- 39% of US consumers used the voice function of their smartphone in the past year, 25% a voice-enabled app, 15% the voice features of their car and 27% a voice-activated device such as a speaker (PYMNTS, 2023)
- Only 7.8% of US consumers think voice technology is already as smart and reliable as a real person; 28% are very or extremely willing to pay a monthly fee for one that is (PYMNTS, 2023)
- 6 of 35 tested tasks were done by voice by the average US consumer in a year; 35% did none at all (PYMNTS, 2023)
- 1 billion+ monthly users for the Gemini app, Google's assistant that is replacing Google Assistant (Alphabet, 2026)
- 57% of Americans 12+ have used a generative AI assistant; 93% know at least one AI brand (Edison Research, 2026)
- 4.9% word error rate for Google's speech recognition, down from 23% in 2013 and 8% in 2015; the last figure Google published (VentureBeat on Google I/O, 2017)
- 20% of queries in Google's Android app were spoken, Google said in 2016; often misquoted as 20% of all searches (Search Engine Roundtable, 2016)
Statistics & Data
March 17, 2026
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Updated: 9 November 2026
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14 min read
Voice search statistics 2026
From 39% smart speaker ownership in the US to 29% of Dutch people using a voice assistant: verified voice search statistics for 2026, every figure linked to its source. Based on data from Edison Research, Eurostat, Google, Amazon, BrightLocal and Backlinko.
01 — Adoption & Usage
Voice search adoption in numbers
Talking to a device is normal by now, but nobody publishes the share of all searches that is spoken. What is measured: how many people use a voice assistant, and how voice grows inside Google's AI search. For Dutch companies, how to become visible in AI answers: read more about visibility in AI answers (in Dutch).
Netherlands
29%
of Dutch people (16-74) used a voice assistant in the last 3 months; EU average 16%
Source: Eurostat, 2024
Adoption overview
The "50% of searches by voice" myth
The claim that half of all searches would be spoken by 2020 is usually credited to comScore, wrongly according to ICS Digital (2019). It goes back to Andrew Ng, then chief scientist at Baidu, who said in 2014: "In five years, we think 50 percent of queries will be on speech or images." Speech or images, at Baidu, as a prediction. At the time, 1 in 10 Baidu queries came in through speech (VentureBeat, 2014).
No public measurement shows what share of all searches is spoken today, in 2020 or in 2026.
02 — Smart Speakers
Smart speaker penetration
Smart speakers brought voice search into the living room, but growth flattened. In the US ownership hovered around a third for years and rose to 39% in 2026. In the Netherlands, about a quarter of households had one at the last Multiscope measurement.
US smart speaker ownership (age 12+)
2017
7%
2019
23%
2021
33%
2023
36%
2024
34%
2025
35%
2026
39%
39% equals an estimated 112 million Americans. Smartphone ownership: 91%, smart TV: 81%.
UK smart speaker ownership by brand (age 16+, 2025)
Any smart speaker
45%
Amazon Alexa
37%
Google Home
16%
Apple HomePod
5%
In 2021: Alexa 19%, Google Home 7%, Apple HomePod 2%.
Netherlands
23%
of Dutch households owned a smart speaker in 2022 (about 1.8 million households), the same share as in 2021
03 — Search Behavior
How people use voice search
Spoken questions are longer and more conversational than typed ones, and Google now handles them inside AI Mode and Search Live. The best-known figures on voice answers come from one study of 10,000 Google Home results (Backlinko, 2018) and are often quoted with the wrong year.
3x
Longer Queries in AI Mode
Queries in Google's AI Mode are on average three times longer than traditional searches (Alphabet, 2026)
What local voice searchers look at when choosing a business (US, 2026)
How high the business appeared (Google Search: 15%)
30%
The address or how nearby it is (Google Search: 47%)
33%
The star rating (Google Search: 42%)
31%
The number of reviews (Google Search: 41%)
31%
Whether the listing had complete information
30%
Clear pricing or a deal
29%
Just clicked the first result (Google Search: 5%)
4%
Share of people who used voice search for their last local search, per factor.
