Google made $224.5 billion from Search & other in 2025, about 56% of Alphabet’s $402.8 billion revenue and 76% of its advertising revenue (our calculation from the 10-K). The line keeps growing in the AI era: in the second quarter of 2026 it reached $63.3 billion, against $54.2 billion a year earlier. Search & other covers ads on Google search and on other Google-owned properties such as Gmail, Maps and Play, including traffic from partners that make Google their default search.
How Search makes money
01
Paid clicks
Alphabet tracks paid clicks, ad clicks on Google search and other owned properties such as Gmail, Maps and Play. In 2025 paid clicks rose 6%; in the second quarter of 2026 they rose 13%.
02
Price per click
Cost-per-click is click revenue divided by paid clicks. It rose 7% in 2025 and 3% in the second quarter of 2026, driven by device mix, geography, advertiser spending and product changes.
Search & other grew $26.4 billion in 2025. Alphabet attributes this to more search queries, especially on mobile, higher advertiser spending and improved ad formats and delivery.
Google pays distribution partners and network sites traffic acquisition costs (TAC): $59.9 billion in 2025, 20.3% of advertising revenue, down from 20.7% in 2024. TAC was $16.2 billion in the second quarter of 2026.
Alphabet’s 2025 10-K describes AI Overviews and AI Mode, which uses Gemini to handle longer questions that used to take several searches. It warns these may monetise differently, yet Search & other rose 17% in the second quarter of 2026.
Clicks, not prices, led the latest quarter
In the second quarter of 2026 paid clicks grew 13% while cost-per-click grew 3%, so volume did most of the work. In 2025 the two had grown at similar rates (6% and 7%).
The Search antitrust judgment
A US final judgment entered in December 2025 restricts how Google distributes its services and requires it to share certain search data and offer syndication to some competitors. Google appealed in January 2026; the DOJ and states appealed in February.
Search funds the AI build-out
Google Services, the segment that includes Search, earned $39.5 billion of operating income in the second quarter of 2026. Alphabet’s purchases of property and equipment, mostly technical infrastructure, reached $91.4 billion in 2025, up from $52.5 billion in 2024.
Google Search & other revenue over time (Alphabet filings)
Advertisers: watch paid clicks and cost-per-click in each Alphabet 10-Q; in 2026 more clicks, not higher prices, drove growth.
Marketers: test how your ads and pages appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode, because Alphabet says AI features may change how Search is monetised.
Investors: read Search & other next to TAC; distribution deals are the main cost of Search revenue and are affected by the December 2025 judgment.
Publishers: Search & other is Google's own properties; network ad revenue on partner sites is a separate line that fell in 2025.
Builders: do not assume AI answers shrink Search; check the quarterly filings before making the case.
The Business Engineer lens
Search is the cash engine that pays for Alphabet’s AI build-out, and so far AI answers have come with more paid clicks, not fewer. The Business Engineer watches whether that holds as AI Mode grows and as the antitrust remedies change how Google buys its default positions.
$224.5 billion from Search & other in 2025, about 56% of Alphabet's total revenue. In the second quarter of 2026 alone it was $63.3 billion.
What share of Google's ad revenue comes from Search?
About 76% in 2025: $224.5 billion of $294.7 billion in Google advertising revenue. YouTube ads ($40.4 billion) and Google Network ($29.8 billion) made up the rest.
Not in the filings so far: Search & other grew 17% in the second quarter of 2026, with paid clicks up 13%. Alphabet does warn that AI features may monetise differently.
How much does Google pay to get search traffic?
Traffic acquisition costs were $59.9 billion in 2025, or 20.3% of advertising revenue, paid to distribution partners and network sites.
The complete explainer, cleaned up and reformatted for mobile.
Drawing by The Business Engineer.
How we source: figures on this page come from the company’s own filings (SEC 10-K, 10-Q and earnings releases, or its annual report), with the period stated next to each number. Last refreshed October 2026. Our methodology.
