Featured snippets have appeared in very different proportions across search datasets and time periods. Ahrefs measured them on 12.29% of sampled US queries in a 2017 study, while Semrush measured them on more than 19% of desktop SERPs during much of 2020. Ahrefs later measured 5.53% of sampled US desktop SERPs in June 2025, after recording 15.41% in January.
Table of contents
- Featured snippet prevalence over time
- Clicks and the source result’s ranking
- Which formats appear most often
- Paragraph display limits
- List and table structure
- Featured snippets alongside other SERP features
Featured snippet prevalence over time
The available studies show that featured-snippet visibility depends heavily on the keyword universe, device, country, and measurement date. Their percentages should therefore be read as study-specific observations rather than one continuous market series.
| Study and measurement period | Dataset or device | Featured-snippet occurrence |
|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs, 2017 | Sampled US queries | 12.29% |
| Semrush, 2020 | Desktop SERPs | More than 19% |
| Semrush, 2020 | Mobile SERPs, peak | About 17.5% |
| Semrush, January–September 2021 | Desktop SERPs, average | About 16% |
| Semrush, January–September 2021 | Mobile SERPs, average | About 15% |
| Ahrefs, January 2025 | Sampled US desktop SERPs | 15.41% |
| Ahrefs, June 2025 | Sampled US desktop SERPs | 5.53% |
Ahrefs’ 2017 study found featured snippets in about 12.29% of search queries in its US keyword database. The same source later reported that 30.9% of featured snippets ranked at the very top of the results in that study. These two figures describe different aspects of the sample: overall query prevalence and the position of the snippet when one was present. Ahrefs’ Study Of 2 Million Featured Snippets
Semrush measured featured snippets on more than 19% of desktop SERPs during much of 2020 and recorded a roughly 17.5% peak on mobile SERPs in 2020. For January through September 2021, its average occurrence was about 16% on desktop and about 15% on mobile. Semrush also reported a 15% year-over-year decrease in desktop featured-snippet utilization from 2020 to 2021, compared with a 9% decrease on mobile. State of Search: SERP Features and Beyond
The more recent Ahrefs measurements show a sharp change within 2025. Featured snippets appeared on 15.41% of sampled US desktop SERPs in January and 5.53% in June. Ahrefs described that movement as a 64% relative decline in featured-snippet visibility between the two months. Its reported correlation between featured-snippet visibility and AI Overview growth was -0.9053 for the January–June 2025 sample. That correlation is observational and does not establish that one feature caused the other. Goodbye, Featured Snippets: How SERP Features Have Evolved in the AI Era
Clicks and the source result’s ranking
Featured snippets can change how clicks are distributed across the first results. In Ahrefs’ 2017 no-ad sample, a featured snippet occupying position one received about 8.6% of clicks. The organic page immediately below it received about 19.6% of clicks. By comparison, a regular number-one result without a featured snippet above it received about 26% of clicks. These are click measurements from that sample and period, not universal click-through-rate benchmarks. Ahrefs’ Study Of 2 Million Featured Snippets
The source page behind a featured snippet was often already near the top of the organic results in a separate university study. In a July 2019 Polish Google dataset, 48.87% of featured-snippet source domains were at organic position one. Another 18.74% were at position two, 12.78% at position three, and 8.85% at position four. Positions five through seven accounted for 5.86%, 1.75%, and 1.17%, respectively.
| Organic position of featured-snippet source domain | Share in the July 2019 Polish dataset |
|---|---|
| 1 | 48.87% |
| 2 | 18.74% |
| 3 | 12.78% |
| 4 | 8.85% |
| 5 | 5.86% |
| 6 | 1.75% |
| 7 | 1.17% |
The position distribution indicates that featured snippets in this dataset were commonly drawn from pages already ranking prominently. It does not mean that every featured-snippet source must rank first, because the same study recorded source domains through at least position seven. The figures come from Featured Snippets Results in Google Web Search: An Exploratory Study, measured in July 2019 on Polish Google results.
Which formats appear most often
The university study found a strong concentration in paragraph snippets. Paragraph snippets represented 70.05% of featured snippets in its July 2019 Polish Google dataset. List snippets represented 28.46%, while table snippets represented 1.49%. Together, the three reported categories describe the format distribution in that study; they should not be assumed to describe every country, device, or later Google interface.
The format mix matters because each type exposes a different amount and shape of information before a searcher visits the source. Paragraph snippets present an extracted passage. List snippets expose ordered or unordered entries. Table snippets present a compact grid. The percentages above show that paragraph extraction was the dominant format in the measured dataset, with list extraction a substantial second category and table extraction comparatively rare.
Paragraph display limits
Portent’s 2021 desktop study examined how paragraph snippets were displayed. Paragraph snippets most commonly contained two to three sentences. The study found very few paragraph snippets with four sentences and no paragraph snippets with five sentences in its desktop sample.
