Google's AI Mode is designed to make shopping simpler, but new research suggests it may be quietly making it more expensive. A data study published by SEO platform Productrise found that when the exact same product appeared in both Google AI Mode and traditional search, the price shown in AI Mode was 21.6% higher on average.
The study, published September 1 by researcher Hugo Huijer, tracked more than 2 million product listings across over 100,000 search results pages and AI Mode responses between August 9 and August 31, 2026. The same shopping queries were run through both traditional search and AI Mode on the same day at the same moment, allowing a direct price comparison for products that appeared on both surfaces. For more context on this story, see our ongoing more AI stories.
The findings spread quickly through the search and e-commerce community this week, drawing broad attention on discussion forums and renewing questions about how AI-powered search decides what to show shoppers — and at what price.
What the Study Found
The headline number is striking enough: for products appearing in both AI Mode and traditional search, AI Mode's listed price averaged 21.6% higher. But the broader picture suggests the two surfaces behave like nearly separate inventories.
Looking at every priced listing rather than just matched pairs, the median product price in AI Mode was $149, compared with $100 in traditional search — roughly 49% higher. AI Mode also shows far fewer products overall: an average of 3.9 products per shopping query, versus 27.8 in traditional search. AI Mode listings accounted for just 12.3% of all products tracked in the study.
The overlap between the two surfaces is remarkably small. Only 1.28% of products that ranked in traditional search also appeared in AI Mode for the same query on the same day. On average, just 0.94 products per query appeared on both sides. An earlier Productrise study in July found a similar pattern, with AI Mode surfacing roughly 5% of the products that rank in traditional search.
When Prices Disagree, AI Mode Is Pricier Two-Thirds of the Time
For matched products, the two prices were identical most of the time — but not always. Prices disagreed on 38.1% of matched pairs. When they did, AI Mode showed the higher price 68.4% of the time, or about two-thirds of cases.
The median gap when AI Mode was more expensive was 22.2%. The average difference was 88.5%, though the study notes that figure is heavily skewed by extreme outliers — for example, a used item matched in traditional search against a new item in AI Mode.
The study also found that the main seller differed on 49.6% of matched products, meaning the two surfaces often did not even point shoppers to the same merchant for the same item.
How the Research Was Conducted
Productrise, which builds shopping-feed and search tools for merchants, ran the same set of shopping queries through both Google surfaces daily during the 23-day window. The methodology focused on matched products — identical items appearing on both sides — as the cleanest comparison, since query, product, and timing are held constant.
The analysis compared lead prices as displayed in each surface's results, and the study published real screenshot pairs from its dataset as examples. In one highlighted case, the top position in AI Mode was 26% more expensive than the same product in traditional search; in another, a deal price visible in traditional search was 12.5% higher in AI Mode.
What It Means for Shoppers and Merchants
Independent SEO consultant Brodie Clark, commenting on the study, cautioned that the higher price shown in an AI Mode grid result may not always be the price shoppers ultimately pay, since the retailer with the lowest price can still win the click. But he described the research as a revealing look at inconsistencies between classic search and AI Mode for free listings.
Katelyn Geary, a senior SEO strategist at Break The Web, argued the pattern changes how product discovery works. In her view, algorithms that favor the more expensive item two-thirds of the time — and frequently swap out the seller entirely — replace open price comparison with what she called a curated path to higher-priced stock.
There may be a silver lining for some sellers. Jamie D'Alessandro, an SEO manager at JAKALA, observed that AI Mode appears more likely to link directly to a brand's own website rather than a third-party marketplace. For merchants who cannot or do not want to compete purely on price, that shift could be meaningful — and it raises the stakes for enriching product feed data so AI systems can surface their products accurately.
A Contrast With Google's Own Price-First Playbook
The study's most pointed implication is how differently AI Mode treats price compared with the shopping surfaces Google has refined over two decades. Traditional Google Shopping results have long rewarded the cheapest listing with prime placement, and Google has rolled out features specifically aimed at price-conscious shoppers. Commentators on the study noted that those price-first treatments appear to be largely absent from AI Mode results.
Google has not been given an opportunity to respond to the findings in this coverage, and the study does not explain why AI Mode favors pricier inventory — whether by design, as a byproduct of how its ranking models weigh factors other than price, or as an artifact of a smaller product set. What the data does establish is the pattern itself: fewer products, less overlap with classic search, and systematically higher prices when the same item appears on both.
For now, the practical advice from the study's observers is simple. Shoppers who assume AI Mode is doing the comparison work for them may still want to check traditional results — the cheaper option, it turns out, is often one tab over.
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