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AI search compared: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google, Gemini and Copilot
Five AI search tools, three indexes behind them. Which one your customers use in Austria, where each gets its sources and what a business has to do to be found in all of them.
Christoph SpeiserProject lead & sales- Published
- Topic
- SEO & GEO
- Reading time
- 9 min read
Key takeaways
- ChatGPT leads clearly in Austria: in September 2026 it sent 83 % of the website visits that came from AI chatbots, Gemini 10 %, Perplexity 3 %, Copilot 3 %.
- Behind the five tools are essentially three sources: Google’s index (AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini), Bing (Copilot, partly ChatGPT) and the providers’ own crawlers.
- Getting into AI search means being indexed in Google and Bing, letting the AI crawlers in and writing pages that answer questions directly.
- There is no single “best” AI search. For a business, the one its customers use counts.
Short answer: the most important AI search tools in Austria are ChatGPT, Google (AI Overviews and AI Mode), Gemini, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. They all search the web live for current questions, but rely on different indexes: Google’s, Bing’s and their own crawlers. To be found in all of them, a business needs pages indexed in Google and Bing, open access for the AI crawlers and content that answers a question in the first sentences.
When clients ask us “Which AI search do we need to care about?”, we answer with data rather than gut feeling. This article compares the five tools by how they work, how widely they are used and what each means for your website.
Which AI search do people in Austria use?
Statcounter measures how many website visits come from which AI chatbot. For Austria, the picture in September 2026 was clear:
Share of website visits from AI chatbots in Austria
Google’s AI Overviews are not in this chart, because they are part of Google Search. Their reach is bigger still: according to Google, they had more than 2 billion monthly users worldwide in July 2025. ChatGPT had 900 million weekly users in February 2026, according to OpenAI.
How do the AI search tools differ?
| ChatGPT | Google AI Overviews & AI Mode | Gemini | Perplexity | Copilot | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Chat with web search | AI answer in Google Search, AI Mode as its own tab | Google’s AI assistant | Answer engine with sources | Microsoft’s assistant in Windows, Edge and Bing |
| Where sources come from | Own crawler and search partners | Google index | Google Search | Own index | Bing index |
| Crawler to allow | OAI-SearchBot | Googlebot | Googlebot | PerplexityBot | Bingbot |
| In Austria since | Search free for everyone since February 2025 | AI Overviews March 2025, AI Mode October 2025 | Available | Available | Available |
| Reach | 900 million weekly users (OpenAI, Feb 2026) | Over 2 billion monthly users (Google, Jul 2025) | Over 750 million monthly users (Google, Feb 2026) | Not officially updated | Not officially reported |
| Where you measure it | Referrals from chatgpt.com | Search Console AI report | Referrals from gemini.google.com | Referrals from perplexity.ai | Bing Webmaster Tools AI report |
ChatGPT
ChatGPT decides by itself whether a question needs a web search, then reads a handful of pages and cites them. OpenAI uses its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, plus search partners; analyses show a strong overlap with Bing results. If you block OAI-SearchBot, your pages are not cited in ChatGPT search. How to get named there is in Get cited by ChatGPT.
Google AI Overviews and AI Mode
Both draw on Google’s normal index and ranking systems. Google says no special files or markup are needed; the page must be indexed and eligible for a snippet. Details in Google AI Overviews: how to get cited and Google AI Mode.
Gemini
Google’s assistant grounds its answers in Google Search. What helps you in Google Search therefore helps in Gemini too.
Perplexity
Perplexity builds its own index with PerplexityBot and fetches pages live with Perplexity-User when a question needs it. According to Perplexity, neither crawler collects data for model training.
Microsoft Copilot
Copilot answers from the Bing index. Since February 2026, Bing Webmaster Tools has shown in a free report how often your pages are cited in Copilot and Bing’s AI summaries.
Which AI search is the best?
For a business, that is the wrong question. The right one is: which one do my customers use? In Austria, that is above all ChatGPT and Google. Perplexity and Copilot are small, but popular with business users and in Microsoft environments. Since three of the five tools rely on Google or Bing, solid SEO covers most of the ground.
How do you get into AI search?
- Be indexed in Google and Bing: register your site in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools and submit the sitemap. Bing covers Copilot and part of ChatGPT.
- Let the crawlers in: allow Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot in robots.txt, firewall and CDN.
- Answer first: one page per service and location, the answer in the first sentences, questions as headings, concrete facts.
- Keep facts consistent: the same name, address, services and prices on your website, Google Business Profile and directories.
- Build confirmation: reviews with text, mentions in articles and lists. How AI picks companies is explained in How AI search recommends businesses.
- Measure monthly: the same 10 customer questions in every tool, plus the reports from Google and Bing.
Whether ChatGPT names you today is shown by our free GEO check in about a minute.
Which AI search names your competitors?
We test your customers’ questions in ChatGPT, Google, Perplexity and Copilot and show you what your website needs to be named. Free strategy call, fixed quote.
Frequently asked questions
What is AI search?
Search in which an AI writes the answer instead of showing a list of links, and names its sources. Examples are ChatGPT search, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot.
Which AI search is the best?
It depends on what you use it for. For a business, the one its customers use counts most. In Austria, ChatGPT clearly leads among AI chatbots, and Google reaches the most people through AI Overviews.
How do I get my business into AI search?
Make sure your website is indexed in Google and Bing, allow the AI crawlers, answer customer questions directly on your pages and keep your company facts consistent everywhere. Reviews and mentions on other sites strengthen the signal.
Does ChatGPT use Google or Bing?
OpenAI uses its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, and search partners. Analyses show a strong overlap with Bing results. Google is not a disclosed partner.
Is Perplexity a search engine?
Yes, an AI answer engine with its own index. It searches the web for each question and shows the sources it used.
Do I need a separate strategy for each AI search?
No. The foundations are the same: indexing, open crawlers, clear answers and consistent facts. Only measuring differs per tool.
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Christoph Speiser, Project lead & sales