AI referrals to news sites grew 770% in one year, led by ChatGPT: Report
AI tools like ChatGPT now drive over a billion visits a month, with news sites seeing a 770% YoY increase in referral traffic, per Similarweb.
Referrals from AI tools to global news websites have increased by 770% year-over-year, according to a new report by Similarweb, highlighting a significant shift in how users access news content in the age of artificial intelligence.
The report, based on traffic data from over 1,000 top global domains, found that in June 2025, AI platforms drove over 1.13 billion visits to websites up 357% from June 2024 across all site categories.
Within that, referrals to news and media websites grew even more sharply, indicating increased reliance on AI tools for content discovery.
ChatGPT dominates AI referral traffic
OpenAI’s ChatGPT accounted for over 80% of total AI-driven referrals in June 2025. The data covers traffic from AI chatbot interfaces that include direct links to websites as sources or suggestions in responses.
Among news websites, the top recipients of AI traffic included:
- Yahoo (~2.3 million visits from AI tools in June 2025)
- Yahoo Japan (~1.9 million)
- Reuters (~1.8 million)
- The Guardian (~1.7 million)
- India Times (~1.2 million)
- Business Insider (~1.0 million)
This marks a notable shift from traditional referral channels such as search engines and social media platforms, as users increasingly turn to AI chatbots for summaries, headlines, and article recommendations.
AI traffic to news outpaces other industries
While overall AI referral growth across websites was measured at 357% YoY, traffic to news and media domains grew more than double that rate, according to Similarweb’s breakdown.
The surge is attributed to AI tools’ widespread adoption and the integration of web search and citation features into models like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini.
Increased visibility of publisher links in AI-generated responses, especially when a chatbot links to a news source to support its output, is playing a central role in the boost.
This trend has also been accelerated by features like ChatGPT’s Browse with Bing and Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), both of which provide AI-powered answers alongside source links.