Analysis Shows Even though ChatGPT is Sending a Lot of Referral Traffic to News Websites, It Still Remains Small
Feb 23, 2025 - digitalinformationworld.com
According to a report by Press Gazette, referrals from ChatGPT to 14 top news sites increased significantly from 435,000 in August to about 3.5 million in January. Despite this growth, ChatGPT referrals still accounted for only 0.1% of the total visits to these sites. For instance, the New York Times received 143.5 million total visits in January, but only 760,000 were from ChatGPT. Forbes and The Guardian also saw notable growth in referrals, with 560,000 and 730,000 visits, respectively. Perplexity led referral traffic to news sites in January, with significant numbers directed to CNN, The New York Times, and India Times.
Over six months, ChatGPT emerged as a leading source of referral traffic to news websites, with Forbes receiving 1.7 million visits, followed by The Guardian and The New York Times with 1.6 million each. OpenAI has introduced an optional web search feature on ChatGPT that links to publishers. Despite Perplexity's significant referral numbers, it did not show consistent month-over-month growth, sending between 450,000 and 850,000 visits per month to the same news sites as ChatGPT.
Key takeaways:
Referrals from ChatGPT to 14 top news sites grew from 435,000 in August to 3.5 million in January, but still only accounted for 0.1% of total visits on those sites.
In January, the New York Times received 143.5 million total monthly visits, with 760,000 of those coming from ChatGPT.
Forbes and The Guardian saw significant growth in monthly visits from ChatGPT, with 560,000 and 730,000 referrals respectively.
Perplexity led referral traffic to news sites in January 2025, with the most referrals going to CNN, The New York Times, and India Times.
