AI girlfriend demand and forecast · Updated on the 1st of every month
The short answer first, then the proof. Four questions, one panel each: are more people visiting, are they searching by name, who is winning, and what happens next. Every number is for September 2026 and comes from the same sources for every site.
Written by Hunter GrayFounder, Owner & Writer
The short answer · September 2026
MixedFewer visits than a year ago, but more people searching by name, and the next six months look flat.
In September 2026, people came to the sites we track from Google search about 8.5M times. That is more than in August 2026 and fewer than a year ago. People also typed the sites' own names into Google about 3.0M times in the United States, up 28% on a year ago. When the names grow, people are coming back on purpose. We expect about 8.4M visits in October 2026 (about the same as September 2026) and about 8.4M by April 2027, so the next six months look flat.
Down -16% on a year ago · up +4% on August 2026
Think of every site we track as one big shop. In September 2026, about 8,458,432 people walked in from Google search. A year ago it was more (-16%), and the month before it was quieter (+4%). The busiest month in the last two years was September 2025 with 10,038,844, so September 2026 sits 16% below that high.
Visits a month, worldwide, two years
All tracked sites added up. DataForSEO estimates of visits from Google results; apps, ads and typed-in visits are not counted.
Worldwide, this month
8.5M
-15.7% on a year ago
United States, this month
2.1M
+7.0% on a year ago
Two-year high
10M
September 2025
US share of visits
25.4%
where the paying users are
What Hunter thinks
The year-on-year number looks bad, but I read it as a slide that has stopped, not one that is still going: September 2026 was up on August 2026. The fall is mostly a few big sites losing rankings, not people losing interest.
The US line is doing better than the world line (+7% on the year), and the US is where most of the paying users are. That matters more to me than the worldwide total.
Up +28% on a year ago · 3.0M name searches a month in the US
There are two ways to find a site: you search for “ai girlfriend” and click whatever Google shows, or you already know the name and type it in. The second kind is the loyalty number, because nobody types a name by accident. In August 2026, people in the US typed the names of the sites we track into Google about 2,951,570 times, +28%on a year ago. For comparison, “ai girlfriend” itself is searched about 135,000 times a month in the US.
Name searches a month, US, twelve months
All tracked brand names added up. Google Ads data via DataForSEO, twelve months to August 2026.
Most searched by name, US
What Hunter thinks
Names up while visits are down is the pattern I like most in a young market: the audience is still there and knows where it wants to go, and what fell was rankings, not interest. The leaders are turning into brands.
Top 5 sites hold 63.1% of all visits · top 10 hold 77.9%
The market is top-heavy: five sites take 63.1% of all the visits, so when one of them wins or loses a big Google ranking, the whole total moves. The fastest grower on the year is Candy AI, from 16,673 visits to 592,075. The steepest fall is Kuki AI, from 1,848,560 to 1,429.
▲ Growing fastest, year on year
▼ Falling fastest, year on year
Worldwide search visits, September 2026 against the same month a year earlier; only sites with at least 5,000 visits a year ago.
What Hunter thinks
The biggest percentage gains are usually small sites that won one generic ranking, and the biggest falls are sites that lost one. Kuki AI is the one to notice: it was a big site a year ago (1.8M visits) and it is -100%, which is most of the market's year-on-year drop on its own. The names at the top of the ranking move far less than the names in these two lists, so I read this panel as weather and the first two panels as climate.
Next six months look flat · about 8.4M a month by April 2027
Our forecast for October 2026 is about 8,366,285 visits, about the same as September 2026. We would be surprised by anything under 7.4M or over 9.3M. By April 2027 we expect about 8,366,285 a month. The further out, the wider the range, because more can happen in between.
What happened, and what we expect
Solid: visits a month to all tracked sites. Dashed and shaded: the forecast and the range we would not be surprised by. From our October 2026 monthly forecast.
Forecast, October 2026
8.4M
range 7.4M to 9.3M
Forecast, April 2027
8.4M
-1% on September 2026
Name searches, US, next month
3.0M
the loyalty number
How good is the method?
12.5% off
average miss over the last 6 months
What Hunter thinks
I expect the next six months to look a lot like September 2026. The market has found a floor around 8.5M visits a month, and nothing in the data says it is about to break out either way. What makes me more confident than the number alone is that name searches are growing, so the people are there even when the rankings wobble.
What would change my mind: one of the five biggest sites winning or losing a first-page position for “ai girlfriend”, a Google update, or a site going offline. None of those is in the numbers until it happens, which is exactly why there is a range. Every forecast is marked in public the month after, right or wrong.
Read the editions
This page is the short version. On the 1st of every month three longer pieces are published from the same numbers: the forecast for the month ahead, the analysis of the month just closed, and the industry report to cite.
Forecast
Our forecast for October 2026, made on the 1st from everything the September 2026 data shows: about 8,366,285 search visits across the tracked sites, down 1.1% on the month before. Plus the six months after it, and an honest look at how the last forecast went.
Read it →Analysis
Every number this site tracks for the AI girlfriend sites it follows, read as one month. Search visits down 15.7% on a year ago and up 3.7% on the month before, with the ranking, the demand, what users said and who moved.
Read it →Report
Every figure for the month, dated and sourced, in one document you can quote: market size, demand, geography, leaders, movers and the outlook.
Read it →Coming up
Next
November 2026
this page, the forecast and the analysis refresh on November 1, 2026
+1 month
December 2026
this page, the forecast and the analysis refresh on December 1, 2026
+2 months
January 2027
this page, the forecast and the analysis refresh on January 1, 2027
+3 months
February 2027
this page, the forecast and the analysis refresh on February 1, 2027
Visits and name searches come from DataForSEO and Google Ads data; the forecast recipe is explained in full in the AI girlfriend monthly forecast. For which sites are worth paying for, see the best AI girlfriend ranking.