Company explainer · Google, explained
A 3-minute explainer of Google's business model and latest numbers, built from its SEC filings. Analysis by The Business Engineer.
Why it mattersFrom the article
Generates substantial revenue for Google through ad clicks and impressions.
Utilizes user data and search history to deliver targeted and relevant ads, enhancing user experience.
In 2023, Google made over $175 billion from search, which represented nearly 57% of its total revenues, and over 73% of the total advertising revenues for the company.
Key highlights of Google’s revenue sources in 2022:
Google made over $162 billion from search, which accounted for more than 57% of the total revenues.
Search revenues contributed over 72% of the advertising revenues of Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
Alphabet’s total revenues were over $282 billion.
The Network members (Adsense and AdMob) contributed $32.78 billion to Google’s revenue.
YouTube Ads generated $29.2 billion in revenue for Google.
The Cloud services brought in $26.28 billion in revenue.
Other sources, including Google Play, Hardware devices, and other services, contributed $29 billion to Google’s total revenue.
Aspect of Google's Advertising Model · Description
Advertising Services
Google offers various advertising services, including Google Ads, YouTube Advertising, Display Network, and more.
Google Ads (formerly AdWords)
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising platform where advertisers bid on keywords to display ads in Google’s search results and network. Advertisers pay when users click on their ads.
Ad Formats
Offers various ad formats such as text ads, display ads, video ads, shopping ads, app promotion ads, and more.
Targeting Options
Provides precise targeting based on keywords, demographics, location, interests, behavior, and more.
Ad Auction
Determines ad placements through an auction system considering bid amount, ad quality, and expected click-through rate (CTR).
Quality Score
Assigns a quality score to ads based on relevance, landing page quality, and CTR. Affects ad placement and cost-per-click (CPC).
Ad Extensions
Additional information or links in ads, enhancing visibility and user engagement. Examples include site links, callout extensions, and location extensions.
Display Network
Extends ad reach to a network of partner websites, apps, and platforms. Includes text, image, and video ads.
YouTube Advertising
Enables video ads on YouTube, including TrueView (skippable) and non-skippable ads, as well as YouTube search and display ads.
Programmatic Advertising
Automated buying of ads using real-time bidding (RTB) and data-driven targeting. Includes DoubleClick Bid Manager.
AdSense
Allows website publishers to display Google ads and earn revenue. Contextual advertising matches ads to website content.
Cost Structure
Advertisers pay based on CPC (Cost-Per-Click) or CPM (Cost-Per-Thousand-Impressions) pricing models.
Advertiser Tools
Offers tools for ad creation, keyword research, ad performance tracking, and optimization.
Ad Tracking & Analytics
Provides robust tracking and analytics tools like Google Analytics to measure ad performance, conversion tracking, and user behavior analysis.
Mobile Advertising
Supports mobile ads with responsive design and app promotion capabilities.
Remarketing
Targets users who have previously interacted with ads or websites, increasing ad relevance.
Location-Based Advertising
Allows advertisers to target users based on their physical location or location of interest.
Ad Customization
Provides options for ad personalization, including dynamic search ads and custom ad creation.
Ad Policies and Compliance
Enforces strict ad policies to maintain ad quality, safety, and user experience.
Ad Performance Metrics
Measures key metrics like CTR, CPC, Conversion Rate, Impressions, Clicks, and ROI.
Revenue Generation
Generates substantial revenue for Google through ad clicks and impressions. Advertisers pay for ad placements.
User Data Utilization
Utilizes user data and search history to deliver targeted and relevant ads, enhancing user experience.
Market Dominance
Google holds a dominant position in online advertising, capturing a significant share of the digital ad market.
Competition
Competes with other digital advertising platforms like Facebook Ads, Amazon Advertising, and Microsoft Advertising.
Alphabet at a glance: $120B of revenue and $40.8B of operating income in one quarter. Source: Alphabet quarterly earnings releases (Form 8-K, SEC EDGAR) (Q2 2026). YoY calculated. Analysis by The Business Engineer.
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Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
