Visual search has moved from an experimental search format into a high-volume discovery behavior. Google reported more than 20 billion Google Lens visual searches per month in February 2025, while Pinterest described more than 80 billion monthly searches in September 2026, most of them visual. These figures cover different products and measurement periods, so they should not be added together. They do show the scale at which image-led discovery now operates.
Contents
- Global visual search usage milestones
- Recent visual-query growth and adoption signals
- Formats, reach, and product coverage
- Pinterest visual discovery audience and search scale
- Commercial intent and shopping behavior
- Measured outcomes from visual discovery campaigns
- Infrastructure scale behind adoption
Global visual search usage milestones
Google Lens usage has increased substantially across the milestones reported by Google. Google reported more than 3 billion Lens searches per month in 2020. In 2022, it reported that Lens was used more than 10 billion times per month worldwide. A September 2022 Google update said people used Lens for more than 8 billion questions per month. These statements use different wording and dates, so they are best treated as reported milestones rather than a single perfectly continuous series. Google, 2020; Google, 2022; Google Search On, September 2022
Google reported 12 billion Google Lens visual searches per month in 2023. In October 2024, Google said Lens handled nearly 20 billion visual searches per month worldwide. By February 2025, Google described Lens as handling more than 20 billion visual searches per month worldwide. The later figures indicate continued expansion, although the supplied reports do not define a common methodology for comparing each milestone. Google, 2023; Google, October 2024; Google, February 2025
| Reported milestone | Measurement period | Reported scale |
|---|---|---|
| Google Lens searches per month | 2020 | More than 3 billion |
| Google Lens searches per month | 2023 | 12 billion |
| Google Lens visual searches per month | October 2024 | Nearly 20 billion |
| Google Lens visual searches per month | February 2025 | More than 20 billion |
Google and Visa also reported that Google Lens processed over 100 billion visual searches during the 2025 report year. The same report said Lens volume grew 65% year over year. This is a report-year total and growth measure, not a replacement for the monthly milestones above. Google and Visa, 2025 report year
Recent visual-query growth and adoption signals
Visual search is appearing alongside broader changes in how people formulate queries. In Google’s May 2026 AI Mode analysis, more than 16.7% of U.S. searches used voice or images. Image searches in the United States grew more than 40% month over month in that analysis. These are U.S. measures for the stated period, not global adoption rates. Google, May 2026
The same Google analysis reported that AI Mode surpassed 1 billion monthly active users globally one year after its U.S. launch. Google said AI Mode queries grew more than 2x every quarter since launch. Planning-related queries grew 80% faster than AI Mode queries overall during the prior six months, while brainstorming queries grew 30% faster than queries overall since launch. Those figures describe AI Mode query growth and should not be read as visual-search-only growth.
Query behavior is also becoming more detailed. Google said the average AI Mode search was three times the length of a traditional Google Search query in May 2026. Separately, Google and Visa reported that younger users started more than 10% of their searches with Circle to Search during the 2025 report year. Together, these measures point to image- and context-led search being part of a broader shift toward more exploratory queries. Google and Visa, 2025 report year
Formats, reach, and product coverage
Google Lens supports several distinct visual-search jobs. Google reported that users translated text in images more than 1 billion times per month in September 2022. At that time, Lens image translation covered more than 100 languages, and Google said the translation could run in 100 milliseconds. Google also planned to extend Lens multisearch to more than 70 languages after its September 2022 launch. These are capabilities and usage measures from that period, not current service guarantees. Google Search On, September 2022
Product recognition is another major adoption signal. In February 2025, Google said Lens could identify more than 1 billion different objects, including plants, products, and landmarks. In October 2024, Google said its Shopping Graph contained information on more than 45 billion products for Lens shopping results. The object-identification figure and product-catalog figure measure different parts of the system: recognition coverage and shopping information coverage. Google, February 2025; Google, October 2024
Circle to Search expands visual discovery beyond a camera-first Lens workflow. Google reported that Circle to Search processed more than 1 billion queries per month after its launch, measured in February 2026. Google also said Circle to Search had expanded to more than 150 million Android devices in its October 2024 update. Query volume and device availability are separate measures of reach. Google, February 2026; Google, October 2024
Pinterest visual discovery audience and search scale
Pinterest reports a large audience for visual discovery. Its 2026 Marketing Moments Guide described the platform as helping 600 million people each month search, save, and decide. Pinterest also said 80% of users arrived to search for at least one meaningful moment each year. A separate 2026 platform page reported 640 million monthly users. Because these figures come from different Pinterest pages and descriptions, they should be kept as reported rather than reconciled into one audience estimate. Pinterest, 2026 Marketing Moments Guide; Pinterest, How Pinterest Works
In September 2026, Pinterest reported more than 80 billion searches per month. Pinterest said the vast majority of those searches were visual, and more than 50% were commercial searches. This makes Pinterest’s search volume a useful indicator of visual discovery and shopping intent, but it is not directly comparable with Google Lens volume because the platforms define and report searches differently. Pinterest, September 2026
Pinterest said its trend research analyzes more than 1 billion searches and visual-content engagements. Its multimodal AI infrastructure supported discovery for more than 100 million people, according to a September 2026 infrastructure announcement. Pinterest, 2026 marketing playbook; Pinterest and NVIDIA, September 2026
Commercial intent and shopping behavior
The available adoption measures show that visual search often has a commercial component. Google and Visa found that 20% of Google Lens visual searches carried commercial intent during the 2025 report year. Pinterest reported that more than half of its monthly searches were commercial in September 2026. These percentages apply to different platforms and periods, so they should not be combined into a market-wide rate.
