Google's featured snippet, the boxed answer quoted from one website at the top of the results, appears on 0.1% of desktop searches: 11 of 20,000. An AI Overview appears on 57.6% of the same searches.
Analysis of 30,000 Google results pages · Google US search results, September 2026
Key Findings
- 1.Google shows a featured snippet on 0.1% of desktop searches, 11 of 20,000 results pages.
- 2.Google shows an AI Overview on 57.6% of desktop searches and 61.2% of mobile searches, the same searches where featured snippets have all but vanished.
- 3.Google shows a featured snippet or answer box on 0.8% of mobile searches, 14 times the desktop rate.
- 4.47 of the 77 answer boxes on Google mobile searches appear on searches for a specific company, most of them customer service lookups.
- 5.Google shows an AI Overview on 83.4% of desktop searches about software, against 34.4% of searches for moving companies.
Summary
For years, the featured snippet was the prize at the top of Google: a boxed answer quoted from one website, shown above every other result. SEO teams rewrote pages to win it and reported each one as a victory. Search for most questions today and the box is gone. In its place sits an AI Overview, a summary written by Google's AI that cites several websites at once.
Which feature holds the top of the page decides how a business gets seen there. A featured snippet sent attention to one website. An AI Overview spreads it across the sources it cites, and a business that is not among them is pushed further down the page. Content teams still chasing snippets are aiming at a target that has almost disappeared.
Across 20,000 desktop searches, Google showed a featured snippet on 11, 0.1%. An AI Overview appeared on 57.6% of the same searches. On mobile, 77 of 10,000 searches had an answer box, and most of those were customer service lookups rather than questions a web page would answer.
What we measured
On September 23, 2026 we checked 20,000 desktop and 10,000 mobile Google results pages for US keywords across 24 industries and recorded every feature on page one. A page counts as having a featured snippet if it shows a featured snippet or an answer box, a boxed answer at the top of the results. We then compared that rate with the share of the same pages showing an AI Overview.
We split the results by device and by search intent, what the person searching wants: to learn something (informational), compare options (commercial), buy or hire (transactional), or reach a specific company or website (navigational). An AI Overview is the AI-written summary Google shows above the ordinary results, with links to the websites it draws on.
AI Overviews have taken the featured snippet's place
The two features compete for the same spot at the top of the page, and the AI Overview has won it. None of the 11 desktop hits was a classic snippet quoted from an ordinary result; every one was an answer box. AI Overviews appear most often on transactional searches (63.1%) and informational searches (58.8%), and least on navigational searches (35.6%), where people already know which website they want.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 30,000 Google results pages · Google US search results, September 2026
| Desktop search group | Featured snippet or answer box | AI Overview |
|---|---|---|
| All searches | 0.1% | 57.6% |
| Informational | 0.2% | 58.8% |
| Commercial | 0% | 53.3% |
| Transactional | 0% | 63.1% |
| Navigational | 0% | 35.6% |
The industry changes the picture. AI Overviews appear on 83.4% of desktop searches about software and on 34.4% of searches for moving companies, the lowest of 24 industries. Moving company searches show a local map pack, the map with three nearby businesses, 74.1% of the time, so for local services the map still holds the top of the page.
What is left of the answer box is on mobile
Mobile results pages are 14 times more likely to carry an answer box: 77 in 10,000 against 11 in 20,000 on desktop. Most of those are not classic snippets either. 47 of the 77 appear on navigational searches, and the keywords show why: "best buy customer service", "walmart customer service", "capital one credit card customer service". These are contact lookups, not questions a web page answers.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 30,000 Google results pages · Google US search results, September 2026
Outside those lookups, answer boxes are rare on mobile too. Informational searches show one 0.7% of the time, commercial searches 0.2% and transactional searches 0.1%. For a business, there is no device where the featured snippet is still a realistic target.
What this means for businesses
Stop reporting featured snippet wins as a core measure of SEO success; they barely exist. Track AI Overview citations instead: which of your pages Google names as a source when an AI summary appears for your keywords, and which competitors it names when it does not cite you.
The writing habits that won snippets still help. Put a direct answer near the top of the page, use headings phrased as the questions people ask, and add short lists and tables. Those same traits make a page easier to quote, whether the quote goes in a box or in an AI summary. Start by searching your ten most valuable keywords and noting which websites the AI Overview cites.
Working with an ai seo company that tracks AI Overview citations across your keywords shows you where you are cited and where you are missing.
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<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif">Source: <a href="https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/featured-snippets-rate-2026">Featured Snippets Appear on 0.1% of Google Desktop Searches vs 57.6% for AI Overviews - Suff Digital</a></p>
Cite this study
Suff Digital. (2026). Featured Snippets Appear on 0.1% of Google Desktop Searches vs 57.6% for AI Overviews. https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/featured-snippets-rate-2026
Featured Snippets Appear on 0.1% of Google Desktop Searches vs 57.6% for AI Overviews - Suff Digital - https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/featured-snippets-rate-2026