Conversational voice in 2026
- Gemini Live conversations are 5x longer than regular AI chats, according to Google's head of the Gemini app (TechCrunch, 2025)
- Twice as long: Google's new voice model Gemini 3.1 Flash Live follows the thread of a conversation twice as long as its predecessor and scores 90.8% on the ComplexFuncBench Audio test (Google, 2026)
- About 2 in 5 people who started their local search with voice search (or social media, AI, review sites or Apple Maps) went back to Google before deciding (BrightLocal, 2026)
- 29 words is the length of an average Google Home answer, not of the question; the source page averages 2,312 words (Backlinko, 2018)
04 — V-Commerce
Voice commerce (v-commerce) statistics
Voice shopping turned out smaller than the forecasts promised. Large market-size figures for voice commerce are old forecasts; the hard numbers now come from Amazon, which merged its shopping assistant into Alexa.
Alexa for Shopping
400M+
customers used Amazon's AI shopping assistant in the last 12 months
Source: Amazon, 2026
Rufus
300M+
customers were helped by Rufus in 2025; it is now part of Alexa for Shopping, which works by voice on Echo Show
Source: Amazon, 2026
Voice commerce: what is measured
- 8x+ growth in the use of the agentic features of Alexa for Shopping since the start of 2026 (Amazon, 2026)
- $80 billion in voice commerce worldwide in 2023 was Juniper Research's forecast from 2019; no measured market figure has been published since (Voicebot.ai on Juniper, 2019)
- 54% of US consumers would like to book a restaurant or bar by voice, 46% want to hear prices and 35% want to book beauty or medical appointments (BrightLocal, 2018)
- 28% of US consumers are very or extremely willing to pay a monthly fee for a voice assistant as reliable as a person (PYMNTS, 2023)
05 — Voice & Local SEO
Voice search & local SEO
Most local voice searches are about businesses people already know: address, directions, phone number, opening hours. The largest dedicated study dates from 2018 (US); the 2026 data comes from BrightLocal's breakdown by search channel.
Used local voice search
58%
of US consumers used voice search to find local business information in the past 12 months
Source: BrightLocal, 2018
Daily users
46%
of those voice users search for a local business daily; another 28% weekly
Source: BrightLocal, 2018
Age 18-34
76%
have used local voice search, against 64% of 35-54 and 37% of 55+
Source: BrightLocal, 2018
Visit the website
27%
visit the business website after a local voice search
Source: BrightLocal, 2018
Business types consumers would search for by voice (US)
Restaurants / cafes
51%
Grocery stores
41%
Food delivery
35%
Clothing stores
32%
Hotels / B&Bs
30%
Source: BrightLocal, 2018
Device used for local voice search (US)
Smartphone
56%
Desktop / laptop
28%
Tablet
26%
Smart speaker
18%
Source: BrightLocal, 2018
06 — Optimization Impact
Impact of voice search optimization
Backlinko's study of 10,000 Google Home answers (2018) is still the most cited source on what voice answers have in common. These are correlations from one study, not ranking factors.
Featured Snippets
40.7%
of Google Home answers (with a cited source) came from a featured snippet
Source: Backlinko, 2018
Load Speed
4.6 sec
average full load time of a voice result page, 52% faster than the average page (8.8 sec)
Source: Backlinko, 2018
Top 3
74.9%
of voice answers came from a page ranking in the desktop top 3 for that query
Source: Backlinko, 2018
What voice answers have in common
- 70.4% of voice result pages use HTTPS, against about 50% of desktop page-one results at the time (Backlinko, 2018)
- Domain Rating 76.8: the average Ahrefs Domain Rating of a voice result; the average page rating was only 21.1 (Backlinko, 2018)
- 36.4% of voice result pages use Schema markup, against 31.3% of the average page: a small difference (Backlinko, 2018)
- 2.68% of voice answers came from a dedicated FAQ page (Backlinko, 2018)
- 1.71% of voice results had the exact query in their title tag (Backlinko, 2018)
- 0.54 sec average time to first byte, against 2.1 sec worldwide (Backlinko, 2018)
- 9th grade reading level (US) for the average voice answer; 70% of answers cited a website as source (Backlinko, 2018)
Want to optimize your website for voice search? Check out our SEO services.
