Back in April 2025, a major study found that AI Overviews reduced clicks to top-ranking content by 34.5%, despite Google's statements to the contrary. Since then, AI Overviews have rolled out to more countries and languages, and many websites have continued to see organic search clicks decline month-over-month.
Average CTR reduction for position #1 content when an AI Overview is present
The presence of an AI Overview now correlates with a 58% lower average clickthrough rate for the top-ranking page — up from 34.5% in the previous study. For every 100 clicks you could historically earn for a top-ranking page, Google now "keeps" 58.
Methodology
The study analyzed 300,000 keywords — 150,000 with an AI Overview present and 150,000 informational keywords without an AI Overview. Aggregated Google Search Console data was used to get each keyword's average desktop clickthrough rate per month, comparing December 2023 (pre-AI Overviews) to December 2025.
Findings
In December 2023, the average position one CTR for informational keywords was 0.076. By December 2025, this dropped to 0.039. For keywords with AI Overviews, the position one CTR dropped from 0.073 to just 0.016.
The impact extends across all ranking positions:
| Position | CTR Impact from AI Overviews |
|---|---|
| 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 CTR for position one content by 58%. This finding is corroborated by multiple other studies, with estimates ranging from 47.5% to as high as 80-90% in some verticals.
Regardless of your feelings about AI Overviews, it seems categorically true that they siphon away the majority of the clicks once available to top-ranking pages. Search is becoming zero-click. Adapting your strategy to focus on brand visibility and LLM mentions is now critical.