As of December 2025, ChatGPT is not replacing Google Search in Australia, but it is evolving into a distinct information access method. Google Search operates by crawling and indexing publicly available web pages, ranking them based on algorithms to deliver a list of relevant links. ChatGPT, conversely, generates original text-based responses based on the vast dataset it was trained on, and increasingly, through real-time web access via plugins and its ‘Browse with Bing’ feature.
Currently, Google Search in Australia continues to dominate with over 96% market share for general search. However, ChatGPT, through OpenAI’s Australian availability and integration with Microsoft products like Copilot, is gaining traction for specific use cases. In December 2025, ChatGPT-4o now includes improved multimodal capabilities, allowing it to process images and audio alongside text. Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), launched in Australia in early 2026, attempts to integrate AI-powered summaries directly into search results, mimicking some of ChatGPT’s functionality. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is monitoring these developments for potential competition concerns. Google’s AI Overviews, powered by Gemini, are becoming more prominent, offering direct answers rather than solely links. In 2027, OpenAI has announced plans for a more robust enterprise version of ChatGPT with enhanced data privacy features, potentially appealing to Australian businesses with strict compliance requirements.
Ultimately, ChatGPT functions as a generative AI tool providing synthesised answers, while Google Search remains a discovery engine directing users to source websites.