About 13% of Portent’s paragraph snippets used non-consecutive text from a page. It found no paragraph snippets assembled from three non-consecutive sentences. This distinction is useful when interpreting a visible excerpt: the displayed passage was not always a single uninterrupted block from the source page.
Paragraph snippets around 40–55 words were common in Portent’s sample. The study also observed an abrupt frequency drop after 320 characters, and the longest paragraph snippet it observed was 324 characters. Those measurements describe the displayed desktop snippets in Portent’s sample, not a guaranteed character limit for every query or interface.
The results suggest a compact answer pattern: two or three sentences, often within roughly the common 40–55-word range, were frequent in the measured sample. However, the source also observed extracted non-consecutive text, so writing one short paragraph does not ensure that a search engine will display it as one uninterrupted excerpt. Study: Featured Snippet Length and Display Limits
List and table structure
Portent found that 63% of list snippets were unordered bullet lists. A heading appeared in 96% of list snippets, and only 29% lacked an image. Eight entries were the most common displayed list-snippet length, while no list snippets in the sample displayed more than eight bullets.
At the individual-bullet level, three words was the mode for words per bullet. The distribution tail included bullets as long as 40 words and as long as 275 characters. Looking at the complete displayed list, 40–45 words was the most common total word count. These measures describe different units: the typical bullet, the longest observed tail values, and the total snippet.
Portent also measured the table format. Table snippets displayed a maximum of five rows, and three columns were the most common width. The most common table dimensions were 5×3 and 5×2. In 85% of table cells, the content contained three words or fewer; 89% of cells contained 25 characters or fewer.
These list and table figures point toward short, structured units in the visible result. They do not show that every page should force content into a particular number of bullets, rows, or columns. They show the structures most frequently observed in Portent’s 2021 desktop sample, including a common eight-entry list and compact table cells. Study: Featured Snippet Length and Display Limits
Featured snippets alongside other SERP features
Featured snippets frequently appeared with other search-result elements in Semrush’s 2021 measurements. On desktop SERPs, featured snippets and People Also Ask appeared together on 13.1% of SERPs. The corresponding mobile figure was 11.8%. Featured snippets and video carousels appeared together on 6.8% of desktop SERPs and 5.2% of mobile SERPs.
| Feature pairing | Desktop SERPs | Mobile SERPs |
|---|---|---|
| Featured snippet + People Also Ask | 13.1% | 11.8% |
| Featured snippet + video carousel | 6.8% | 5.2% |
| Search ads + featured snippet | Fewer than 1% | Fewer than 1% |
| Video carousel + shopping ads | 2.3% | 1.5% |
Search ads and featured snippets appeared together on fewer than 1% of both desktop and mobile SERPs in the same Semrush report. Semrush said that the featured-snippet/Search Ads pairing fell by more than 50% on both devices in 2021. It also reported that the featured-snippet/Ads/PLAs trio fell by more than 50% on both devices.
The related-feature environment in the university study was different because it measured neighboring elements around featured snippets in a July 2019 Polish Google dataset. Image thumbnails appeared alongside 62.99% of featured snippets, site links alongside 25.30%, brand elements alongside 14.82%, and knowledge-graph Wikipedia elements alongside 11.43%. Google Ads appeared alongside 1.93%, maps alongside 1.11%, and news elements alongside 0.07%. A featured snippet appeared without another listed neighboring snippet in 16.41% of the study’s records. Featured Snippets Results in Google Web Search: An Exploratory Study
The device comparisons and the Polish neighboring-feature figures should be kept separate. Semrush’s percentages describe co-occurrence on 2021 desktop and mobile SERPs, while the university study’s percentages describe elements recorded around featured snippets in Polish results from July 2019. Different keyword sets, locations, interfaces, and definitions make direct numerical comparisons inappropriate.
Query context and what the numbers mean
Taken together, these statistics describe featured snippets as a changing SERP feature rather than a fixed position with a permanent click or display rule. Historical studies measured prevalence above 12% and, in some 2020 desktop observations, above 19%. Semrush’s 2021 averages were about 16% on desktop and 15% on mobile, while Ahrefs recorded a decline from 15.41% to 5.53% in sampled US desktop SERPs between January and June 2025.
The source-ranking evidence is also specific rather than universal. Nearly half of the source domains in the July 2019 Polish dataset occupied organic position one, but the dataset included source domains at positions two through seven. The click figures from Ahrefs’ 2017 no-ad sample show different click shares for a featured snippet, the result below it, and a regular number-one result, but they are not current guarantees for every query.
Finally, the visible answer has measurable structure. Paragraph snippets commonly used two or three sentences, often around 40–55 words in Portent’s desktop sample. List snippets commonly displayed eight entries, while table snippets most commonly used three columns and dimensions of 5×3 or 5×2. Those observations can inform how SEO teams organize answers, provided the measurement period, device, geography, and source scope remain attached to the statistic.