ChatGPT.com reached about 1.09 billion monthly US visits in July 2026, a 48.38% year-over-year increase, according to Semrush Traffic Analytics data. In the same comparison, Bing.com traffic fell about 50.43%. The contrast does not show AI replacing conventional search overnight. Google and YouTube still led the US dataset by a wide margin. It does show that the places where people first discover information are changing, while many website analytics setups remain poorly equipped to show the full effect. The July 2026 snapshot puts ChatGPT ninth among the leading US sites measured by Semrush. Businesses that still view organic discovery mainly through Google rankings and familiar referral reports risk missing a growing part of the customer journey: a user may ask an AI assistant for options, follow a recommendation, and arrive on a website without a cleanly identifiable source in Google Analytics 4. The underlying Semrush US Trending Websites data compares July 2026 traffic with July 2025. It is a view of US web traffic in Semrush's ranked-site dataset, not a count of every search or AI interaction. Still, the scale of the movement makes AI-assisted discovery a practical measurement issue, not simply a trend to monitor. What the traffic shift means for SEO measurement The key implication is not that businesses should abandon established search channels. Google recorded roughly 25.31 billion monthly US visits in the July snapshot, while YouTube recorded about 10.27 billion. Those figures underline how large the established platforms remain. What has changed is the need to distinguish where discovery happens from the source that ultimately appears in analytics. ChatGPT's growth can create new paths to content, products and services. But referral details may be unavailable when users move from an AI interface to a website, particularly when the originating referrer is stripped. In GA4, those visits can be grouped as Direct or remain otherwise difficult to classify. Website July 2026 US monthly visits Year-over-year change Context in the dataset Google.com About 25.31 billion Not specified in the supplied data US traffic leader YouTube.com About 10.27 billion Not specified in the supplied data Second-largest site noted ChatGPT.com About 1.09 billion Up 48.38% Ninth overall Bing.com Not specified in the supplied data Down about 50.43% Large year-over-year decline Why GA4 can understate AI-assisted discovery GA4 can identify some AI-related referrals through its AI Assistant channel, which covers sources including ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Copilot and Grok. That is useful, but it is not a complete picture of AI-driven visits. Referral information is not guaranteed to survive every transition from an AI surface to a website. This creates an attribution gap with direct consequences for SEO decisions. If a team sees more Direct traffic but cannot identify the preceding AI interaction, it may underestimate how often its pages are being surfaced by AI assistants. Conversely, an increase in traffic alone does not prove that a particular AI platform caused it. The missing connection makes it harder to judge which content is earning visibility and which discovery channels are producing valuable visits. The issue is particularly important for businesses that make content, product pages or service information available to customers researching solutions. AI systems may become an earlier step in those journeys even when the final website session is not reliably categorized as an AI referral. Practical steps to improve attribution The supplied research points to a more layered approach than relying on GA4's default acquisition reports alone. Teams should first treat unexplained Direct traffic as a question to investigate, rather than automatically assuming that visitors typed in a URL or used a bookmark. Useful priorities include: Review GA4 channel groupings and refine them to better classify identifiable AI referral sources. Compare GA4 with complementary audience and traffic data, including sources such as Semrush Traffic Analytics, SparkToro and GWI, to identify broader discovery patterns. Separate observed referrals from inference. A recorded ChatGPT referral is evidence of a source, while an increase in Direct traffic may indicate a measurement limitation but cannot confirm an AI origin by itself. Assess landing pages and business outcomes alongside acquisition labels so that reporting does not rely on one imperfect source field. This approach does not eliminate missing referrers. It does help teams avoid treating a default channel label as a complete explanation of how a visitor found them. A redistribution, not a simple replacement story The decline reported for Bing and the rise reported for ChatGPT belong to a broader redistribution of web attention. Semrush's July comparison is evidence of a meaningful shift, but it should not be read as a declaration that one platform has fully displaced another. Google and YouTube's traffic totals remain much larger, and the data represents a specific US snapshot of ranked websites. For SEO planning, the more durable lesson is that visibility and attribution are becoming separate problems. A company can appear in AI-assisted discovery without seeing every resulting visit cleanly attributed in GA4. Search performance reviews should therefore combine conventional rankings and referral data with a deliberate view of how customers encounter information through AI interfaces. AI discovery only becomes actionable when you can see whether it is sending qualified visitors and where those visits go missing. Scalevise can help you measure brand visibility across AI answers and turn those findings into practical content and reporting priorities. That gives your team a clearer basis for improving discovery while reducing reliance on mislabeled Direct traffic. Start an AI Visibility scan today. Frequently Asked Questions What did Semrush report about ChatGPT traffic in the US? Semrush Traffic Analytics estimated that ChatGPT.com received about 1.09 billion monthly US visits in July 2026, up 48.38% from July 2025. The site ranked ninth in the referenced US dataset. Why can AI-driven visits appear as Direct traffic in GA4? Some AI interfaces may not pass referral information through to a website. When the referrer is stripped, GA4 can classify the resulting visit as Direct rather than identifying the AI source. Does Bing's reported decline mean AI has replaced traditional search? No. The data indicates a redistribution of traffic and discovery behavior, not a complete replacement. Google and YouTube remained far larger than ChatGPT in the July 2026 US snapshot. What can teams do to measure AI referral traffic more accurately? Teams can refine GA4 channel groupings, investigate unexplained Direct traffic, and compare analytics with complementary sources such as Semrush Traffic Analytics, SparkToro and GWI. Conclusion ChatGPT's 48.38% US traffic gain and Bing's 50.43% decline make AI-assisted discovery an increasingly relevant part of SEO analysis. The more immediate challenge for website owners is measurement: GA4 may not reliably preserve every AI referral. Better channel definitions and complementary data can help teams understand this changing discovery landscape without overstating what any single analytics report can prove.