Google Search Hits $63B, AI Mode Ad Tests Detailed

Alphabet reported Q4 2025 revenue of $113.8 billion, beating Wall Street estimates and marking the company’s first year above $400 billion in annual revenue. Google Search grew 17% to $63.07 billion.

On the earnings call, the company revealed how it plans to monetize AI Mode and shared new data on how AI is changing search behavior.

What’s Happening

Google Search and other advertising revenue hit $63.07 billion, up 17% from $54.03 billion in Q4 2024. Search growth accelerated through 2025, rising from 10% in Q1 to 12% in Q2 to 15% in Q3 and 17% in Q4.

CEO Sundar Pichai said Search had more usage in Q4 than ever before. He attributed the growth to AI features changing how people search.

Pichai said on the call:

“Once people start using these new experiences, they use them more. In the US, we saw daily AI Mode queries per user double since launch.”

Queries in AI Mode are three times longer than traditional searches, and a “significant portion” lead to follow-up questions.

AI Mode Monetization Tests

Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler said Google is “in the early stages of experimenting with AI Mode monetization, like testing ads below the AI response, with more underway.”

On Direct Offers, a new pilot program, Schindler said:

“We announced Direct Offers, a new Google Ads pilot, which will allow advertisers to show exclusive offers for shoppers who are ready to buy, directly in AI Mode.”

Google also plans to launch checkout directly within AI Mode from select merchants.

Schindler said the longer AI Mode queries are creating new ad inventory. Gemini’s understanding of intent “has increased our ability to deliver ads on longer, more complex searches that were previously challenging to monetize.”

YouTube Miss Explained

YouTube ad revenue reached $11.38 billion, up 9% but below the $11.84 billion analysts expected.

Schindler attributed the miss to election ad lapping from Q4 2024:

“On the brand side, as an ad share, the largest factor negatively impacting the year-over-year growth rate was lapping the strong spend on U.S. elections.”

He also noted that subscription growth can reduce ad revenue. When users switch to YouTube Premium, it hurts ad revenue but helps the overall business.

What Else Happened

Google Cloud revenue jumped 48% to $17.66 billion. Alphabet plans to spend $175 billion to $185 billion on capital expenditures in 2026, nearly double its 2025 spending. That suggests more AI features coming to Search and other products.

Why This Matters

Looking back a year ago at Q4 2024 results, Search grew 12%. By Q1 2025, AI Overviews reached 1.5 billion monthly users, and Search was growing 10%. Now Search growth has accelerated to 17%.

The metrics Google celebrated on this call describe users staying on Google longer. Schindler described the new ad inventory as additive, reaching queries that were “previously challenging to monetize.”

That’s a monetization win for Google. The tradeoff to watch is referral traffic.

When asked about cannibalization, Pichai said Google hasn’t seen evidence of it:

“The combination of all of that I think creates an expansionary moment. I think it’s expanding the type of queries people do with Google overall.”

That may be true for queries. Whether it holds for referral traffic is something you’ll need to track in your own analytics.

Looking Ahead

Google maintains the position that AI features expand search activity rather than cannibalize it. The Q4 revenue numbers back it up.

The open question is what expanding AI Mode features means for referral traffic, and your own analytics will tell that story.

Featured Image: Rokas Tenys/Shutterstock