Google AI Mode shows products at 21.6% higher prices than traditional search

A study by Productrise has found that products displayed via Google’s AI Mode are, on average, 21.6% more expensive than identical items found through traditional Google Search. The analysis, which tracked 100,000 queries over a 23-day period in August 2026, revealed significant discrepancies in both pricing and product variety.

Traditional Google Search returned an average of 27.8 products per query, whereas AI Mode returned only 3.9. The overlap between the two search methods was minimal, with only 1.28% of products appearing in both results for the same query. When products did match, AI Mode was the more expensive option 68.4% of the time, showing a median price premium of 22.2%.

On a broader scale, the median product price in AI Mode was $149, compared to $100 in traditional search—a 49% difference. Google responded to the findings by stating that both AI Mode and traditional search utilize the same data source, the company’s Shopping Graph, which aggregates listings across various merchants.