines. The goal was to measure the proportion of transactional prompts compared to informational ones. The findings: Perplexity and ChatGPT appear to be the most purchase-oriented platforms, with 28% and 24% of queries being transactional, respectively.
While OpenAI announced 900 million weekly active users on ChatGPT on February 27, 2026, 25% of global retail queries on LLMs now involve a purchase intent, according to Ahrefs. This information is based on the study “Are AIs becoming drivers of purchasing?,” published on February 27, 2026. The analysis is based on 875 million queries in January 2026, coming from 60 countries. It covers the six leading LLMs worldwide —ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini, AI Overviews and AI Mode. The estimate i
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Article authors
Morgane Monteiro
Journalist
Journaliste économique pour mind Retail depuis 2024, j’analyse la transformation digitale du commerce.