07 — Voice Assistants
Voice assistants comparison
The assistants are being rebuilt on large language models: Gemini replaces Google Assistant on phones, Amazon sells Alexa+ and Google lets people talk to Search itself. Usage figures per assistant are mostly the companies' own.
Sep 2026
Gemini replaces Google Assistant
Since early September 2026 Gemini has replaced Google Assistant on Android phones, tablets and paired devices; Nest speakers were not yet changed
Source: 9to5Google, 2026
200+
Search Live
countries and territories where people can talk to Google Search by voice and camera, since 26 March 2026
Source: Google, 2026
600M+
Alexa devices
Alexa devices in use; Alexa+ is available in the US and Canada, with early access in countries including the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain
Source: Amazon, 2026
$19.99
Alexa+ per month
the price of Alexa+ for non-Prime customers; Prime members get it at no extra cost
Source: Amazon, 2026
37%
Alexa leads in the UK
of people 16+ in the UK own an Amazon Alexa speaker, against 16% Google Home and 5% Apple HomePod
Source: Edison Research, 2025
08 — The Netherlands
Voice search in the Netherlands
The Netherlands really is ahead in Europe: Eurostat ranks it second in the EU for the use of voice assistants. These are EU survey figures for people aged 16-74; there is no public Dutch measurement of voice as a share of all searches.
Voice assistants
29%
of Dutch people aged 16-74 used a voice assistant (smart speaker or app) in the last 3 months; EU 16%
Source: Eurostat, 2024
Age 16-24
40%
of young Dutch people (16-24) used a voice assistant, against 22.8% in the EU
Source: Eurostat, 2024
Use of voice assistants by age, Netherlands vs EU (2024)
16-24 Netherlands
40.1%
16-24 EU
22.8%
25-34 Netherlands
34.1%
25-34 EU
20.0%
55-74 Netherlands
18.8%
55-74 EU
9.5%
65-74 Netherlands
15.4%
65-74 EU
6.8%
Source: Eurostat, isoc_iiot_use, 2024
More Dutch figures
- 31.5% of Dutch people (16-74) used a connected home audio system or smart speaker in the last 3 months; EU 19.3% (Eurostat, 2024)
- 19.5% (2020) and 24.9% (2022) used a voice assistant in Eurostat's earlier measurement (EU: 11.4% and 13.4%); the question changed in 2024, so this is not a clean trend (Eurostat, 2020-2022)
- 39% of Dutch people aged 12+ used a virtual assistant via an app, smart speaker or other smart audio system in 2022 (2020: 34%); CBS uses a wider definition than Eurostat (CBS, 2022)
- 23% of Dutch households owned a smart speaker in 2022, unchanged from 2021 (Multiscope via Androidworld, 2022)
- 11.6% of Dutch companies (10+ employees) use AI for speech recognition, up from 2.8% in 2021; EU 7.2% (Eurostat, 2025)
09 — Trends & Predictions
Voice search trends & predictions
No forecasts without a source: these are the developments that were actually announced or measured in 2025 and 2026.
Language models replace the classic assistants
Since September 2026 Gemini has replaced Google Assistant on Android phones (9to5Google, 2026), and Amazon offers Alexa+ in the US and Canada with early access in Europe (Amazon, 2026).
Shopping assistants absorb voice commerce
Amazon merged Rufus and Alexa+ into Alexa for Shopping, used by over 400 million customers in the last 12 months (Amazon, 2026).
Voice in the car
15% of US consumers used the voice features of their car in a year, against 39% for the smartphone (PYMNTS, 2023).
Talking to Search in every language
Search Live is available in more than 200 countries and territories since March 2026, running on Google's multilingual voice model Gemini 3.1 Flash Live (Google, 2026).
