Google Search Revenue Grew 19% In Q1, Pichai Cites AI

Alphabet reported Q1 2026 earnings, with Google Search & Different income rising 19% yr over yr to $60.4 billion. CEO Sundar Pichai tied the quarter’s Search efficiency to AI Overviews and AI Mode, saying persons are “coming again to Search extra.”

Q1 income was decrease sequentially than This fall 2025, when Search & Other came in at $63.1 billion, however year-over-year development elevated from 17% to 19%. Whole Alphabet income reached $109.9 billion, up 22%.

Chief Enterprise Officer Philipp Schindler famous Google Providers “benefited from a powerful FX tailwind” this quarter, which boosted the reported numbers above constant-currency development.

What Pichai Stated About Search

In his ready remarks, Pichai related the Search quantity to AI experiences, stating:

“Individuals love our AI experiences like AI Mode and AI Overviews, and so they’re coming again to Search extra.”

Pichai additionally mentioned, “queries are at an all-time excessive.” He described “robust development in each customers and utilization of AI Mode globally” with out sharing a precise determine. Past Google disclosures put AI Mode at roughly 100 million month-to-month energetic customers and 75 million day by day.

Pichai mentioned AI Overviews “are driving general Search development.” Liz Reid made a similar engagement argument on Bloomberg’s Odd Lots earlier this month, describing AI Overviews as lowering low-value clicks fairly than lowering helpful site visitors.

Chief Enterprise Officer Philipp Schindler provided a extra particular learn on what drove the Search quantity. He mentioned Search & Different development was “primarily pushed by retail and finance,” with well being additionally contributing.

Within the Q&A, Schindler added that “the power we noticed in Search was not attributable to a single driver, however was actually the results of many elements of our enterprise displaying power and dealing very nicely collectively.”

New Knowledge On Search Pace And AI Prices

Pichai shared two effectivity figures.

The primary was latency. Pichai mentioned:

“At the same time as we’ve introduced new AI options into our outcomes web page, we’ve diminished Search latency by greater than 35% over the previous 5 years.”

The second was the price of working AI responses. He continued:

“Since upgrading AI Overviews and AI Mode to Gemini 3, we’ve diminished the price of core AI responses by greater than 30% due to continued {hardware} and engineering breakthroughs.”

Search Updates Pichai Highlighted

Pichai highlighted three Search rollout gadgets from the quarter.

Private Intelligence “expanded broadly within the U.S.,” referring to Google’s March expansion of Personal Intelligence to free U.S. users.

Agentic experiences shipped to new nations. Pichai cited restaurant booking as one of many early examples of what Pichai has known as “search as an agent supervisor.”

Search Reside multimodal capabilities went international.

Why This Issues

Over the previous yr, web optimization professionals fearful AI Overviews would cut back clicks to websites by satisfying person intent on the outcomes web page. Q1 numbers problem that concept. If AI had been cannibalizing conventional search, question quantity and income would flatten. As a substitute, each elevated.

However this doesn’t imply issues are unfounded. “All-time excessive queries” doesn’t suggest all-time excessive writer clicks. Google hasn’t disclosed click-through charges or income break up between AI Mode and conventional advertisements. Extra queries might imply fewer clicks per question if AI solutions resolve intent early.

Nonetheless, the income development signifies the search ecosystem is increasing, whilst person interplay patterns shift.

Trying Forward

Google’s earnings present AI options are increasing search, however key questions stay about monetization and click-through charges.

Pichai mentioned extra data about Search shall be shared at Google I/O in Could and Google Advertising Reside.