Pinterest’s January 2026 search advertising data provides more detail about result visibility. The company reported that 96% of its top search results were unbranded, while 45% of clicks on Pinterest search results happened in the top 10 results. Brands using Pinterest Top of Search ads drove a 41% higher click-through rate, and brands appearing in the top ten slots saw a 39% higher click-through rate than brands in lower slots. These are Pinterest-reported advertising and placement measures, not general search-engine benchmarks. Pinterest, January 2026
An independent Adobe study reported by Pinterest found that 73% of respondents said Pinterest visual-search results outperformed traditional search. The same 2025 study reported that 36% said they now started searches on Pinterest instead of traditional search engines. The respondent percentages describe survey responses, not observed behavior across every Pinterest user. Pinterest report of the Adobe study, June 2025
Pinterest’s global May 2025 study found that 90% of users said they found products relevant to them on Pinterest, while 70% said they were more likely to purchase something discovered on Pinterest. Pinterest’s 2024 Global Web Index survey identified shopping as the number-one reason its global audience came to Pinterest. Pinterest, 2026 Marketing Moments Guide
Earlier commerce data shows how saving can relate to purchase behavior. In Q2 2021, Pinterest said users were more than 7 times as likely to purchase products they had saved in early tests. Pinterest also reported that product-catalog uploads grew nearly 50% quarter over quarter in that period. These are legacy findings from Q2 2021 and are included with their original measurement date; they should not be treated as independently verified current benchmarks. Pinterest Q2 2021 Letter to Shareholders
Measured outcomes from visual discovery campaigns
Pinterest’s reported campaign and trend data includes several quantified outcomes. Pinterest said Pinterest Predicts 2025-related checkouts increased 68% year over year across the reported nine-country dataset, comparing August 2024–July 2025 with August 2023–July 2024. The figure is tied to that dataset and comparison window. Pinterest, 2026 marketing playbook
In a 2026 guide case study, Maybelline achieved twice the cosmetic-campaign benchmark return on ad spend. After the reported campaign results, Maybelline increased its Pinterest investment 90% year over year. The case study gives a relative benchmark comparison rather than an absolute return-on-ad-spend value. Pinterest, 2026 Marketing Moments Guide
Pinterest’s 2026 marketing playbook also reported brand-lift results. A 2024 Marriott Bonvoy study reported in the playbook found 15 times the industry-average lift in aided brand awareness and 5 times the industry-average lift in message association. A Q3 2024 Wayfair Professional study reported a 5-point increase in brand favorability, a 2.9-point increase in purchase intent, and a 5.4-point increase in ad recall from Trending Now ads. These results are case-study measurements, not universal performance expectations. Pinterest, 2026 marketing playbook
Infrastructure scale behind adoption
Visual search adoption depends on systems that can interpret images quickly enough for discovery. In September 2026, Pinterest said Pinterest Assistant could process 25 times more visual context per request after its NVIDIA infrastructure work. Pinterest benchmark testing found about 85 times faster response startup using precomputed visual representations and 7.3 times faster overall latency. Pinterest and NVIDIA, September 2026
The same collaboration spanned more than 14,000 NVIDIA GPUs. Pinterest said its multimodal AI infrastructure supported discovery for more than 100 million people. These infrastructure figures help explain how visual-search systems can serve large audiences while handling richer visual context, but they do not measure user adoption directly. Pinterest and NVIDIA, September 2026
For SEO and digital discovery teams, the measurable pattern is clear: visual queries are being used at billion-scale volumes, product and object coverage is expanding, and a meaningful share of activity is tied to shopping or commercial intent. The reported figures vary by platform, definition, geography, and period, so comparisons should preserve those labels rather than treating every number as one unified visual-search market total.