Voice becomes part of AI search
One in five AI Mode searches worldwide use voice, images or documents (Alphabet, 2026). Voice is becoming an input of AI search rather than a separate channel.
Smart speakers grow again in the US
Ownership among Americans 12+ rose from 35% in 2025 to 39% in 2026, the biggest jump since 2021 (Edison Research, 2026).
10 — Key Takeaways
Key takeaways
Voice is common, but not half of search
29% of Dutch people aged 16-74 used a voice assistant in 2024. There is no public figure for the share of searches that is spoken; the "50% of searches" claim is a myth.
Local businesses benefit the most
58% of US consumers used voice search to find local business information (2018); afterwards 28% call, 27% visit the website and 19% visit in person. Accurate business details matter.
Featured snippets and the top 3 = voice search gold
40.7% of Google Home answers came from a featured snippet and 74.9% from a page in the desktop top 3 (Backlinko, 2018).
Voice commerce runs through the assistants
Market forecasts were old and too high; what is measured is usage of assistants such as Alexa for Shopping, with over 400 million customers in 12 months.
AI is transforming voice assistants
Gemini replaces Google Assistant on phones, Search Live works in 200+ countries and one in five AI Mode searches use voice, images or documents.
Optimize for spoken questions
Answer questions directly and briefly (an average voice answer is 29 words), keep your site fast (voice result pages load in 4.6 sec) and secure (70.4% HTTPS).
Sources & methodology
The statistics on this page come from the sources below. Every figure links to the page we opened; all figures were checked on 9 November 2026. Older studies (2014-2023) are labeled with their year, and international figures are not presented as Dutch data.
Updated: 9 November 2026. Have a comment or correction? Get in touch.
12 — Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of searches are voice searches in 2026?
There is no reliable public figure for the share of all searches done by voice. The often quoted "50% by 2020" goes back to a 2014 prediction by Andrew Ng about speech or images at Baidu. What is measured: in 2024, 29% of Dutch people aged 16-74 used a voice assistant (EU: 16%), and Google says one in five AI Mode searches use voice, images or documents.
What is the smart speaker market share in the Netherlands?
There are no recent public brand shares for the Netherlands. Multiscope measured in 2022 that 23% of Dutch households owned a smart speaker, the same as in 2021. According to Eurostat, 31.5% of Dutch people aged 16-74 used a connected home audio system or smart speaker in 2024 (EU: 19.3%). For comparison: in the UK 37% of people 16+ own an Amazon Alexa speaker, 16% Google Home and 5% Apple HomePod (Edison Research, 2025).
How does voice search affect SEO?
Voice answers come from the same results as regular search. In Backlinko's study of 10,000 Google Home answers (2018), 40.7% came from a featured snippet and 74.9% from a page in the desktop top 3; the average answer was 29 words. Check out our SEO services for help.
How large is the voice commerce market in 2026?
There is no reliable current market figure. Juniper Research forecast in 2019 that voice commerce would reach $80 billion worldwide in 2023; that is an old forecast, not a measurement. What is measured: Amazon says more than 400 million customers used its AI shopping assistant Alexa for Shopping in the last 12 months, which also works by voice on Echo Show.
What percentage of voice searches are local?
No study measures which share of all voice searches is local. BrightLocal (2018, US) found that 58% of consumers used voice search to find local business information in the past year, and 46% of those users do so daily. After a local voice search, 28% call the business, 27% visit its website and 19% visit in person.
Next Step
Ready for voice search optimization?
At Searchlab, we help businesses optimize their websites for voice search. From featured snippets to local SEO: we make sure you're found via voice. Discover our SEO services.
Compiled by
Ruud ten Have
Ruud is a digital marketer with 10+ years of experience in online advertising and AI implementation. At Searchlab, he combines strategic thinking with hands-on AI tooling to deliver measurable results for businesses.
About Searchlab
We don’t just collect this data, we apply it daily as an AI-first marketing agency in Amsterdam. Dutch businesses can explore our SEO bureau services.
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