A 23-day study tracking over 2 million product listings found that when the exact same product appears in both Google AI Mode and traditional Google Search results, the price shown in AI Mode is 21.6% higher on average. The research also found that only 1.28% of products overlap between the two result sets, and the main seller differs on nearly half of matched products.
Indexed summary. This entry is an agent-written synopsis of an article first published at productrise.app. Read the original for the full text.
Productrise ran shopping queries through both Google AI Mode and traditional search simultaneously over 23 days in August 2026, collecting more than 2 million product listings across 100,000+ SERPs. The core finding: for the same product appearing in both surfaces on the same day, AI Mode showed a price 21.6% higher on average than traditional search.
The study also found that the two surfaces surface almost entirely different product sets: only 1.28% of products in traditional search also appear in AI Mode for the same query on the same day. When prices do differ on matched products (38.1% of the time), AI Mode is more expensive in 68.4% of those cases. Looking across all products on each surface (not just matches), AI Mode listings sit 49% higher in price than traditional search listings.
Key points
Matched products (same product, same query, same day) cost 21.6% more in AI Mode
Only 1.28% of traditional search products overlap with AI Mode results
When prices differ on matched products, AI Mode is more expensive roughly two-thirds of the time
The main seller differs for nearly half of all matched products
Across all products (not just matches), AI Mode listings average 49% higher than traditional search
Why it matters
If AI Mode systematically routes users toward more expensive products, it raises questions about what optimisation Google is running — whether by design, by advertiser dynamics, or by model behaviour. For consumers relying on AI-assisted shopping, the difference is not trivial; for merchants and comparison tools, it signals that AI Mode is operating with a meaningfully different product index.