Amid disappointing profits, Pinterest claims to be seeing more searches than ChatGPT

After special Poor performance In Q4 earnings, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready tried to compare the digital board site favorably with the popular AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT.

In an effort to highlight its potential as a unique search destination, Ready confirmed that the site is seeing higher search volume than ChatGPT. According to third-party data, ChatGPT sees 75 billion searches per month, while Pinterest sees 80 billion searches and generates 1.7 billion monthly clicks, he said.

“This makes us one of the largest search destinations in the world. More importantly, more than half of these searches are commercial in nature, compared to I think… roughly 2% (of ChatGPT searches),” Reddy added.

Pinterest in the fourth quarter missed expectations on both revenue and earnings per share, reporting revenue of $1.32 billion versus $1.33 billion expected, and earnings per share of 67 cents, compared to 69 cents expected. It also expects first-quarter 2026 sales to range between $951 million to $971 million, less than the expected $980 million.

The company blamed the shortfall on large advertisers pulling back on their spending, especially in Europe, and a new furniture tariff implemented in October that caused issues within the residential category. These trends may worsen in the first quarter, she said.

Surprisingly, Pinterest missed profits despite growing its user base faster than expected. The company reported that the number of monthly active users rose by 12% year-on-year to reach 619 million, while Wall Street expected the number to reach 613 million users.

shares decreased 20% in after-hours trading.

Pinterest has long struggled to translate high usage of its platform into advertising dollars, as its users often go to Pinterest to plan and dream, not to shop and buy. This challenge may become more acute in the age of artificial intelligence, especially if advertisers shift their money to platforms where purchase intent is clearer — such as chatbot requests that ask for product recommendations.

When asked how Pinterest would handle the shift toward AI-powered shopping, Reddy pointed to the company’s visual search, discovery and personalization features, which he said will direct users to relevant products when they open the app.

“We’re helping them complete those business trips without having to write a single claim,” he said, also noting that Pinterest has benefited from the easier checkout flow that has come from its partnership with Amazon. He said customers don’t seem ready yet to let AI make a purchase for them, but he said Pinterest will be ready if that time comes.

“This will actually be one of the easiest parts of a business flight to solve,” he claimed.