Last updated October 28, 2026
The following report was compiled from data collected between May 2025 and October 2026 from approximately 170 client companies running search and AI visibility campaigns with our agency. For each company, our research team isolated the unique visitors referred specifically by ChatGPT and measured the percentage of those visitors who completed an action the company counts as a “conversion.”
Most companies in the dataset invested in generative engine optimization (GEO) and, as a direct result, saw higher traffic specifically from ChatGPT and built conversion funnels tailored to that channel. As more users search through ChatGPT and the platform expands its paid advertising services, we expect the conversion advantage this traffic holds over traditional search to grow further.
In the sections below, we break down ChatGPT conversion rates by industry, compare them with each industry’s overall conversion rate, and group the results by market type.
ChatGPT Conversion Rates by Industry
In the table below, we break down the average ChatGPT conversion rate for each of the 32 industries in our dataset, sorted from highest to lowest.
The ChatGPT Conversion Rates by Industry, 2026
| Industry | Average ChatGPT Conversion Rate |
| Hotels & Resorts | 7.3% |
| Legal Services | 5.5% |
| Higher Education & College | 5.2% |
| Entertainment | 4.9% |
| Healthcare | 4.7% |
| HVAC Services | 4.1% |
| Manufacturing | 4.0% |
| Staffing & Recruiting | 3.8% |
| Industrial IoT | 3.8% |
| Pest Control | 3.7% |
| Construction | 3.6% |
| Pharmaceutical | 3.5% |
| Oil & Gas | 3.4% |
| Food & Beverage | 3.3% |
| eCommerce | 3.3% |
| Solar | 3.2% |
| Addiction Treatment | 3.1% |
| Commercial Insurance | 3.1% |
| Real Estate | 2.9% |
| PCB Design & Manufacturing | 2.8% |
| Apparel & Fashion | 2.6% |
| B2B SaaS | 2.6% |
| Medical Device | 2.4% |
| IT & Managed Services | 2.4% |
| Biotech | 2.2% |
| Environmental Services | 2.2% |
| Transportation & Logistics | 2.1% |
| Luxury Goods | 2.0% |
| Software Development | 1.9% |
| Financial Services | 1.8% |
| Heavy Equipment | 1.7% |
| Engineering | 1.6% |
- We found that Hotels & Resorts converted ChatGPT visitors at 7.3%, the highest rate in the dataset and 1.8 points above second-ranked Legal Services at 5.5%.
- Our data showed that, in every industry we studied, ChatGPT-referred traffic converted at a higher rate than traffic from any other marketing channel, including Google search, social media, paid ads, and email.
- We found that conversational queries pre-qualify leads: users phrase their questions in full, detailed sentences rather than short search terms, so the visitors ChatGPT sends are often a good fit and likely to convert before they reach the business.
ChatGPT Conversion Rates: Most vs. Least Improved
In the table below, we compare each industry’s ChatGPT conversion rate with its overall average conversion rate across all channels, showing the five industries where the gap was largest and the five where it was smallest.
The ChatGPT Conversion Rates: Most vs. Least Improved, 2026
| Industry | Overall Conversion Rate | Average ChatGPT Conversion Rate |
| Hotels & Resorts | 3.4% | 7.3% (+3.9%) |
| Higher Education & College | 2.9% | 5.2% (+2.3%) |
| Entertainment | 3.0% | 4.9% (+1.9%) |
| Manufacturing | 2.2% | 4.0% (+1.8%) |
| Legal Services | 4.0% | 5.5% (+1.5%) |
| Luxury Goods | 1.5% | 2.0% (+0.5%) |
| Biotech | 1.9% | 2.2% (+0.3%) |
| Engineering | 1.4% | 1.6% (+0.2%) |
| Heavy Equipment | 1.6% | 1.7% (+0.1%) |
| Financial Services | 1.7% | 1.8% (+0.1%) |
- We found the largest gap in Hotels & Resorts, where ChatGPT visitors converted at 7.3% against a 3.4% overall rate, a 3.9-point lift that more than doubles the industry’s overall conversion rate.
- Our data showed that the largest gains came in industries where buyers rarely purchase on impulse, such as booking a hotel or resort, choosing a university, picking a law firm, or selecting a manufacturing partner.
- We found the smallest gains, 0.1 to 0.5 points, in industries where buying decisions happen through personal relationships, sales reps, account managers, referrals, and trust built over years, with Heavy Equipment and Financial Services each gaining only 0.1 points.
ChatGPT Conversion Rates by Market Type
In the table below, we group the 32 industries in our dataset by their primary buyer (consumer, business, or a mix of both) and report the unweighted average of their ChatGPT conversion rates.
The ChatGPT Conversion Rates by Market Type, 2026
| Market Type | Industries in Dataset | Average ChatGPT Conversion Rate | Highest-Converting Industry | Lowest-Converting Industry |
| B2C | 10 | 4.1% | Hotels & Resorts (7.3%) | Luxury Goods (2.0%) |
| Mixed B2B and B2C | 7 | 3.4% | Legal Services (5.5%) | Financial Services (1.8%) |
| B2B | 15 | 2.7% | Manufacturing (4.0%) | Engineering (1.6%) |
We found that Manufacturing was the only B2B industry to reach 4.0%, consistent with the long, research-heavy partner selection process buyers work through in ChatGPT before contacting a supplier.
We found that B2C industries averaged a 4.1% ChatGPT conversion rate, 1.4 points above the 2.7% B2B average.
Our data showed the widest spread within B2C, where rates ranged from 7.3% to 2.0%, a 5.3-point range compared with 2.4 points across B2B industries.
Requesting a Copy of This Report
If you’d like to request a PDF copy of this report or learn more about our GEO services, you can reach out here.
